Active Suspension for Autonomous Rovers

The purpose of this project is to develop an active suspension system for low speed remotely controlled or autonomous vehicles similar to Mars Rover for maintaining the chassis stable throughout any terrain. The aim is to build an active suspension system that eliminates all the drawbacks of passive suspension as well as current active suspension mechanisms. Passive suspension system reacts to any terrain abnormalities and don’t provide complete chassis stability. These drawbacks to the passive suspension system made way to development of active suspension system. Traditional active suspension methods from various manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes include forced hydraulic actuation. However, these methods come with their own drawbacks. Hydraulic suspension includes hydraulic fluids which are at a constant risk of leakage and failure. These drawbacks can be overcome by using non-hydraulic active suspension techniques. Our project was able to negate pitching instability due to bumps. Further it can be extended to roll and yaw correction as well.