Thank you to all who joined us for ISTVS 2024, 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference. 110 participants from all over the world came together in Yokohama, Japan, for this year’s ISTVS conference—it was a great pleasure to meet you all.
Keynote | Mr. Naoki Sato of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) gave the conference keynote on the exciting manned pressurized rover on the Artemis mission.
St. Christopher Lecture | We were honored to be joined by Professor Kazuya Yoshida of Tohoku University for the Society’s St. Christopher Lecture, titled “Roving the Moon—Steeper, Faster, and Smarter,” on research efforts on sand/wheel interaction problems and lunar exploration rover research. Read full St Christopher Lecture citation
Bekker-Reece-Radforth Award | The 2024 Bekker-Reece-Radforth Award honoree was Professor Schalk Els of the Vehicle Dynamics Group, University of Pretoria. Many of us will be familiar with Professor Els and his work from his long involvement with ISTVS. Highlights of Professor Els’s work include the development of a wheel-force transducer widely used in off-road terrain. He also pioneered the T2CAM, an innovative in-wheel, camera-based system capable of three-dimensionally measuring tire deformation across terrain. Read full award citation
2024 Best Paper Awards | We are pleased to share that these papers received Best Paper Awards at the conference:
Takahiro Fuke, Sora Ishikawa, and Genya Ishigami
Accurate Rover Mobility Analysis Using HILS-DRFT with Real-Time Parameter Tuning Approach
Tomoyasu Nakano, Takuya Omura and Genya Ishigami
DEM-Based Analysis and Optimization of an Excavation Bucket Drum for In-Situ Resource Utilization
Ryosuke Eto, Hayatake Sato, and Junya Yamakawa
Step-Climbing Motion Acquisition of Tracked Robot with Flippers without Using Environment Information by Reinforcement Learning
Takuya Omura and Genya Ishigami
Granular Scaling Laws for Accurate Prediction of Wheel Mobility on Slopes in Low-gravity Environments
Michael Parker, Clifford Witte, Susan Frankenstein, and Allan Wheeler
Mobility During the Transition Seasons in the Arctic
Herman Hamersma, Christian van Aswegen, Glenn Guthrie, and Schalk Els
UAV-Based Three-Dimensional Rough Terrain Modelling
Arthur Candalot, James Hurrell, Malik-Manel Hashim, Brigid Hickey, Mickael Laine, and Kazuya Yoshida
Sinkage Study in Granular Material for Space Exploration Legged Robot Gripper
Technical sessions | A total of 70 presentations—62 oral and 8 posters—were given in the technical sessions, on a wide range of terramechanics topics including off-road mobility, soil mechanics, unmanned and robotic systems, and drive systems for off-road vehicles and machines. Research on rovers for the Moon and Mars in particular is a recent trend and new numerical methods and experiments were combined with more practical research. New tools are also being introduced to ground interaction problems to make them more efficient and reliable.
Banquet | At the conference banquet, a Shishi-mai was performed—a lion dance, a traditional Japanese performing art embodying the spirit of celebration and the importance of community. How did you like it? Two Shishi lions visited everyone’s tables and drove away (ate?) any evil spirits and diseases. I am confident that everyone who participated the conference will be blessed with much happiness and good health.
Technical tour | On this year’s technical tour, conference attendees saw an underwater bulldozer and Robo-Q, which is remotely controlled by actuators on the driver’s seat of a construction machine. At construction equipment manufacturer Komatsu, we experienced intelligent excavators and learned about smart construction. For lunch, we enjoyed Asian (but not Japanese) cuisine at a restaurant on the 49th floor overlooking Tokyo Bay.
Special issue | ISTVS 2024 will publish a special issue of the Society’s Journal of Terramechanics from the conference, and we look forward to receiving your submissions. We especially encourage the winners of the Best Paper Award to submit a paper. Details will be announced shortly.
With the cooperation of everyone who attended, we were able to successfully complete the conference. I hope that everyone found the conference meaningful. Well, everyone, I will see you next year in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
Junya Yamakawa
ISTVS 2024 Conference Chair
ISTVS 1st Vice President