Motion performance analysis of Rabbit rover with retractable-claw wheels

To improve the climbing obstacles capability of a robot, a rover prototype named as Rabbit whose motion is based on 4 retractable-claw wheels was designed. Principle of the wheel, mobile system and control system of Rabbit were presented respectively, and some experiments were finished to test its performance. The experimental results show that the Rabbit rover can move freely in various terrain conditions, such as step, slope, multiple-obstacle, and simulated lunar soil, etc. Experiment results demonstrate that the retractable-claw wheels enable the rover to traverse over steps whose height is 1.4 times of the wheel radius, over sloped terrains up to 40° tilt angle, which is much larger than conventional robots can do. The rover with retractable-claw wheels is proved to be suitable for planetary or field exploration.