Design and Autonomous Control of the Active Adaptive Suspension System Rudra Mars Rover
This addresses the need for efficient suspension in autonomous rovers for space exploration, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing rover suspension concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of terrain traversing for Mars rovers by designing an active adaptive suspension system with linear actuators for each wheel, enabling autonomous chassis leveling to maintain payload efficiency on slopes. The system was successfully tested in the University Rover Challenge 2013, where the team finished fifth.
Semi or completely autonomous unmanned vehicles, remotely driven or controlled through artificial intelligence, are instrumental to foster space exploration. One of the most essential tasks of a rover is terrain traversing which requires the need of efficient suspension systems. This communication presents a suspension system giving degrees of freedom to every wheel with the help of linear actuators connected through bell crank levers. The actuation of linear actuators directly varies the height of every wheel from the chassis hence offering articulation to the rover. A control system is developed offering an algorithm for its autonomous actuation. This system proves instrumental for leveling of the chassis where any kind of slope, roll or pitch, may impute abstaining of payloads from efficient working. This was tried and tested successfully as a part of the rover developed by Team RUDRA from SRM University, INDIA (first Team from Asia and finishing at the fifth position) at University Rover Challenge 2013, held at UTAH, USA in May-June.