DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMOUS ROVER

MOBILE ROBOT
Hazel M. Aboga-a, Armando D. Alvarez, Mark Chester M. Cuadra, Charlane
T. Dagang and Ruvel J. Cuasito, Sr.
College of Industrial and Information Technology
Mindanao University of Science and Technology
Lapasan Highway, Cagayan de Oro City, 9000 Philippines
This paper describes an autonomous rover
mobile robot that could navigate itself in
known and partially known environments.
The robot is consist of six wheels that are
individually controlled by a servo motor for
steering enabling the robot to turn in place.
The rover uses the rocker bogie design with
each rockers connected to a differential
mechanism located inside the body. The
differential mechanism is consist of three
bevel gears meshed together to produce a
counter rotating motion of the shafts. This
maintains the traction force between the
wheels and the ground hence enables the
rover to climb on obstacles up to 1.5 times
its wheel diameter. Obstacle detection was
enabled by using an infrared proximitycollision sensor that detects object up to
25cm in range. The sensor is mounted on a
servo in order to find a path whenever an
obstacle is detected. The robot uses the
Gizduino X microcontroller to control
multiple subsystems of the design.

universally accepted definitions that

encompass
notion
of
mobility,
programmability, and the use of sensory
feedback in determining subsequent
behavior.

Keywords: microcontroller, autonomous

mobile
robot,
rover,
Rocker-Bogie,
Differential Mechanism, infrared sensor

The intelligent autonomous systems of

motion planning problem has been studied
thoroughly by the robotics research
community over the last years. The basic
feature of an autonomous mobile robot is its
capability to operate independently in
unknown or partially known environments.
The autonomy implies that the robot is
capable of reacting to static obstacles and
unpredictable dynamic events that may
impede the successful execution of a task.

1. Introduction
The history of autonomous mobile
robotics research has largely been a story of
closely supervised, isolated experiments on
platforms which do not last long beyond the
end of the experiment. There are no

The major challenge for autonomous

mobile robots is navigation. Several
approaches have been proposed to address
the problem of motion planning of a mobile
robot. It is often decomposed into path
planning and trajectory planning. Path
planning is to generate a collision free path
in an environment with obstacles and
optimize it with respect to some criterion.
Trajectory planning is to schedule the
movement of a mobile robot along the
planned path. If the environment is a known
static terrain and it generates a path in
advance, it is said to be off-line algorithm. It
is said to be on-line if it is capable of
producing a new path in response to
environmental changes.

To achieve this level of robustness, methods

need to be developed to provide solutions to
localization, map building, planning and
control.
The robots are compelling not for
reasons of mobility but because of their
autonomy, and so their ability to maintain a
sense of position and to navigate without
human intervention is paramount [1].
Most of the applications require a robot
to work in relatively unstructured and
unknown environments. Navigational task
of moving the robot from one location to
another is usually operated by humans. One
crucial drawback of this approach is the
large energy requirement of high bandwidth
communication which consumes most of the
energy that the robot carries around.
Moreover, employing qualified operating
personnel is costly [2].
The design and development of this
mobile robot will enhance learning concepts
on autonomous mobile robot navigation and
control algorithm. Moreover, it would
portray a mobility system that is capable of
obstacle climbing that could be used in the
discussion of mechanical concepts in the
academe, and lastly it would entice the
community to engage in scientific and
technological courses.
The general objective of the study was to
develop an autonomous rover mobile robot
that can navigate in partially known or
unknown environment. Specifically, the
study aimed to:
(a) Design an autonomous rover mobile
robot with respect to the requirements
and constraints of the system.

(b) Develop an autonomous rover mobile

robot relative to the established design
parameters used in the system.
(c) Implement the control algorithm
developed for the rover mobile robot to
navigate itself effectively in response to
its environment.
(d) Evaluate the performance of the rover
mobile robot according to the
established test instruments.

