International Journal of Advancements in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering – IJAMAE

Volume 2 : Issue 2 [ISSN : 2372-4153]

Publication Date: 19 October, 2015

Kinematics Analysis and Simulation of a Rocker-

Bogie Mobile Robot
Mohammad Reza Elhami1, Iman Dashti2

i.e. navigation, actuation and slip kinematics were identified

and the equations and application of each were discussed.
Abstract - For a wheeled mobile robot in rough terrain, one of Kinematics analysis of six-wheeled rovers (such as the
the known suspension systems is the rocker-bogie mechanism. vehicle “Sojourner” of JPL) was studied by Chottiner
The high mobility of the robot, moving in 3 dimensions with 6 (1992), Linderman and Eisen (1992), Hacot et al. (1998).
degrees of freedom makes the kinematics modelling as a
challenging task. In this paper, a full 6-DOF kinematic model In this paper the kinematics modelling of a six-wheel
of a rocker-bogie mobile robot is presented. The A matrices rocker-bogie mobile robot based on above literature is
has been derived based on Denavit-Hartenberg coordinate deduced. The kinematics model will be useful and
transformation approach. The kinematic equations and fundamental to subsequent studies on trajectory tracking and
Jacobian matrices for the wheels are derived which relates the motion control of the mobile robot.
rover velocity vector with wheel angular velocities and joint Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of a rocker bogie
angular rates. Furthermore, a rover-terrain model is rover. The rover has different elements, which are assumed
developed to obtain the necessary joint angles and some
to be rigid. The suspension mechanism consists of several
attitude angles by solving nonlinear optimization equations.
Finally, the robot model is also constructed in MD Adams and joints and by adjusting its joints the rover is capable of
simulations are carried out to verify the kinematics model. The locomotion over various uneven terrains. The rocker bogie
results show very close match of kinematic model and structure has six independently driven wheels which are
simulation in rough terrain trajectory. mounted on an articulated passive suspension system. The
suspension system consists of two rocker arms connected to
Keywords- Mobile robot, Rocker-Bogie, Kinematic analysis, the rover body. Each rocker has a rear wheel connected to
Rough terrain one end and a bogie connected to the other end. The bogie is
connected to the rocker with a free pivoting joint. At each
end of the bogie there is a drive wheel. The rockers are
I. Introduction connected to the rover body with a differential joint.
Rescue operations and future space explorations will
require high mobility robots to perform intricate tasks in
challenging uneven terrain. Examples of rough terrain
applications for such robotic systems can be found in the
forestry, mining industries, and in hazardous material
handling applications. The high mobility of these robots,
moving in 3 dimensions with 6 degrees of freedom (X, Y, Z,
pitch, yaw, roll), makes the kinematics modelling a
challenging task than the robots which move on flat and
smooth surface (3 degrees of freedom : X, Y, rotation about
Z axis).
So far a variety of approaches for kinematics modelling Figure 1. Example of a Rocker-Bogie System
have been implemented which can be roughly divided into
two methods-one related the geometric approach (Cox and
Wilfong, 1990; Iagnemma et al., 1999) and the other
II. Kinematics Formulation
concerning transformation approach. One of the earliest A. Coordinate Frames
works on the formulation of wheeled mobile robot’s
kinematics equations of motion has been studied by Muir et According to the D-H method (Craig, 1989), a
al. (1987). In this work, matrix coordinate transformation coordinate frame is introduced on each joint. We define
algebra is developed to derive the equations of the motion of coordinate frames as in Fig. 2. The subscripts for the
mobile robots. Due to the simplifying assumptions, this and coordinate frames are as follows: R : robot reference frame,
similar approaches are only applicable to motion in 2- D : differential joint, : left and right bogies ( i = 1,2 ), :
dimensional space, i.e. translation in the x-y plane and yaw steering coordinate frames ( i = 1-6 ) and : Axle of all
rotation. A general approach to kinematic modelling of wheels ( i = 1− 6 ).
articulated rovers traversing uneven terrain was developed
by Tarokh et al. (1999). Later on, three forms of kinematics,
1
Mohammad Reza Elhami, Associate Prof. 266
2
Iman Dashti, Graduted Student
Imam Hosein University
Tehran, Iran
 Proc. of the Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering - ACSM 2015.
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-039-2 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-039-2-19

The transformations from the robot reference frame (R)

to the wheel axle frames ( ) are obtained by cascading the
individual transformations which gives the position of each
wheel in rover reference frame. Then the transformation
matrix for each wheel is obtained as:

(2)
(3)
(4)

Table 1 shows D-H parameters representing

a) Side View transformation between two consequent frames.

TABLE I. D-H PARAMETERS FOR COORDINATE FRAMES.

