DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics Planetary Exploration Laboratory

DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

The Planetary Exploration Lab at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen is the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics rover ground: an indoor soil bin of 55 m2 including a 3 m by 5.5 m variable slope partition, a purpose-built portable bevameter that characterizes the soil actually in the bin, and, since 2024, a 1500 m2 outdoor Moon-Mars test site next to it [1][2]. The indoor bin was specified from what a multibody wheel-soil simulation needs as input and output rather than from a wish list of capabilities.

Two other DLR terramechanics facilities are often confused with this one and are separate pages. TROLL, the single wheel rig, is a few hundred meters away on the same campus but belongs to the Institute of System Dynamics and Control. The Landing and Mobility Test Facility belongs to the Institute of Space Systems and is 700 km north in Bremen [1].

Laboratory data

Parameter	Value
Operator	DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics [1][2]
Location	Muenchner Strasse 20, Wessling, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany [1]
Commissioned	Indoor bin described 2009; outdoor test site opened 2024 [1][2]
Type	Indoor rover soil bin with pose tracking, plus an outdoor analog terrain
Floor area	Indoor 55 m2; outdoor 1500 m2 [2]
Capabilities	Soil bin, Moon-Mars site, bevameter
Simulant or terrain	Dry quartz sand indoors; basalt, lava and granite outdoors [1][2]
Instrumentation	Eight-camera infrared optical tracking, better than 3 mm, 60 fps [1]
Ground truth	Tracked pose against simulation; bevameter map of the bin
Fidelity limits	1 g, Earth ambient, no vacuum, no thermal, no solar simulator [1][2]
Access	Not published. Institute-run
Cited by	rosalind-franklin [1]

Capabilities

Indoor soil bin

Parameter	Value
Working volume	55 m2 of floor; original bin 10 x 5.5 x 0.5 m deep [1][2]
Vacuum	Not applicable. Ambient pressure
Temperature	Not applicable. No thermal capability
Illumination	Not published. No solar simulator described
Simulant or terrain	Dry quartz sand; tonnage and density control not published [1]
Slope	3 x 5.5 m variable slope partition; angle range not published [2]
Gravity offload	Not applicable. None in this bin
Instrumentation	Eight-camera infrared tracking, better than 3 mm, 60 fps [1]

The bin was specified from what a multibody simulation needs as input and output: large enough to avoid side wall and bottom effects for an ExoMars breadboard-sized rover, divisible into two parts so that two different soft soils can be held at once, with a surface elevation measurement to build the digital elevation model the contact model consumes, a pose tracking system to compare simulated against measured rover position at matched samples, and a soil measurement device to produce a Bekker parameter map of the bin [1]. The frame is built from standard aluminum tooling profile so the bin can be extended or moved.

The 55 m2 figure and the 3 m by 5.5 m variable slope partition come from DLR’s own 2024 survey of test sites, which is the most recent published description of the lab [2]. The original 2009 specification gives the bin as 10 m long by 5.5 m wide and 0.5 m deep [1]. No open document gives the partition’s slope range, its setting mechanism, or whether it moves under load. No article mass limit is published; the sizing argument is geometric rather than structural.

Bevameter characterization in this bin used dry quartz sand. Neither a tonnage, a relative density target nor a preparation procedure between runs is published. The soil state is instead measured rather than controlled, by mapping Bekker parameters over the bin with the bevameter. DLR’s laboratory and infrastructure index carries images of the outdoor test field and of TROLL, but none of this hall [1].

Moon-Mars test site

Parameter	Value
Working volume	1500 m2, 4 m of elevation difference, about two thirds Moon
Test article limits	Crater traversable by wheeled and legged robots to 150 kg
Simulant or terrain	Sand, breccia and gravel of basalt, lava and granite
Slope	Crater slopes 15 to 35 degrees; 15 degrees loose, 35 degrees solid
Instrumentation	Optical tracking, 2 mm in four volumes, cm site-wide

Source: [2].

