Five wheels are locked to the ground link and the remaining wheel is given an initial pose that aims its tool camera at a sphere reresenting an object of interest. A virtual spherical joint at the center of the object constrains the relative pose of the camera, which may then be dragged to inspect the object from different viewpoints. See above for the corresponding hardware experiment

A virtual link o is added to represent a manipulated object, and serial chains of one prismatic and one revolute joint are added between o and the foot links on two adjacent ATHLETE limbs. The geometry of the grasp can be configured by manipulating these virtual joints, and the pinched object can be positioned in space by dragging o. See above for the corresponding hardware experiment.

A trenching motion, with the hex deck leaning to extend reach. The motion is constrained and parameterized by several virutal prismatic and revolute joints. See above for the corresponding hardware experiment. A virtual Cartesian-3 joint, which allows 3DoF translation but no rotation, connected between the hex deck and the ground link maintains the deck orientation. Reachable trenching distance is increased by over 100% relative to what would be possible if the deck was held fixed.

Two virtual revolute joints are added between the deck and ground link, constraining the deck posture to a 2D space of poses that pan and tilt one of the side-mounted cameras, which does not have dedicated pan/tilt actuators. The added joints also give a concrente parameterization so that a particular pan/tilt scan sequence can be commanded. See above for the corresponding hardware experiment.

With the wheels locked relative to the ground link, the deck posture may be interactively manipulated in orientation and translation. The current version of MSim-ATHLETE does not yet compute center-of-mass or joint torque related qantities, so candidate motions developed in MSim-ATHLETE need to be verified for static stability and torque feasibility before uplink.

One limb is posed to aim its tool camera at the surface of a cylinder representing a crew habitat, and a revolute-prismatic virtual joint chain is added to constrain the camera to a 2D space of poses in a concentric cylindrical patch. The camera view axis is effectively constrained by these virtual joints to stay normal to the crew module surface, and either joint may be locked to permit rotation or translation only. The camera can be moved either by operating the virtual joints or by dragging it directly. The virtual joints define a specific parameterization for the camera motion.

Five wheels are locked to the ground link and the remaining wheel is interactively dragged in a reaching motion that might represent trenching or rock pushing. At first, the hexagonal deck is also locked, limiting the limb motion. The deck is then unlocked to permit extended reach. Finally, a virtual Cartesian-3 joint, which allows three orthogonal translations and no rotation, is interactively added between the deck and ground links to prevent the deck from twisting but still allowing some reach extension.