Kinematic Analysis and Comparison of Wheeled Locomotion Performance

Abstract

Selection of a suspension mechanism for a rough terrain robot depends on many parameters. A proper comparison based on well defined metrics is indispensable. This paper follows the line of previous work and extends the list of investigated aspects by a kinematical analysis. A metric is defined that indicates the risk of violation of kinematically imposed constraints on rough terrain. A comparison of several rovers based on this metric is described and the validity of this theoretical metric for real world performance is shown by means of hardware measurements.