Vishwakarma institute of Technology, Pune.

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

ENGINEERING DESIGN
All Terrain Carriage for Casualties.

G.R. No. Name Roll

11810519 Sankalp Gharmalkar 8

11810637 Hritika Aacharya 22

11811143 Shalaghya Jadhav 26

11810165 Sarvesh Joshi 38

11811140 Soham Joshi 39

I. Introduction:
Many countries are engaged in skirmishes over some or the other issues, and the result is that
many soldiers get seriously injured. Many of these skirmishes take place in mountainous and
rough terrains where reaching quickly is difficult by land (due to the terrain) and by air (due
to the high altitude). The casualties often, which otherwise could have been saved, get
martyred due to the inability in taking them to a medical unit rapidly. For that very purpose
an all-terrain carriage was designed. We have used the rocker-bogie mechanism which is
often used in rovers as the suspension. The design and advantages have been discussed.

II. Objectives:
1. To make an ATV which can carry up to two persons.
2. Velocity should be 40 km/hr.
3. Weight to be restricted to 1500 kg.
4. Making the vehicle remote driven.

III. Literature Review:

The concept of our research work is to design an ATV (based on Rocker Bogie mechanism)
which can carry up to two persons. The rocker-bogie suspension system passively keeps all
six wheels on the robot in contact with the ground even on uneven surfaces. This creates for
great traction and maneuverability (Harrington & Voorhees). The rocker-bogie suspension
mechanism which was currently NASA’s approved design for wheeled mobile robots, mainly
because it had study or resilient capabilities to deal with obstacles and because it uniformly
distributes the payload over its 6 wheels at all times. It also can be used for other purposes to
operate in rough roads and to climb the steps. It was having lots of advantages but one of the
major disadvantages is the rotation of the mechanism when and where is required. The
rotation can be possible by providing individual motors to individual wheels which causes
arise in cost and complicacy in design. In this project we have designed a ATV with rocker
bogie mechanism in SOLIDWORKS software and carried out its structural analysis on
ANSYS software.
IV. Methodology
Problem
Statement
Finalisation

Litreture
Reivew

Generating
Designs

Design
Finalisation

Analysis

V. Design
The design consists of a Cabin, rocker – bogie suspension, Traction and electronics.

1. Cabin.
The cabin is made using the roll cage space frame design for simplicity. A roll cage is a
specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case
it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its
occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, particularly in the event of
a rollover.
Roll cages help to stiffen the chassis, which is desirable in racing applications. Racing
cages are typically either bolt-in or welded-in, with the former being easier and cheaper to
fit while the latter is stronger.
A rollover protection structure is a system or structure intended to protect equipment
operators and motorists from injuries caused by vehicle overturns or rollovers.
Like rollcages and rollbars in cars and trucks, a ROPS involves bars attached to the frame
that maintain a space for the operator's body in the event of rollover.
Commonly found on heavy equipment (i.e. tractors), earth-moving
machinery and UTVs used in construction, agriculture and mining, ROPS structures are
defined by various regulatory agencies
ROPS are commonly fitted to 4x4's, pickup trucks, earth moving equipment, and soil
compactors used in the mining industry. Products such as this were developed out of
necessity so employees travelling around or within mine sites were provided with extra
protection in the event of a fleet vehicle roll over.
In structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (3D truss) is a rigid,
lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in
a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with few interior
supports. Like the truss, a space frame is strong because of the inherent rigidity of the
triangle; flexing loads (bending moments) are transmitted
as tension and compression loads along the length of each strut.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the
members are organized so that the assemblage as a whole behaves as a single object. A
"two-force member" is a structural component where force is applied to only two points.
Although this rigorous definition allows the members to have any shape connected in any
stable configuration, trusses typically comprise five or more triangular units constructed
with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes.
In this typical context, external forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act
only at the nodes and result in forces in the members that are
either tensile or compressive. For straight members, moments (torques) are explicitly
excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as revolute, as is
necessary for the links to be two-force members.

Space frame truss.

 A space frame truss is a three-dimensional framework of members pinned at their ends.
A tetrahedron shape is the simplest space truss, consisting of six members that meet at
four joints. Large planar structures may be composed from tetrahedrons with common
edges, and they are also employed in the base structures of large free-standing power line
pylons.

In hexagonal structure we get optimised volume usages and protection in an event of

crash or roll over
Most of the Morden military vehicle have this type of structure which increases the
strength of the vehicle and the main reason behind the angled side is to deflect the bullet
in a battlefield.
Hexagonal design uses optimised amount of truss giving good strength and best
protection to vehicle. A differential gear system was added to balance the motion on both
the sides of the rocker-bogie system. When one side of the chassis moves in upward
direction due to an obstacle, the other side is pushed down due to which the chassis
maintains its balance.

