All-Terrain Vehicle With Self-Righting and Pose Control

A small prototype robotic all-terrain vehicle features a unique drive and suspension system that affords capabilities for self righting, pose control, and enhanced maneuverability for passing over obstacles. The vehicle is designed for exploration of planets and asteroids, and could just as well be used on Earth to carry scientific instruments to remote, hostile, or otherwise inaccessible locations on the ground. The drive and suspension system enable the vehicle to perform such diverse maneuvers as flipping itself over, traveling normal side up or upside down, orienting the main vehicle body in a specified direction in all three dimensions, or setting the main vehicle body down onto the ground, to name a few. Another maneuver enables the vehicle to overcome a common weakness of traditional all-terrain vehicles — a limitation on traction and drive force that makes it difficult or impossible to push wheels over some obstacles: This vehicle can simply lift a wheel onto the top of an obstacle.