ROUGH TERRAIN ROVER BY

ROCKER BOGIE MECHANISM

Objectives
• The focus is on eliminating the shortcomings of the rover. One of the major shortcomings of current
rocker-bogie rovers is that they are slow.
• In order to be able to overcome significantly rough terrain without significant risk of flipping the vehicle or
damaging the suspension these robots move slowly and climb over the obstacles by having wheels lift
each piece of the suspension over the obstacle one portion at a time.
• While performance on rough terrain obstacles is important, it should be also considered situations where
the surface is flat or it has almost imperceptible obstacles, where the rover should increase its speed to
arrive faster from point A to point B.
• Thus, the concern during the development of the rover would be to optimize the speed such that the rover
does not flip and may travel a little faster too and make it cost effective with maximum possible rigidity
and ruggedness.
ABSTRACT
• Rocker bogie mechanism is a mechanism primarily used in the mars rovers to
overcome the rough terrains while maintaining stability.

• It is NASA’s favorite mechanism for space vehicles & rovers. It consists of two arms
with wheel mounted to each. Both arms are connected through a movable joint.

• This enables to have a suspension based mechanism that distributes the vehicle load
as evenly as possible even on bumps and irregular surfaces.

• The design consists of a spring free suspension based differential drive system that
allows the bogie to move over rocks, pebbles with ease.
• The sensors and cameras mounted on a rover must be stable to work properly and
also to increase their life spam.

• More vibrations and jerks lead to faster wear and tear in in sensors, circuit boards and
cameras.

• The rocker bogie mechanism was designed keeping this in mind by providing
maximum stability in all terrains.

• Thus we study the design and fabrication of the rocker bogie mechanism by
fabrication of this rough terrain vehicle using concepts of the bogie mechanism.
Introduction
• There is an increasing need for mobile robots which are able to operate in unstructured

environments with highly uneven terrain. These robots are mainly used for tasks which humans

cannot do and which are not safe.

• In order to achieve these tasks, any mobile robot needs to have a suitable mobile system according

to each situation. Among these mobile systems, it’s the rocker-bogie suspension system that was
first used for the Mars Rover Sojourner and it’s currently NASA’s favoured design for rover wheel

suspension.

• The rocker-bogie suspension is a mechanism that enables a six-wheeled vehicle to passively keep

all six wheels in contact with a surface even when driving on severely uneven terrain. The first

advantage is that the wheels' pressure on the ground will be equilibrated.

• This is extremely important in soft terrain where excessive ground pressure can result in the vehicle

sinking into the driving surface. The second advantage is that while climbing over hard, uneven

terrain, all six wheels will nominally remain in contact with the surface and under load, helping to
propel the vehicle over the terrain.

• Exploration rovers take advantage of this configuration by integrating each wheel with a drive

actuator, maximizing the vehicle's motive force capability. One of the major short comings of current

rocker-bogie rovers is that they are slow.

• While performance on rough terrain obstacles is important, it should be also considered situations

where the surface is flat or it has almost imperceptible obstacles, where the rover should increase

its speed to arrive faster from point A to point B.

• In order to be able to overcome significantly rough terrain (i.e., obstacles more than a few percent of
wheel radius) without significant risk of flipping the vehicle or damaging the suspension, these
robots move slowly and climb over the obstacles by having wheels lift each piece of the suspension
over the obstacle one portion at a time.
Proposed Method
• The rocker bogie system reduces the motion by half compared to other suspension
systems because each of the bogie's six wheels has an independent mechanism for
motion and in which the two front and two rear wheels have individual steering
systems which allow the vehicle to turn in place as 0 degree turning ratio.
• Every wheel also has thick cleats which provides grip for climbing in soft sand and
scrambling over rocks with ease. In order to overcome vertical obstacle faces, the
front wheels are forced against the obstacle by the centre and rear wheels which
generate maximum required torque.
• The rotation of the front wheel then lifts the front of the vehicle up and over the
obstacle and obstacle overtaken.
• Those wheels which remain in the middle, is then pressed against the obstacle by the
rear wheels and pulled against the obstacle by the front till the time it is lifted up and
over.

• At last, the rear wheel is pulled over the obstacle by the front two wheels due to applying
pull force.

• During each wheel's traversal of the obstacle, forward progress of the vehicle is slowed
or completely halted which finally maintain vehicles centre of gravity.

