ARTICULATED SUSPENSION EXPLORATORY PLATFORM: A COMPACT LAW COST RESEARCH PLATFORM CAPABLE OF OPERATING IN ROUGH TERRAINS

摘要

The novel Articulated Suspension Exploratory Platform (ASEP) is developed in an effort to improve the characteristics and capabilities of an existing recently developed Surface Ground Mobility Platform SGMP. Special attention is placed on the design of the passive suspension mechanism in order for the platform to be suitable for operation in remote and challenging environments. To improve the capacity of the suspension and the overall quality, different designs have been analyzed based on a number of system requirements. The advantages of the final design are its linear motion, obstacle climbing capacities, stability, as well as compact size and low cost.The platform employs open electronics hardware and software architecture.