Frame θ(deg) d(cm) a(cm) α(deg)

D 0 K1 K2 -90
B1 K9+ρ K3 K6 0
B2 K9-ρ -K3 K6 0
S1 ρ K3 -K4 90
S2 -ρ -K3 -K4 90
S3 1-K9β 0 -K11 90
S4 2-K9β 0 -K11 90
S5 1-K9β 0 K7 90
S6 2-K9β 0 K7 90
A1 1ψ -K5 0 0
A2 2ψ -K5 0 0
b) Perspective View A3 0 -K8 0 0
A4 0 -K8 0 0
A5 0 -K8 0 0
Figure 2. Coordinate Frames for Rover Left Side
A6 0 -K8 0 0

The rover configuration vector

K1  K 2  0; K 3  27; K 4  29
is defined relative to the world coordinate frame W, where K5  29; K 6  28.46; K 7  24.5
(X Y Z) is the position and is the orientation
with roll, pitch and heading respectively. The Rover joint
K8  14.5; K 9  30.7; K10  10
variable vector (q) consists of suspension joints angles: K11  12.5
steering angles ( , rocker angle (ρ), left and right
bogie angles , .
A transformation matrix can be defined between two
consequent frames, using the D-H parameters, , , , .

ci  si c i si s i ai ci 

 s ci c i ci s i ai si 
Ti 1,i  i  
0 s i c i di 
 
0 0 0 1 

Where c (α) =cos (α), s (α) =sin (α).

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 International Journal of Advancements in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering – IJAMAE
Volume 2 : Issue 2 [ISSN : 2372-4153]
Publication Date: 19 October, 2015

B. The Wheel and Terrain Contact C. Wheel Jacobian Matrices

Model In order to describe the relative motion of the rover body
with terrain, similar to the instantaneous coincident
Assuming a single contact point between wheels and the
coordinate frame we develop a rover body instantaneous
ground, for each wheel a coordinate frame is defined at
contact point. The contact coordinate frame is obtained coincident coordinate frame, . is an identity matrix
from the axle coordinate frame, by rotating about the and its derivative, , has the following form:
axle, then translating by the wheel radius in the negative z
direction. The corresponding transformation matrix from the
axle to contact is given by:  0 - z y x
 0 - x y 
TR , R  z (7)
 c i 0 s i rs i  - y x 0 z
 0  
1 0 0   0 0 0 1
TW , R  (5)
  s i 0 c i rc i 
  Defining F as the terrain coordinate frame, then figure 6
 0 0 0 1  illustrates the relation of each part of the rover with the
terrain.
Where is contact angle of wheel i and r is radius of
wheels. However, this transformation does not include
rolling or slip, and thus does not reflect motion. In order to
include motion, we consider the motion frames
and as shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 3. Wheel Contact Coordinate Frame

Figure 5. Transformation Loop

In view of the fact that the inverse of the

transformation matrix is equal to the inverse chain
transformation matrix, one has the following:

(8)

Figure 4. Wheel Motion Model

By evaluating the partial derivatives and substituting
in equation (7), velocity components of joint angles are
factorized in the right side of equation (8) and velocity
The transformation matrix for motion frames are vector is extracted. The jacobian
derived using wheel rolling translation along the matrix for each wheel is derived as in equation (9):
x-axis, where is the angular rotation and is the rolling
slip, a wheel side slip translation ( ) along the y-axis, [
and a turn slip rotation ( about the z-axis.
Where q is the joint variable vector defined in section
c i  s i 0 r  i  2.1 and its components is different for each wheel. Equation
 s c i 0 i 
(9) describes the contribution of individual wheel motion
TC ,C  i (6) and the connecting joints to the rover body motion.
 0 0 1 0 
 
 0 0 0 1 
268
 Proc. of the Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering - ACSM 2015.
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-039-2 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-039-2-19

D. Rover-Terrain Model
The purpose of this subsection is to determine mobile
robot’s configuration on an arbitrary terrain profile. Nine (15)
parameters are required to fully determine the rover’s
configuration:
 The position of a point on the robot body. (Here we (16)
choose the rover frame reference point (
 The orientation of the rover body expressed in global Where is the terrain slope at along wheel
frame ( . heading . The system of equations (13) is highly
 The joint angles of the rocker-bogie suspension nonlinear. We use fsolve optimization function provided by
mechanism (ρ, . Matlab to solve (13).
The transformation matrix between Global coordinate frame
and contact frame is obtained using equations (10) and (11).
III. Results and Discussion
c z c y -s x .s z +s x .s y .s z s x .s z +c x .s y .c z X In this section we study kinematics behaviour of rover
 s c c x .c z +s x .s y .s z -s x .c z +c x .s y .s z Y 
TW , R  z y and investigate the verification of the derived model as it
  s y s y c y c y .c y Z moves over the simulated terrain. The MD Adams
 