• The above said methodology is being practically proved by implementing it on eight-

wheel drive ATV system in order to gain maximum advantage by rocker bogie system.
Layout diagram
1. Front wheel
2. Middle wheel
3. Rear wheel
4. Bogie
5. Rocker
6. Differential
mechanism
Mechanism
• The important factor in manufacturing of rocker bogie mechanism is to determine the
dimensions of rocker and bogie linkages and angles between them.

• The lengths and angles of this mechanism can be changed as per requirement. In the work
aim is to manufacture the rocker bogie mechanism which can overcome the obstacles of 150
mm height (like stones, wooden blocks) and can climb over stairs of height 150 mm.

• Also another target is to climb any surface at an angle of 45˚. To achieve the above targets,
we had design the rocker-bogie model by assuming stair height 150 mm and length 370 mm.
Using Pythagoras theorem, find the dimensions of the model. It has both angles of linkages
are 90˚.
• The rocker-bogie suspension system is a passive springless and symmetric mechanism.

• Each side of the rocker-bogie has a rocker and a bogie: the rocker is connected to the
rear wheel, and the middle wheel and the front wheel are connected by the bogie.

• The two sides of rocker-bogie are connected by the differential bar attached to the main
body, which ensures that the six wheels are in contact with the ground all the time
providing a stable platform for the scientific instruments and sensors
Design calculation
• Designing: Assume the stair height and length 150 mm and 370 mm respectively. To
climb stairs with higher stability, it is required that only one pair of wheel should be in
rising position at a time.

• Hence to find dimension of bogie linkages, first pair of wheels should be placed at
horizontal position means at the end of the rising as shown in Fig.

• And second pair should be placed just before the start of rising. There should be some
distance between vertical edge of stair and second pair of wheel to striking of wheels.
• Now, need to obtain the distance between first
and second wheel (190 mm). Considering the
right angled triangle ABC, Using Pythagoras in
ΔABC assume lengths AB and BC is x.
AC² = AB² + BC²
190² = x² + x²
190² = 2x²
x = 134 mm
Hence, AB = BC =134 mm
• Similarly, to find dimensions for rocker linkages first two
wheel pairs should be placed at horizontal position. Third
wheel pair should nearly complete its rising before
starting of rising of first pair of wheel. By placing wheel in
such manner we obtained dimension of link BC (311mm).
Now consider ΔBDE,
BE² = BD² + DE²
311² = 2y²
y = 221 mm
Hence, BD = DE = 221 mm
LITERATURE REVIEW
Reference Author Name of paper Method Disadvantages
[1] P. Panigrahi, A. Introduction of Gear type steering mechanism •Rotation of mechanism
Barik, Mechanical Gear operated by a single motor and when and where is
Rajneesh R. & Type Steering designed by ANSYS required.
R. K. Sahu Mechanism to
Rocker Bogie
[2] Akash Batra, Design of a robust Stair-climbing compliant •Computationally
Anirudhh stair-climbing modular expensive non-linear
Ranjan compliant modular robot, capable of tackling stairs optimization problem
Pandey, robot to tackle with overhangs
Shashank overhang on stairs
Kumar & Ms.
Ghazala
Ansari
[3] N. Yadav, B. Design analysis of 3D model simulation of rocker •Decreasing the rocker-
Bhardwaj, S. Rocker Bogie bogie mechanism using bogie mobility system
Bhardwaj Suspension SOLIDWORKS •Less-speed traversal is
System and required
Access the •Decreases stability
possibility to
 Cont…
Referenc Author Name of paper Method Disadvantages
e
[4] Brooks Thomas, Dark rover rocker- Identify energy •High energy consumption
Graham Gold, Nick bogie optimization consumption trends of a
Sertic design rocker-bogie suspension
system

[5] Ajinkya Bhole, Sri Design of a Robust Grey-based Taguchi •Cannot tackling overhangs.
Harsha Turlapati, Stair Climbing Method is used to provide
Rajashekhar V. S, Compliant Modular an optimal setting for the
Jay Dixit, Suril V. Robot to Tackle design parameters of the
Shah, Madhava Overhang on Stairs robot.
Krishna K
[6] Ramon Gonzalez, Adaptive Control Control law for the •Increases the linear velocity
Mirko Fiacchini, for a Mobile Robot trajectory •Complex algorithm
Teodoro Alamo, Under Slip tracking of mobile robots
Jose Luis Guzman, Conditions Using under slip conditions.
Francisco Rodriguez Linear Matrix Inequalities
is used to solve convex
optimization problem.