2. Scope and Limitations

The premise of the study included the
design, development, and evaluation of an
autonomous rover mobile robot that could
navigate itself in partially known or
unknown environments. The fundamental
control function was anchored on the ability
of the robot to avoid obstacles. Infrared
Proximity-Collision sensor was the primary
sensor used in the rover mobile robot for
obstacle detection and navigation. A camera
was mounted on the rover to take pictures of
the environment it traverse. Servo motors
were used as the prime mover of the
prototype and for steering system.
3. Methodology
3.1 Conceptual Design
The design of the robot was a rockerbogie six wheel configuration as shown in
Figure 1. Each wheel was driven
independently by a servo motor. Each servo
motor that is driving the wheels was
connected to another servo motor for
steering.

provides rock climbing capability for the

rover. It can climb obstacle 1.5 times its
wheel diameter in height.
The mechanism was consist of three
bevel gears which were meshed together to
create a counter rotating shaft so that when
one side goes up, the other side goes down.

Figure 1. The Overall Design of the

Prototype
The design was consists of two rockers
hinged to the sides of the main body as
shown in Figure 2. Each rocker was
connected to a steering servo at one end and
a smaller frame at the other end. Two servo
motors were attached to the end of each of
these small frames. The numbers 1 to 6 are
used to identify the servo motors for
programming and pin assignments.

Figure 3. Differential Mechanism

3.2 Design Components
Figure 4 shows the dimensions of the
body of the rover. The body was 200
millimeters long, 100 millimeters wide and
45 millimeters high. A 10 millimeter hole
was drilled at the center of the sides of the
body for the connection of the shafts.

Figure 2. Top View of the Prototype

The connection between symmetrical
lateral mechanisms was provided by a
differential mechanism which is located
inside the body as shown in Figure 3. This
mechanism provided an important mobility
characteristic of the rover: one wheel can be
lifted vertically while other wheels remain in
contact with the ground. This feature

Figure 4. The Body

Figure 5 shows the dimensions of the

rocker. The rocker was bended at an angle of
151 degrees. Its horizontal distance was 215
millimeters. A shaft of 70 millimeters length
was connected with the rocker. The height of
the rocker with respect to the horizontal axis
was 50 millimeters. A 10 millimeter hole
was drilled in the rocker for the shaft.
Another hole of the same dimension with
the hole of the servo frame was incorporated
for the connection of the rocker and the
servo frame. Four 2 millimeter holes were
included for the connection of front steering
servo mounting frame.

Figure 5. The Rocker

Figure 6 shows the dimensions of the
servo frame. The servo frame was 180
millimeters in length and 25 millimeters in
width and height. Two steering servo motors
were attached in the servo frame for
steering. Each servo motor shell was 40
millimeters long. The servo motors were
attached through the holes with 2
millimeters in diameter and center distance
of 5 millimeters from the servo shell. A 6
millimeter hole was situated at the center of
the servo frame for the connection with the
rocker.

Figure 6. Servo Frame

Figure 7 shows the dimensions of the
front steering servo mounting frame. The
frame was 68 millimeters in length and 25
millimeters in width and height. A steering
servo motor was attached in the frame for
steering. The servo motor shell was 40
millimeters long. The servo motor was
attached through the holes with 2
millimeters in diameter and center distance
of 5 millimeters from the servo shell. Four 2
millimeter holes were included in the front
steering servo mounting frame for the
connection with the rocker.

Figure 7. Front Steering Servo Mounting

Frame

Figure 8 shows the dimensions of the

rotational servo mounting frame. The frame
was 68 millimeters in length and 25
millimeters in width and height. A rotational
servo motor was attached in the frame to
drive the wheels. The servo motor shell was
40 millimeters long. The servo motor was
attached through the holes with 2
millimeters in diameter and center distance
of 5 millimeters from the servo shell. A 5
millimeter hole was situated at the top of the
frame for the connection with the steering
servo motor.
Figure 9. Sensor Protector
Figure 10 shows the dimensions of the
sensor servo mounting frame. The frame
was 55 millimeters long, 38 millimeters
wide and 12 millimeters high. An area of
40mm x 18mm was cut at the middle for the
mounting of servo motor. The frame was
also cut at one end 7mm x 7mm for the
attachment of the frame to the body of the
rover. Four 2 millimeter holes were drilled
for the attachment of the servo motor to the
frame.
Figure 8. Rotational Servo Mounting
Frame
Figure 9 shows the dimensions of the
sensor protector. The component had a
length of 50 millimeters, width of 60
millimeters and height of 25 millimeters.
Four 2 millimeter holes were drilled at the
top to attach the sensor of the robot. A hole
of 5 millimeters in diameter was located at
the bottom for the mounting of the sensor
protector in a servo motor.