Differential design:

2. Rocker-Bogie
The "rocker" part of the suspension comes from the rocking aspect of the larger, body-
mounted linkage on each side of the rover. These rockers are connected to each other and
the vehicle chassis through a differential. Relative to the chassis, the rockers will rotate in
opposite directions to maintain approximately equal wheel contact. The chassis maintains
the average pitch angle of both rockers. One end of a rocker is fitted with a drive wheel,
and the other end is pivoted to the bogie.
The "bogie" part of the suspension refers to the smaller linkage that pivots to the rocker in
the middle and which has a drive wheel at each end. Bogies were commonly used as load
wheels in the tracks of army tanks as idlers distributing the load over the terrain and were
also quite commonly used in trailers of semi-trailer trucks. Both tanks and semi-trailers
now prefer trailing arm suspensions
The rocker-bogie design has no springs or stub axles for each wheel, allowing the rover to
climb over obstacles (such as rocks) that are up to twice the wheel's diameter in size
while keeping all six wheels on the ground. As with any suspension system, the tilt
stability is limited by the height of the center of gravity. Systems using springs tend to tip
more easily as the loaded side yields based on the center of mass.
Robots using rocker bogie mechanism make use of a suspension mechanism that consists
of several rigid elements connected through joints of a certain number of degrees of
freedom (DoF) resulting in a structure that has one system DoF. This enables them to
move along uneven terrain without losing contact with the ground.
The suspension has 6 wheels with symmetric structure for both sides. Each side has 3
wheels which are connected to each other with two links. The main linkage called rocker
has 2 joints. while first joint connected to front wheel, another joint assembled to another
linkage called bogie, which is similar to train wagon suspension member. In our design
we have also considered 6 wheels (3 on each wheel) each powered by its own motor.

The angle ABC is 90° and M is the midpoint of AB. This is the basic design constraint
considered in most of the rocker-bogie systems which we have studied.
 Later we studied various research papers for the rocker bogie design. From those papers
we obtained the optimum angles between the respective links. From those angles we
further derived the length of each link depending upon our design parameters

Advantages:
 Load on each wheel is nearly identical.
 Has no axles or springs which helps to maintain equal traction force on all the wheels.
 Can climb over blocks twice the height of the wheel while keeping all 6 wheels on the
ground.
 Each wheel can individually lift almost the entire mass.

3. Traction and Wheel Assembly.

All the wheels have individual motors to drive them thus making the wheels independent.
The vehicle is designed to have 40 kmph top speed. The motor torque calculations are
thus:
 The motor shaft is connected to the wheel through the coupling. A bearing housing is used
to bear the radial load on the shaft. Two radial ball bearings have been placed in the groove
provided inside the bearing housing. A gearbox can further be added between the bearing
and motor to match the torque requirements. The required reduction is about 10:1

4. Electronics
A. Arduino UNO:
Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P (datasheet). It has 14
digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16
MHz ceramic resonator (CSTCE16M0V53-R0), a USB connection, a power jack, an
ICSP header and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the
microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-
to-DC adapter or battery to get started.

Features:
a) Operating Voltage: 5V
b) Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V.
c) Input Voltage (limit): 6-20V
d) Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
e) PWM Digital I/O Pins: 6
f) Analog Input Pins: 6
g) DC Current per I/O Pin: 20 mA
h) DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
i) Flash Memory: 32 KB (ATmega328P) of which 0.5 KB used by bootloader.
j) SRAM: 2 KB (ATmega328P)
k) EEPROM: 1 KB (ATmega328P)
l) Clock Speed: 16 MHz
m) LED_BUILTIN: 13
n) Length: 68.6 mm
o) Width: 53.4 mm
p) Weight: 25 g

B. L293D Motor Driver:

 Features:
a) Can be used to run Two DC motors with the same IC.
b) Speed and Direction control is possible.
c) Motor voltage Vcc2 (Vs): 4.5V to 36V
d) Maximum Peak motor current: 1.2A
e) Maximum Continuous Motor Current: 600mA
f) Supply Voltage to Vcc1(vss): 4.5V to 7V
g) Transition time: 300ns (at 5Vand 24V)
h) Automatic Thermal shutdown is available.
i) Available in 16-pin DIP, TSSOP, SOIC packages

C. DC Motors:

A DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical motors that converts direct current
electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces
produced by magnetic fields. Nearly all types of DC motors have some internal
mechanism, either electromechanical or electronic, to periodically change the direction of
current in part of the motor. It is used to run the vehicle.

