Thanks for pointing out the rocker-bogie Wikipedia page. There's a true dearth of info about them. Do you happen to know if there's any kinematic analyses of these suspensions available? I used to do stress analysis in the aerospace industry and I've been interested in that sort of analysis since the 1997 Sojourner rover.

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thinking_cactus 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not sure what you mean by kinematic analysis, but the video mentions several analytical analyses of his suspension and how he came up with it. They did some computer simulations to optimize how it would deal with various obstacles. Really cool and clever.

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bediger4000 9 hours ago | parent [-]

I wasn't sure what word to use. That suspension has lots of pin joints and linkages, which are usually the subject of kinematics, 3-bar linkages, mechanisms, etc etc.

I realize that the stiffness of the rockers and links will make a difference in how forces are distributed, because that suspension is clearly not statically determinant, but the main factor in the design has to be the proportions of the links and beams. I can't find anything about that, so I asked.

	▲	thinking_cactus 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> I realize that the stiffness of the rockers and links will make a difference in how forces are distributed, because that suspension is clearly not statically determinant I think it's (mostly) the terrain geometry (plus gravity) that constrains the system, not joint or bar stiffness. This makes them feasible to analyze with the tools of theory of mechanisms I believe. Also a really noteworthy insight I think he had was that when there is some kind of non-planar geometry arrangement of the wheels, that tends to create additional (perpendicular to surface) force on the wheels, effectively increasing the coefficient of friction. Think how a child may be able to climb a door frame by pressing hard enough on the sides.

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lisper 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Do you happen to know if there's any kinematic analyses of these suspensions available?

Sorry, I have no idea. I never actually worked on the mechanics, just the software.