Future planetary exploration missions will use rovers to perform tasks in rough terrain. Working in such conditions, a rover could become trapped due to loss of wheel traction, or even tip over. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a new rover with the ability to reconfigure its structure to improve tipover stability and ground traction. This paper presents a method to control this reconfigurability to enhance system tipover stability. A stability metric is defined and optimized online using a quasi-static model. Simulation and experimental results for the Sample Return Rover (SSR) are presented. The method is shown to be practical and yields significantly improved stability in rough terrain.
Mobile robot kinematic reconfigurability for rough terrain
Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III ; 2000 ; Boston,MA,United States
Proc. SPIE ; 4196
2000-10-16
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
British Library Online Contents | 2010
|Chapter 2 Rough Terrain Mobile Robot Modeling and Estimation
Springer Verlag | 2004
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