Introduction

A rover is a six-wheel-drive vehicle, purposely designed to navigate hostile and irregular environments, such as the crust of the Red Planet. In 1997, Nasa launched their first rover, Sojourner, and since then have used these advanced explorers to carry out scientific re-con and data gathering missions.

In order to carry out its duties most effectively and accurately possible, the Rover’s suspension must reduce to the minimum the main body’s vibrations, yaw, pitch, and roll.

The most widespread and validated way to do so is The Rocker Bogie suspension system, developed by NASA in 1988.

Resilience makes use of this suspension type, combined with six high-grip, high-flexibility, and low-weight wheels, to tackle the challenging journeys laying ahead of it efficiently.

Finally, the main upgrade brought to the Rover’s design is the active suspension system, conceived and designed entirely by the team. The linear actuator, controlled by the MPU6050 and Arduino UNO board, allow the Rover to have complete, independent control on its roll angle, allowing it to maintain a perfectly levelled orientation as its wheels surmount obstacles along their paths. The active suspension is found too far out-do the standard, passive, Rocker Bogie type with the added benefits this system brings.

The only drawback is energy dependency and battery life of the rover.

The rover has a very high potential to tackle the problems while also increasing the effectiveness and use of the active suspension system as a whole. The team already has fresh ideas to test and implement in the future that, we believe, will ultimately reveal the real innovation that this system represents for the world of Mars explorations.

A rover is a six-wheel-drive vehicle, purposely designed to navigate hostile and irregular environments, such as the crust of the Red Planet. In 1997, Nasa launched their first rover, Sojourner, and since then have used these advanced explorers to carry out scientific re-con and data gathering missions.

In order to carry out its duties most effectively and accurately possible, the Rover’s suspension must reduce to the minimum the main body’s vibrations, yaw, pitch, and roll.

The most widespread and validated way to do so is The Rocker Bogie suspension system, developed by NASA in 1988.

Resilience makes use of this suspension type, combined with six high-grip, high-flexibility, and low-weight wheels, to tackle the challenging journeys laying ahead of it efficiently.

Finally, the main upgrade brought to the Rover’s design is the active suspension system, conceived and designed entirely by the team. The linear actuator, controlled by the MPU6050 and Arduino UNO board, allow the Rover to have complete, independent control on its roll angle, allowing it to maintain a perfectly levelled orientation as its wheels surmount obstacles along their paths. The active suspension is found too far out-do the standard, passive, Rocker Bogie type with the added benefits this system brings.

The only drawback is energy dependency and battery life of the rover.

The rover has a very high potential to tackle the problems while also increasing the effectiveness and use of the active suspension system as a whole. The team already has fresh ideas to test and implement in the future that, we believe, will ultimately reveal the real innovation that this system represents for the world of Mars explorations.