Mechanical Design of a ROVER prototype for Exploration tasks on Mars: Structural and Transient Dynamics simulation analysis

This research work describes the mechanical design and simulation of a Rover prototype which main goals are exploration tasks on Mars and Space analog environments. In order to validate the mechanical design, a structural and transient dynamics simulation using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) software, and a transient dynamic simulation were carried out. Besides, the mechanical systems used such as the suspension system, differential mechanism, Rover assembly and rocker-bogie mechanism are explained because they are necessary to achieve the current mechanical design. The proposed Rover mechanical design can be adapted to other applications on mining, agriculture, and other fields due to its robust assembly and most of its parts are modular. Results show a minimum factor of safety of 11.987, describe the behavior and characteristic graphs of the Rover assembly on motion across some paths for the proposed Rover design.