D. nRF24L01 RF Transceiver IC:

nRF24L01+ Wireless Module

 nRF24L01+ PA LNA Wireless Transceiver Module with External Antenna
The nRF24L01 is a single chip RF Transceiver IC developed by Nordic Semiconductor. It
operates in the license-free 2.4GHz ISM band (ISM – Industrial, Scientific and Medical)
with support for data rates of 250kbps, 1Mbps and 2Mbps. For data rates of 250kbps and
1Mbps, the channel bandwidth is approximately 1MHz. So, taking the minimum and
maximum operating frequencies of 2400MHz and 2525MHz, you can implement a
maximum of 126 RF Channels if your data rate is limited to 250kbps or 1Mbps. There is a
special feature called MultiCeiver in nRF24L01 IC. This feature enables each RF Channel
with a set of 6 unique addressed data pipes so that each module can communicate with 6
other modules in the same RF Channel. Coming to the implementation of nRF24L01 IC,
all you need is a 16MHz Crystal Oscillator, its supporting circuitry and an antenna. To
design a Wireless Communication system using nRF24L01 Module, all you need is a
Microcontroller, which is interfaced through Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). In 2Mbps
data rate mote, the RF channel bandwidth should be 2MHz or more to ensure non-
overlapping.
Features:
a) Frequency Range: 2.4 GHz ISM Band
b) Maximum Air Data Rate: 2 Mb/s
c) Modulation Format: GFSK
d) Max. Output Power: 0 dBm
e) Operating Supply Voltage: 1.9 V to 3.6 V
f) Max. Operating Current: 13.5mA
g) Min. Current(Standby Mode): 26µA
h) Logic Inputs: 5V Tolerant
i) Communication Range: 800+ m (line of sight)

Pin Configuration:
 GND is the Ground Pin. It is usually marked by encasing the pin in a square so it can be
used as a reference for identifying the other pins.
VCC supplies power for the module. This can be anywhere from 1.9 to 3.9 volts. You can
connect it to 3.3V output from your Arduino. Remember connecting it to 5V pin will
likely destroy your nRF24L01+ module.
CE (Chip Enable) is an active-HIGH pin. When selected the nRF24L01 will either
transmit or receive, depending upon which mode it is currently in.
CSN (Chip Select Not) is an active-LOW pin and is normally kept HIGH. When this pin
goes low, the nRF24L01 begins listening on its SPI port for data and processes it
accordingly.
SCK (Serial Clock) accepts clock pulses provided by the SPI bus Master.
MOSI (Master Out Slave In) is SPI input to the nRF24L01.
MISO (Master In Slave Out) is SPI output from the nRF24L01.
IRQ is an interrupt pin that can alert the master when new data is available to process.
It is used to receive and transmit the data between the microcontrollers.

E. Joystick Module:

Figure 1 Joystick Module

 The Joystick module is similar to analog joysticks found in gamepads. It is made by
mounting two potentiometers at a 90 degrees angle. The potentiometers are connected to a
short stick centered by springs. This module produces an output of around 2.5V from X
and Y when it is in resting position.
Features:
a) Two independent Potentiometer: one for each axis (X and Y)
b) Auto return to center position
c) Low weight
d) Cup-type Knob
e) Compatible to interface with Arduino or with most microcontrollers

Technical Specifications:
Operating Voltage: 5V
Internal Potentiometer value: 10k
2.54mm pin interface leads.
Dimensions: 1.57 in x 1.02 in x 1.26 in (4.0 cm x 2.6 cm x 3.2 cm)
Operating temperature: 0 to 70 °C

Pin Configuration:

Gnd: Ground terminal of Module

+5v: Positive supply terminal of Module
VRx: Voltage Proportional to X axis
VRy: Voltage Proportional to Y axis
SW: Switch
It is used to control the movement of the buggy(in forward, reverse, left and right)
remotely.
F. Camera Module:

