Modeling and Analysis of a Reconfigurable Rover for Improved Traversing over Soft Sloped Terrains

Lyu, Shipeng1; Zhang, Wenyao1; Yao, Chen1; Zhu, Zheng1,2,3; Jia, Zhenzhong1,2,3

2023-03-01

10.3390/biomimetics8010131

BIOMIMETICS   Impact Factor & Quartile

2313-7673

Adjusting the roll angle of a rover's body is a commonly used strategy to improve its traversability over sloped terrains. However, its range of adjustment is often limited, due to constraints imposed by the rover design and geometry factors such as suspension, chassis, size, and suspension travel. In order to improve the rover's traversability under these constraints, this paper proposes a reconfigurable rover design with a two-level (sliding and rolling) mechanism to adjust the body's roll angle. Specifically, the rolling mechanism is a bionic structure, akin to the human ankle joint which can change the contact pose between the wheel and the terrain. This novel adjustment mechanism can modulate the wheel-terrain contact pose, center-of-mass projection over the supporting polygon, wheel load, and the rover driving mode. Combining the wheel-load model and terramechanics-based wheel-terrain interaction model, we develop an integrated model to describe the system dynamics, especially the relationship between rover pose and wheel slippage parameters. Using this model, we develop an associated attitude control strategy to calculate the desired rover pose using particle swarm algorithm while considering the slip rate and angle constraints. We then adjust the sliding and rolling servo angles accordingly for slope traversing operations. To evaluate the proposed design and control strategies, we conduct extensive simulation and experimental studies. The results indicate that our proposed rover design and associated control strategy can double the maximum slope angles that the rover can negotiate, resulting in significantly improved traversability over soft sloped terrains.

robot mobility slope traversing reconfigurable robot terramechanics

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

Engineering ; Materials Science

Engineering, Multidisciplinary ; Materials Science, Biomaterials

WOS:000953778100001

MDPI

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol SUSTech, Dept Mech & Energy Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
2.Shenzhen Key Lab Biomimet Robot & Intelligent Syst, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
3.Guangdong Prov Key Lab Human Augmentat Rehabil Rob, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China

Lyu, Shipeng,Zhang, Wenyao,Yao, Chen,et al. Modeling and Analysis of a Reconfigurable Rover for Improved Traversing over Soft Sloped Terrains[J]. BIOMIMETICS,2023,8(1).

Lyu, Shipeng,Zhang, Wenyao,Yao, Chen,Zhu, Zheng,&Jia, Zhenzhong.(2023).Modeling and Analysis of a Reconfigurable Rover for Improved Traversing over Soft Sloped Terrains.BIOMIMETICS,8(1).

Lyu, Shipeng,et al."Modeling and Analysis of a Reconfigurable Rover for Improved Traversing over Soft Sloped Terrains".BIOMIMETICS 8.1(2023).