Active suspension robot for rough terrain

To enable a wheeled robot to overcome uneven grounds with stability of the body and the payload; the idea has been proposed of an active suspension which produces controlled force between the body and the wheel by means of an actuator. We built an experimental one-wheel model with a DC servo motor as the actuator to study the mechanism and the control method of active suspension. Then, we built a four wheeled robot with an independent active suspension for each wheel. A control system was made to control the suspensions to keep the body horizontal based on the body inclination estimated from the signals of the internal sensors. The effect of the control was demonstrated through the running experiments over the model rough road. Simulations for other control methods were carried out to evaluate the control performance and the capability of passing over unevenness of the ground.