Design and development of a rocker-bogie mechanism robot with integrated environmental sensors

Today, the importance of rovers in exploring our solar system is universally acknowledged. These specialized vehicles are crafted mainly for missions that explore the surfaces of celestial bodies like Mars and the Moon, focusing on the geological analysis of rocks and soil. The harsh environmental conditions, climatic fluctuations, and communication challenges necessitate rovers to possess both high-speed and long-range capabilities within constrained mission timelines. Although significant advancements have been made, the slow operational speed continues to be a major challenge, despite the widespread use of various mechanisms in mobile robotics. This study unveils a novel suspension mechanism and details its kinematic analysis results. Unlike the traditional rocker-bogie suspension system, developed in the late 1990s for effective weight distribution across diverse terrains, our new design significantly improves protection against rollovers during high-speed linear bogie movements. This enhancement boosts operational reliability in field environments, enabling quicker exploration while preserving the obstacle traversal capabilities of the rocker-bogie system. Sensor data is relayed to an Internet of Things (IoT) cloud service called Thingspeak for real-time monitoring and research. Additionally, a weather monitoring system powered by an Arduino chip provides live updates on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, air quality, and light intensity at the rover's location.