Three-rigid-frames walking planetary rovers: a new concept

The rovers designed for planetary exploration and exploitation are usually wheeled vehicles and the many proposals advocating the use of walking machines never materialised in actual applications. This is mainly due to the complexity and lower reliability of many prototypes and demonstrators. A twin rigid-frames layout allows to simplify the machine without sacrificing performances, at least in the case of very slow rovers. In the present paper a slightly more complex configuration, obtained by adding a third frame to what is essentially a twin-frame machine, is proposed with the aim of extending the applicability of rigid-frames walking machines to applications requiring higher velocities.