CAD Model

The 3D CAD Model of the rocker bogie suspension system was designed and
assembled on Solidworks 2021. Solidworks is a mechanical design automation
software which help designers to sketch out ideas, experiment with features and
dimensions, and produce 3D CAD Models and hence produce 2D drawings.

Individual components of the rover were designed and the assembly of the rover
was created using parametric relations called mates which helped in obtaining
desired motion in the suspension system.

3D CAD Model of Rover

Exploded View of Rover

Dimensions

Top View of Rover CAD

Front View of Rover CAD

Right Side View of Rover CAD
 Rocker Assembly
A view of the rocker assembly is shown in figure below. The wheel drive system
mounts to the front of the rocker via five screws: four to mount the linear guide rail
and one to mount the single-axis force sensor. The rocker is connected to the
differential at its center. This was designed to be modular at this point, so that
future generations can use tracks or an elastic loop mobility system. Requiring only
three screws at the interface ensures the ability to quickly change the chassis.

Rocket Assembly

Bogie Assembly
A view of the bogie assembly is shown in figure. A wheel drive system is mounted
to each end of the bogie in an identical manner as to the rocker assembly. At its
center, the bogie mounts to a small shaft using a single screw and two dowel pins
that ensure alignment and transfer rotational motion. Two wiring clips are placed
 Bogie Assembly

along the bogie for routing of the motor power, the encoder signals, and the load
cell signals.

Bogie Joint
A view of the bogie assembly side of the bogie joint is shown in figure. The shaft
attached to the bogie is fit through a shielded ball bearing with a tight sliding fit. It
is retained on the other side with an external retaining ring. The shaft extends
through the hollow shaft potentiometer; the potentiometer's rotating component is
coupled to the central shaft using a set screw. The motion of the bogie is limited to
±30° in order to prevent dangerous configurations of the mobility system; this is

Bogie Joint
done through the use of hard stops. Screw holes are kept on the rocker to
accommodate the future possibility of locking bogie joint's motion entirely.

Wheel
The wheel design used is shown in Figure below. The wheel diameter is 450 mm.
The wheel was designed to have low mass, and the wheel rim is just 2 mm thick.
Slanting of the grousers has been shown to produce an application of forward force
that is closer to continuous. This is equivalent to the operation of a helical gear in
which the teeth are gradually engaged versus that of a spur gear which in which the
teeth are abruptly engaged. The grousers were angled by 19.4° in the design, and
the direction of the helix was designed to be opposite on the left and right wheels
for symmetry.

Wheel
 Static Structural Analysis
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a computerized method for predicting how a
structure reacts to real-world forces, vibration, heat, fluid flow and other physical
effects. FEA is able to predict the reaction by numerically solving differential
equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Structural analysis is
the most common application of finite element analysis.

The static structural analysis of the rover was performed on ANSYS 19.2 software.
ANSYS is a general-purpose finite element modelling package for numerically
solving a wide variety of mechanical problems. ANSYS simulation software
enables organizations to confidently predict how their products will operate in the
real world. It expands the use of physics. It gains access to any form of engineering
field someone may account in. The ANSYS program has many finite element
analysis capabilities, ranging from a simple, linear, static analysis to a complex,
nonlinear, transient dynamic analysis.

Rover CAD Model in ANSYS software

A typical ANSYS analysis has three distinct steps:

1. Build/Import the 3D Model

2. Apply loads and obtain the solution
3. Review of results

Material

The structure of the rover was assigned Titanium Alloy as the material, which was
found in the Engineering Data Sources in the ANSYS software. Titanium Alloy
was chosen as the optimum material due to its high strength in low weight
applications. For the wheels, rubber treads were chosen for proper movement of
the rover. The mechanical properties of Titanium Alloy were taken as follows:

Density 4620 Kg/m3

Young’s Modulus 96000 MPa

Poisson’s Ratio 0.36

Yield Stress 930 MPa

Mesh
The significant factor that will affect the possibilities to obtain acceptable results
from the analysis is how the mesh is defined. A finer mesh will generate more

Rover Model Mesh

accurate results, at the price of longer calculation time. Triangular meshing was
chosen as the optimum meshing method as it resolves boundary layer efficiently.
Element size of the mesh was taken to be 100 mm in order to obtain a fine mesh
and hence a good result. The numbers of elements are 51152 and the numbers of
nodes are 92198. It is necessary to mesh manually in subsequent simulations where
the model is more detailed, and the geometry is more complex.

