NOMAD: A Demonstration of the Transforming Chassis

During the Summer of 1997 - Nomad - a planetary-relevant mobile robot, was driven via satellite link for more than 125 miles in the Atacama Desert of Chile by novice operators in North America, demonstrating many technologies relevant to robotic exploration of the planets. An innovative "transforming" chassis was demonstrated which uses a simple linkage to change the footprint of the vehicle from a stowed to a deployed position. This linkage also enables both double Ackerman and point-turn steering. This paper presents details on the design of the transforming chassis including kinematic analysis used in low and high level control.