DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF ROCKER

BOGIE MECHANISM
BY

VK. Prudvi Raj 175U1A0322

E.Saikumar 185U5A0317
A.Sai madhav 185U5A0304
Md.Junaid 175U1A0310
T.Ajay 185U5A0336

Under the guidance of

A.PRAVEENA (Asst.Prof)
ME,(CAD/CAM)
 CONTENT
• ABSTRACT
• INTRODUCTION
• PRINCIPLE
• SKETCH
• COMPONENTS REQUIRED
• PROCESS INVOLVED
• DESIGN OF ROCKER BOGIE MECHANISM
• DIMENSIONS AND MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS
• PART MODEL
• POWER DISTRIBUTION CIRCUIT
• PERFORMANCE AT DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
• ADVANTAGES:
• APPLICATIONS
• FUTURE SCOPE
• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCES
 ABSTRACT:
• The need to develop a highly stable suspension system
capable of operating in multi terrain surfaces while keeping all
the wheels in contact with the ground.

• To design a mechanism that can traverse terrains where the left

and right rockers individually climb different obstacles.

• To sustain a tilt of over 50deg without tipping over the

sideways.

3
 INTRODUCTION:
• The Rocker bogie system is the suspension arrangement
used in Mars rovers introduced for Mars Pathfinder and
also used on Mars Exploration Rover(MER) and
Mars Science Laboratory(MSL) missions
• This bogie can resist mechanical failures caused by the
harsh environment on MARS
• The primary mechanical feature of
the Rocker Bogie design is it’s drive train simplicity, which is
accomplished by two rocker arms
4
PRINCIPLE:
•The front wheels are forced against the obstacle by the rear wheels. The
rotation of the front wheel then lifts the front of the vehicle up and over
the obstacle.

•Themiddle wheel is the pressed against the obstacle by the rear wheel
and pulled against the obstacle by the front, until it is lifted up and over.

•Finally, the rear wheel is pulled over the obstacle by the front two wheels.
During each wheel’s traversal of the obstacle, forward progress of the
vehicle is slowed or completely halted.

•These rovers move slowly and climb over the obstacles by having wheels
lift each piece of the suspension over the obstacle one portion at a time. 5
SKETCH:

6
WORKING OF ROCKER BOGIE MECHANISM:

7
COMPONENTS REQUIRED:
COMPONENT NAME QUANTITY

SHAFT 1

LINK 4

WHEEL 6

BEARING 2

MOTOR 6

BEARING BUSH 4
PROCESS INVOLVED:
• Design of bogie
• Cutting of links
• Welding of links and bushes
• Drilling
• Facing and turning of shaft
• Assembly of wheels, motor, bearing, shaft,
pin.
• Soldering in power distribution circuit
• Testing of Rig 11
Velocity, V = (πDN) /60
VELOCITY 80mm/s VELOCITY 100mm/s VELOCITY 120mm/s
SPEED(N) DIA(D) SPEED(N) DIA SPEED(N) DIA
rpm mm rpm (D) rpm (D)
mm mm
10 152.77 10 190.96 10
229.15

20 7 6.38 20 95.48 20 114.58

30 5 0.92 30 63.65 30 76.38

40 3 8.19 40 47.74 40 57.29

50 3 0.55 50 38.19 50 45.83

60 2 5.46 60 31.83 60 38.19

70 2 1.82 70 27.28 70 32.74

1 9.10 80 23.87 80 28.64

We have chosen 30rpm motor.
80

From the above table for 100mm/s ; the wheel diameter is

63.6mm(70mm approx) 12
CALCULATION OF TILT ANGLE & WHEEL BASE:

Tilt angle:
Θ=tan-1(y/x)
Θ=tan-1(120/400)=16.69⁰

Wheel base:
To deduce the wheel base,
Wheel base=Total length - (radius of front wheel + radius of rear wheel)
b=400-(35+35)
b=330mm
13
CALCULATION OF LENGTH OF LINKS:

Length of link AC: Length of link DB:

BC2=AB2+AC2 BE2=DB2+ED2
4002=2(AB2) 202=2(DB2)
14
AB=AC=282mm DB=DE=141mm
HEIGHT AND TRACK WIDTH CALCULATION :
 HEIGHT CALCULATION
Height2 = AC2 – EC2
(2802 – 2002)1/2= 195.95mm
Net Height = height + radius
= 195.95 + 35
= 230.95mm.
TRACK WIDTH CALCULATION
SSF = Tw/(2h)
0.5= Tw/ (2*230.95)
Tw= 230.95mm
13
GROSS WEIGHT CALCULATION:
 MASS = VOLUME X DENSITY
DENSITY OF MILD STEEL = 0.00785 g/mm3
1)Weight of rocker arms = 2[(320*25*3*0.00785) +
(200*25*3*0.00785)] = 612.3gm
2)Weight of bogies = 2[2*(180*25*3*0.00785)] = 423.9gm
3)Weight of shaft = [(π/4)*9*9*230*0.00785) = 114.8gm
4)Weight of pin = 2*[2((π/4)*8*8*7*0.00785) +
((π/4)*9*9*7*0.00785)] = 18.02gm
5)Weight of bearings = 4*10 = 40gm
6)Weight of bush = 4*28.7 =
114.8gm
 Total weight =
612.3+423.9+114.8+18.02+40+114.8 14