Boundary Conditions
The main goal of a finite element analysis is to examine how a structure or
component responds to certain loading conditions. Specifying the proper loading
conditions or boundary conditions is, therefore, a key step in the analysis. The
loads can be applied on the model in a variety of ways in the ANSYS program.
Also, with the help of load step options, one can control how the loads are actually
used during solution.
For the rover model, a static loading of 100 N was applied on the structure as
shown in the figure below to check the static behavior.
 Static Load on Rover Model

In order to predict the static behavior of the rover, fixed supports were applied at

Fixed Supports
the wheels as shown in the next below.

Solution
In the solution phase of the analysis, the computer takes over and solves the
simultaneous equations that the finite element method generates. The results of the
solution are nodal degree-of-freedom values, which form the primary solution.

1. Von Mises Stress

When a body in an initial state of equilibrium or undeformed state is subjected to a
body force or a surface force, the body deforms correspondingly until it reaches a
new state of mechanical equilibrium or deformed state. The inner body forces are
the result of a force field, such as gravity, and the surface forces are forces applied
on the body through contact with other bodies. The relations between external
forces which characterize what is called the stress and the deformation of the body,
which characterizes strain, are called Stress-Strain relations.
The maximum stress developed in the rover model due to static loading of 100 N
came out to be 1.261 MPa. The stress variation can be seen in the figure. The
equivalent stress developed in the rover under static loading is really minute and
hence the rover design is safe.

Equivalent Stress Developed

2. Total Deformation
Deformation refers to any changes in the shape or size of an object due to an
applied force or change in the temperature. Total Deformation or directional
deformation both are used to obtain displacement from stresses directional
deformation are used to calculate the deformation in X, Y, and Z planes for a given
systems. Total deformation gives a square root of the summation of the square of
X-Direction, Y-direction and Z-directions.
Due to static loading of 100 N and fixed supports at the wheels, a maximum
deformation of 0.129 mm is developed at the rear end of the rover. Since this value
of deformation is very small and hence our result is correct and the design is safe.
The deformation contour is shown in the figure.

Total Deformation
 Motion Analysis
Motion analysis is solved using a time-based approach for rigid body kinematic and
dynamic problems. SOLIDWORKS Motion takes the designer beyond the free drag
movement available in a CAD environment and into a true physical calculation of the
forces and motions of an assembly as it would move under environmental loads
(external forces) and/or internal loads (motors, springs, and dampers).
SOLIDWORKS Motion simulation can calculate the effect of:

 Forces
 Springs
 Dampers
 Gravity
 Contact between components
 Bushings

Once the assembly motion has been calculated, a structural analysis of the
components under the motion-induced loads (accelerations and joint forces) can
easily be carried out, either within the motion study or exported to a structural
analysis study.
Rocker bogie rover’s motion analysis was performed on Solidworks considering
gravity ( g = 9.81 m/s2 ) acting in the – Y direction. Contact tool was used to define
contact pairs between the road surface and the wheels of the rover.
While defining the contact between the road surface and the wheels, coefficient of
static friction was taken to be 0.7 and coefficient of kinetic friction was taken to be
0.5. Using the contact tool, 6 contact pairs were created.

Defining Contact Pair in Motion Analysis

Anti-clockwise rotary motion of 100 RPM was applied to all the six wheels in order
to examine the rover’s motion. In the below figure, it can be seen the direction of

Rotary motion applied to the wheels

rotary motion applied to the front left wheel. Similar rotary motion was applied to all
the other wheels for the motion analysis.
After providing all the constraints, the motion analysis was carried out. The setup of
the motion analysis is shown below.

Motion Analysis Setup in Solidworks

This motion analysis was further carried out with numerous road tracks involving
bumps, hills, logs etc. with the same boundary conditions. Following figures show
the rover’s motion over multiple tracks.
1. Motion Analysis over an Incline (16 deg)

Rover’s Motion Analysis over an Incline

2. Motion Analysis over a lump (on one side of the road)

Rover’s Motion Analysis over a lump (on one side of road)

3. Motion
Analysis
over a
non-
uniform
lump

Rover’s Motion Analysis over a non-uniform lump

4. Motion Analysis over a hill

Rover’s Motion Analysis over a hill

5. Motion Analysis over stairs

Rover’s Motion Analysis over stairs

6. Motion Analysis over a series of lumps

Rover’s Motion Analysis over a series of lumps

 7. Motion Analysis over small stones/rocks
8. Motion Analysis over a wavy track

Rover’s
Rover’s Motion
Motion Analysis
Analysis overover a wavy
small stonestrack