3 Rover Chassis Designs

Rover are robots that are free to move around its environment by spinning its wheels or something similar to wheels.  How many wheels and in what arrangement are design decisions that can have a major effect on how the rover moves.  How the rover contacts the ground will determine friction and traction, allowing or preventing it from moving.   

Kinds of Rover Wheels:

       Hard Smooth Wheels

       Roller Ball

       Caster Wheel

       Soft Elastic/Tires Wheels

       Textured/Traction Wheels

       Omni Wheels

       Mechanum Wheel

       Tank Treads

Robot Chassis Designs:

1 Wheel 

      Ball Bot

    BB8

    Unicycle

    Monocycle

2 Wheels

    

    Segway

    Segway

    Bicycle

    Tank Treads

3 Wheels

  

    Standard Lego Robot

    Tricycle

 (2 rear wheel drive, 

1 front wheel steering)

    Trike 

(1 rear wheel drive, 

2 front wheel steering)

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    Omni Directional Robot

    

4 wheels

      Square Bot - 2 or 4 wheel drive

       4 textured Wheels      or     2 textured wheels,  2 omni wheels

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      Steering (like on automobiles)

       Rear wheel drive, front wheel steering

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    All Wheel Drive & Front Steering

 

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      Front wheel drive & steering

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      Swerve Drive - 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering

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    Mechanum -  4 mechanum wheels 

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    X- Drive (Omni wheels)  -  two pairs of Omni wheels at 90 degrees to each other

5 Wheels

  

  H-Drive (omni wheels) -

4 parallel Omni wheels with 

1 perpendicular Omni wheels 

6 Wheels

 Tilting - middle wheels are lower then the other 4.

Robot will tilt forward or backwards.  

 4 wheels driving forward or back.  

2 wheels spin in place.


Also called "West Coast Drive"

Rocker Bogie - this six wheel design has two pivot points to allow the wheels to maintain contact with the group, even over rough terrain.  This is the chassis of the Mars Rovers.