Actively articulated suspension for a wheel-on-leg rover operating on a Martian analog surface

Abstract

Actively articulated wheel-on-leg rovers offer high degrees of mobility for traversing unstructured and scientifically interesting terrain. An ability to actively conform to the terrain to increase traversability is sought. A kinematic model based on recursive kinematic propagation in combination with a terrain map generated online is used to solve desired limb articulation angles that meet operator defined rover body trajectories. This technique is validated in field tests on a Martian analog terrain.