Ackermann mobile robot chassis with independent rear wheel drives

This paper describes four-wheeled robotic chassis of the autonomous mobile robot Bender II utilizing Ackermann steering and independent rear drive units. The robot is designed for the use in outdoor environment. Independent rear drive gives better traction in uneven terrain with the cost of doubling the motion hardware (motors, gears and controllers). Hardware and software implementation details as well as practical experiences of this approach deployment are presented.