Dynamic Rocker-Bogie: Kinematical Analysis in a High-Speed Traversal Stability Enhancement

The rocker-bogie suspension system has robust capabilities to deal with uneven terrain because of its distributing of the payload over its six wheels uniformly, while there is one major shortcoming to high-speed traversal over the planar terrain. This paper proposes a new dynamic rocker-bogie suspension system with two modes of operation: it can expand the span of the rocker-bogie support polygon to increase travel rate when the terrain is planar; and it can switch to its original configuration to move by low speed when it is faced with rough terrain. The analysis on dynamic stability margin and kinematical simulation on the two operating modes of rocker-bogie are employed to analyze and verify the rationality and effectiveness of the modification in the structure.