=1323.82gm
DIMENSIONS AND MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS :
DESCRIPTION DIMENSIONS COMPONENTS MATERIALS
Wheel Thickness 20mm
Frames Mild steel
Wheel Diameter 70mm
Shaft Mild steel
Height
230mm
Wheel Base Bearings Hardened carbon steel
340mm
Track Width Bearing housing(bush) Stainless steel EN8
Bogie length 231mm
Rocker length 141mm COMPONENTS DIMENSION
Bearing 282mm, 141mm
Shaft 9mm dia.,
Bearing bush
ID 8mm OD 22mm 400mm length
Shaft diameter
ID 22mm OD 26mm Frames 1250*25*3mm
Shaft length
9mm Bush
26mm dia.,
230mm, 18mm 100mm length 15
PART MODEL WITH DIMENSIONS :

BEARING BUSH

PIN LENGTH PIN DIAMETER 18

PART MODEL WITH DIMENSIONS
CONTD.

ROCKER BOGIE

19
SHAFT
PART MODEL :

BEARING ROCKER PIN

BOGIE BUSH

SHAFT 20
POWER DISTRIBUTION CIRCUIT :

• The power from the battery is equally distributed to all the six
motors through the power distribution circuit
• Negative terminals make 1 solder joint; positive terminals from 3
motors from both side make 2 solder joints with 3 SPDT switches
• The direction of the motor rotation is reversed by changing the
input poles from the battery
• Drawback of this circuit is the heating of the connecting wires due
to the failure in calculating the resistance of the wires for 12V. 21
PERFORMANCE AT
DIFFERENT
CONDITIONS :
As per the ground level
experimentation by rocker
bogie manufactured; tested
found that the performance
satisfactory below are the
result are shown see figs
different obstacle and
different surfaces.
ADVANTAGES:
• This mechanism allows climbing obstacles twice the size of
wheel diameter
• Does not employ springs and stub axles
• Equal distribution of load on all wheels
• Independent movement of rocker on
• either sides of the bogie
The front and back wheels have individual drives for
climbing, enabling the rover to traverse obstacle without
• slip
The design is simple and reliable
2
1
APPLICATIONS :
•RBM was employed in Viking 1 & Viking 2 space landers of NASA in 1996.

•In 1997, The Mars Pathfinder (MPF) lander delivered the Sojourner Rover
to the surface successfully which was mounted on this bogie system.

•Two other Mars rovers namely Spirit and Opportunity launched by NASA in
early 2004 was also built on RBM.

•Most Recently in 2011, RBM was used in NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory
(MSL) with a rover named Curiosity rover.
22
FUTURE SCOPE
• With the development in technology the rover can be used for
reconnaissance purposes with the cameras installed on
the rover and minimizing the size of rover
• By the development of a bigger model it can be used for
transporting humans and material through a rough terrain
or obstacles containing regions like stairs
• It can also be used for geological mapping of unknown
terrains
as it can even provide live video feed and images of the
terrains being explored 23
CONCLUSION:
• The various components of the rocker bogie is assembled and the
total weight of the frames and shaft is calculated to be 1.3Kg.
• In reference to the specification of the DC motor, the allowable net
reaction on the motor is 1.5Kg. Hence the design is safe.
• This is a wide field of study which is very less explored. So this gave us
the motivation for the development of this rocker bogie suspension
system in a cost effective manner.
• In future rocker bogie mechanism can be used in defense related
operations and also in wheelchairs for climbing stairs.

24
REFERENCES :
• mars.nasa.gov/mer/home
• "NASA Patent Abstracts Bibliography, Section 1. Abstracts” June
1990: 19. ARTICULATED SUSPENSION SYSTEM.
• IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e-ISSN:2278-1684, p-ISSN:2320-334X, Vol. 12.
• Issue 3 Ver. III (May-June 2015) , PP64-67.
• Synge J L and B A Griffiths : Principles of Mechanics, Section 6.3,
McGraw-Hill Kogakusha Ltd,3rd Edition, 1970.
• robots.mit.edu/publications/papers/1998_07_Hac_Dub_Bid.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_static_stability
Tank you