Figure 10. Sensor Servo Mounting

Frame
Figure 11 shows the dimensions of the
circuit protector. The circuit protector was
used to cover the circuitry of the robot. The
protector is 130 millimeters in length, 100

millimeters in width and 45 millimeters in

height.

to the actuators in order to avoid the obstacle

and move the robot to a collision free path.
The operation of the robot was to stop if the
sensor detects an object or obstacle. The
robot will then look left and right to check
which path is free from obstacle. The robot
then moves to the selected path.
3.4 Evaluation

Figure 11. Circuit Protector

Figure 12 shows the dimensions of the
servo spacer. The servo spacer was used to
make a vertical clearance between the
steering servo motor and the rotational servo
motor. The spacer had a diameter of 10
millimeters and a height of 15 millimeters.
The component was hollowed at the center
2.5 millimeters in radius. Two holes of
radius 0.5 millimeters are included for the
attachment of the spacer to the steering
servo motor.

Evaluation was done in order to measure

the performance of the prototype. The
performace was evaluated by the following
parameters:physical appearance, overall
performance,
mobility,
automation
complexity and marketability.
The parameters was evaluated through a
survey on some engineering and technology
students and experts by means of a survey
questionaire. Likert scale was used as the
statistical tool for measurement of the
parameters. The following responses will be
used: very poor, poor, fair, very good,
excellent. Likert scale responses are to be
treated as ordinal data.

4. Results and Findings

4.1 The Developed Rover Mobile Robot
Figure 13 shows the finished prototype
of the study. It involved the interconnection
of all the design components that includes
the differential mechanism, servo motors,
frames, sensors and camera.

Figure 12. Servo Spacer

3.3 Control Algorithm
The sensor was used to detect obstacle.
When an obstacle is detected, the computer
system of the rover will give execution task

Figure 13. The Finished Prototype

Figure 14 shows the Rocker Bogie

mechanism of the prototype. The rocker was
attached to the side of the body with one end
connected to the front wheel steering servo
and the other end connected to the servo
frame.

Figure 14. The Rocker Bogie Mechanism

Figure 15 shows the differential
mechanism of the rover mobile robot inside
the body. The mechanism was consist of
three bevel gears meshed together in order
to produce a counter rotating motion of the
shafts.

(5) Computer Engineering students and five

(5) faculties of related courses. The rover
mobile robot was evaluated according to the
rates indicated below.

Table 1 shows the average mean

responses of the respondents on the
evaluation parameters used in the study. The
mobility has the highest average mean
response of 4.133. Aesthetics has the lowest
average mean response of 3.900 which was
mainly contributed by the harnessing of the
wires in the system. Performance,
Automation Complexity and Marketability
had average means of 3.925, 3.967 and
3.960 respectively.
Table 1. Summary of the Average Mean
Responses of the Evaluation Parameters
Parameters

Figure 15. The Differential Mechanism

4.2 Evaluation
The respondents for the evaluation
are selected students from the ElectroMechanical
Technology,
Computer
Engineering and Faculties of the related
courses. There are fifteen (15) respondents,
five (5) Electro-Mechanical students, five

Aesthetics
Performance
Mobility
Automation

Average
Mean
3.900
3.925
4.133
3.967

Adjectival
Rating
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good

Complexity
Marketabilit

3.960

Very Good

y
Each of the average mean of the
evaluation parameters is within the range of
the 3.5 4.4 which has an adjectival
description of very good. Figure 16 shows
graphical representation of the average mean
responses of the respondents on the
evaluation parameters used in the study.

Figure 16. Graphical representation of mean

responses
5. Conclusions and Recommendations
The robot was perceived to be very good
in all design aspects. Therefore, the robot
was functional and met the desired
objectives of the study based on the
evaluation conducted on the autonomous
rover mobile robot.
The researchers recommended the
following based on the evaluation results of
the study:
a. The harnessing of the wires of the robot
is needed to be improved since it has the
lowest rating in the evaluation.
b. The programming concept is needed to
be improved since the researchers used
basic programming.
c. The materials used in the prototype must
be economical in order to reduce the
total cost in developing the project.