The outdoor site opened in 2024 and complements the indoor labs and the Scout rover mobility test bed [2]. It packs a crater, a hill, a tunnel, a canyon, bumps, cracks and rough walls into 1500 m2, with boulders of basalt, lava, granite, suevite and conglomerate, 230 V and 400 V three phase power, network access and Wifi, and a dedicated fiber link to the German Space Operations Center for telerobotic experiments from the International Space Station.

The terrain was derived from use cases rather than from a scenic brief. The crater requirements are stated as eleven numbered items: 10 m wide and at least 2 m deep, a bottom at least 2 m wide of loose material, traversable by wheeled and legged robots up to 150 kg, placed next to a hill giving 4 m of height difference top to bottom, with a 15 degree loose slope and a 35 degree solid slope with distributed rocks, mostly of volcanic material, draining rain easily, built to reduce weeding, and visible from a visitors area [2]. The 35 degree slope is drainage concrete, chosen to simulate a rocky descent and to stop the slope sliding off. The tunnel is 4 m long at 1.5 by 1.5 m with 1 m and 0.5 m branches, the smallest exiting directly into the crater [2].

Ground truth is an optical tracking system giving up to 2 mm accuracy in four dedicated tracking volumes and centimeter accuracy across the whole site, used for control as well as measurement [2].

Portable bevameter

Parameter	Value
Working volume	Tripod, used inside the bin; plate radii 0.025, 0.05, 0.075 m
Instrumentation	Electromechanical actuators, 0.05 mm displacement precision
Ground truth	Bekker parameter map of the bin itself, not of a sample

Source: [1].

The bevameter was designed without reference to existing bevameter layouts, arriving at a tripod with electromechanical actuators and sensors in a real-time computing environment [1]. Portability is the design decision that matters: it characterizes the soil actually in the bin rather than a sample removed from it, which is what makes a Bekker parameter map across the bin possible. Three plate radii, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.075 m, are used, and displacement precision is 0.05 mm [1].

Instrumentation

The three measurement systems in the indoor lab were each specified against a simulation need. Pose comes from eight-camera infrared optical tracking at better than 3 mm position and 1 degree orientation accuracy at 60 frames per second, which is what allows a tracked rover trajectory to be compared against a simulated one at matched time samples [1]. Terrain geometry comes from a five-camera digital elevation mapping beam on a linear rail, giving about 1.5 mm in-plane resolution and 2 to 4 mm altitude error, which produces the digital elevation model the contact model consumes. Soil state comes from the bevameter.

Outdoors the equivalent function is the optical tracking system, at up to 2 mm in four dedicated volumes and centimeter accuracy over the whole 1500 m2, which serves both as ground truth and as the control input for multiple robots at once [2].

What it does not reproduce

Gravity. Neither the indoor bin nor the outdoor site reduces gravity, and neither carries an offload rig. Weight offloading at DLR is the separate LAMA facility in Bremen.

Vacuum, temperature and illumination. None of the three is provided indoors, and the outdoor site is under natural weather and lighting [1][2].

A mineralogical simulant. The bevameter work used dry quartz sand [1], and the outdoor substrates are terrestrial basalt, lava and granite gravels and sands selected for mechanical and visual relevance rather than for lunar or martian mineralogy [2].

A controlled soil state. No preparation procedure, relative density target or tonnage is published for the indoor bin. The lab’s answer to soil variability is to measure the state with the bevameter rather than to reset it [1].

Campaigns run there

ExoMars locomotion model validation, 2009. The testbed and bevameter were built to close the loop between hardware and the three-dimensional multibody wheel-soil model DLR contributed to ExoMars: bevameter-derived Bekker parameters from the bin itself become simulation inputs, and tracked rover pose from the same runs becomes the comparison data [1]. See rosalind-franklin.

Moon-Mars test site inauguration, 2024. Three experiments with the Lightweight Rover Units LRU1 and LRU2 and the Scout rover demonstrated the new outdoor site: autonomous navigation and mapping, autonomous manipulation and sampling, and advanced mobility tests [2].