Characteristic Analysis of A Two-Wheeled Robotic Rover with Anti-Overturn Ability and Combinability

A two-wheeled robotic rover has advantages to planetary explorations because of its small size and lightweight. Several such rovers can form a cooperating group or combine to be a big multi-wheeled rover or a stable platform by a docking mechanism. This paper presents a novel small robotic rover with two parallel cylinder-conical wheels, which is designed with passive anti-overturn ability and combinability. Mobility system of the robotic rover is introduced, and its ability of passive anti-overturn is discussed based on quasi statics analysis. By dynamical modeling and locomotion simulation, controllability of the rover is studied. Simulation results show its locomotive characteristic