 0 0 0 1 Constructed prototype rover and terrain topology used for
(10) simulation is shown in fig. 6 and consists of two parts. The
right side has slopes with 16.7 degrees that the right side of
(11) rover (Wheels 2,4,6) are moving on and the left side is
sinusoidal hill-like terrain that wheels 1,3,5 are moving on.
The rover reference point is at position X=Y=0 at t=0.0 and
Then the position and orientation of the contact coordinate
moves straight ahead with a constant velocity of 2 (cm/sec)
frames in the global frame could be extracted:
without any turning .

(12)

Figure 6. Terrain Profile Used for Simulation

Fig. 7 shows Rover pitch and roll angles for kinematics

Suppose that the terrain elevation is given by (X, Y). If model and Adams simulations. The angles are in degree.
the rover has a wheel in contact with the terrain then the The curves show good compatibility between kinematic
elevation of the terrain at the wheel contact location must be model derived here and simulation results. We can see that
equal to the Z-component of the contact location, thus six as the front wheels reach the bumps both angles become
independent equations could be written as: negative. The pitch angle remains negative during the first
half of the terrain and then turns positive as the robot
crosses the top of the hill.
(13)

By determining a desired path for the rover X, Y, are

treated as known parameters. Then the other six parameters
are found by solving (13). Contact angles could be obtained
by:

(14)

269
 Proc. of the Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering - ACSM 2015.
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-039-2 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-039-2-19

(a) Kiematics Model Results

(a) Kinematics Model Results

(b) Simulation Results (b) Simulation Results

Figure 7. Rover Pitch and Roll Figure 8. Rocker and Bogie Joint Angles

Fig. 8 shows rocker and bogie joint angles as the result Fig. 9 shows contact angle of front wheels. Both
of combined motion of six wheels. Again the calculated contact angles experience an abrupt change when the wheels
results agree with measured results. Right bogie angle is hit the bump. The left contact angle then trends to a positive
zero when all of the wheels are on the same surface but the value after the rover climbed the hill. The right contact
left bogie has a harmonic curve on the hill and experiences angle is zero at all times except when the wheel is shifted
transitions when the front and middle wheels touch the between slope and flat surface.
bump.

270
 Proc. of the Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering - ACSM 2015.
Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63248-039-2 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-039-2-19

and it was shown that the output of the simulation is in agree

with the results of the model. Finally the limitation of the
modelling is that we assume a single contact point between
each wheel and a continuous smooth terrain. Also in the
modelling of rover-terrain interaction some wheels may not
always be in contact with the ground.

References
[1] Chottiner J.E. (1992). Simulation of a six-wheeled martian rover
called the rocker-bogie. M.S. Thesis, Ohio State University, Columbus,
Ohio, USA.
[2] Cox J., Wilfong G.T. (1990). Autonomous Robot Vehicles.
Speringer-Verlag, N.Y.
[3] Craig J.J. (1989). Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and
Control, 2nd Edition., Addison-Wesley Pub.
[4] Hacot H. (1998). Analysis and Traction Control of a Rocker-Bogie
Figure 9. Contact Angle for Front Wheels Planetary Rover. M.S. Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cambridge. MA.

IV. Conclusion [5] Iagnemma K., Genot F., Dubowski S. (1999). Rapid Physics-
Based Rough Terrain Rover Planning With Sensor and Control
In this paper kinematics modelling of a mobile robot Uncertainty. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation,
Detroit, MI, pp. 2286-2291.
with rocker-bogie suspension system was presented and
[6] Linderman R. and Eisen H. (1992). Mobility analysis, simulation
velocity equations of rover moving on uneven terrain were and scale model testing for the design of wheeled planetary rovers, In
extracted by introducing the contact angle. By using D-H Missions Technologies and Design of Planetary Mobile Vehicle, Toulouse,
notation and instantaneous coincident coordinate concept France.
the Jacobian matrix for each wheel was derived which [7] Muir P.F., Neuman C.P. (1987). Kinematic modelling of wheeled
mobile robots. Robotics Systems, 4(2).
relates the rover velocity vector with wheel angular
[8] Tarokh M., McDermott G., Hayati S., Hung J. (1999). Kinematic
velocities and joint angular rates. Then, a rover-terrain modelling of a high mobility Mars rover. “IEEE Conf. on Robotics and
model was developed to obtain the necessary joint angles Automation”, Detroit, MI.
and some attitude angles by solving a set of nonlinear
equations through an optimization process. To verify the
kinematic model the rover was simulated by MD ADAMS

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