This module allows you to capture images in VGA format (640x480). It can perform
some initial processing and transfer the images to microcontrollers, such as the Arduino,
via the SCCB interface. The camera unit allows you to form images in other formats like
CIF (352x240) and others. Manual adjustments up to 40x30 are also possible. The
maximum image transfer rate (VGA) can reach 30 frames per second. The camera also
performs pre-processing of images, such as exposure control, amplification, white
balance, and more. Also supported are various image encoding options (YUV, various
types of RGB). Data transfer is carried out using the SCCB protocol.
Features & Specifications:
a) Optical size 1/6 inch
b) Resolution 640×480 VGA
c) Onboard regulator, only single 3.3V supply needed.
d) Standard 0.1inch (2.54mm) pin pitch header connector
e) Mounted with high quality F1.8 / 6mm lens.
f) Output support for Raw RGB, RGB (GRB 4:2:2, RGB565/555/444), YUV (4:2:2) and
YCbCr (4:2:2) formats
g) High sensitivity for low-light operation
h) Low operating voltage for embedded portable apps
i) Standard SCCB interface compatible with I2C interface
j) Supports image sizes: VGA, CIF, and any size scaling down from CIF to 40×30.
k) Variolite® method for sub-sampling
l) Automatic image control functions including: Automatic Exposure Control (AEC),
Automatic Gain Control (AGC), Automatic White Balance (AWB), Automatic
m) Band Filter (ABF), and Automatic Black-Level Calibration (ABLC)
n) Image quality controls including color saturation, hue, gamma, sharpness (edge
enhancement), and anti-blooming.
o) ISP includes noise reduction and defect correction.
p) Supports LED and flash strobe mode.
q) Supports scaling.
r) Lens shading correction.
s) Flicker (50/60 Hz) auto detection
 t) Saturation level auto adjust (UV adjust)
u) Edge enhancement level auto adjust.

Pin configuration:

VCC: 3.3v Power supply

GND: Power ground
SCL: Two-Wire Serial Interface Clock
SDATA: Two-Wire Serial Interface Data I/O
VSYNC: Active High: Frame Valid; indicates active frame
HREF: Active High: Line/Data Valid; indicates active pixels
PCLK: Pixel Clock output from sensor
XCLK: Master Clock into Sensor
DOUT9: Pixel Data Output 9 (MSB)
DOUT8: Pixel Data Output 8
DOUT7: Pixel Data Output 7
DOUT6: Pixel Data Output 6
DOUT5: Pixel Data Output 5
DOUT4: Pixel Data Output 4
DOUT3: Pixel Data Output 3
DOUT2: Pixel Data Output 2 (LSB)
It is used to check the surroundings for further movement of the buggy which can be seen
with the help of LCD display.

G. Ultrasonic sensor:
An ultrasonic sensor is an electronic device that measures the distance of a target object
by emitting ultrasonic sound waves and converts the reflected sound into an electrical
signal. Ultrasonic waves travel faster than the speed of audible sound (i.e. the sound that
humans can hear). Ultrasonic sensors have two main components: the transmitter (which
emits the sound using piezoelectric crystals) and the receiver (which encounters the sound
after it has travelled to and from the target). In order to calculate the distance between the
sensor and the object, the sensor measures the time it takes between the emission of the
sound by the transmitter to its contact with the receiver. The formula for this calculation is
D = ½ T x C (where D is the distance, T is the time, and C is the speed of sound ~ 343
meters/second).
Features:
a) Operating voltage: +5V
b) Theoretical Measuring Distance: 2cm to 450cm
c) Practical Measuring Distance: 2cm to 80cm
d) Accuracy: 3mm
e) Measuring angle covered: <15°
f) Operating Current: <15mA
g) Operating Frequency: 40Hz

Pin configuration:

Vcc: The Vcc pin powers the sensor, typically with +5V
Trigger: Trigger pin is an Input pin. This pin has to be kept high for 10us to initialize
measurement by sending US wave.
 Echo: Echo pin is an Output pin. This pin goes high for a period of time which will be
equal to the time taken for the US wave to return back to the sensor.
Ground: This pin is connected to the Ground of the system.
This sensor is used to check if there is any object nearby and if there is one then it will
warn us then we can change the course is the buggy accordingly.

H. GPS Module:

Global Positioning System (GPS) makes use of signals sent by satellites in space and
ground stations on Earth to accurately determine its position on Earth. The NEO-6M GPS
receiver module uses USART communication to communicate with microcontroller or PC
terminal. It receives information like latitude, longitude, altitude, UTC time, etc. from the
satellites in the form of NMEA string. This string needs to be parsed to extract the
information that we want to use.

Specifications:
a) Receiver Type: 50 channels, GPS L1(1575.42Mhz)
b) Horizontal Position Accuracy: 2.5m
c) Navigation Update Rate: 1HZ (5Hz maximum)
d) Capture Time: Cool start: 27sHot start: 1s
e) Navigation Sensitivity: -161dBm
f) Communication Protocol: NMEA, UBX Binary, RTCM
g) Serial Baud Rate: 4800-230400 (default 9600)
h) Operating Temperature : -40°C to 85°C
i) Operating Voltage: 2.7V to 3.6V
j) Operating Current: 45mA
k) TXD/RXD Impedance: 510Ω

Pin Configuration:
 GND: is the Ground Pin and needs to be connected to GND pin on the Arduino.
TxD: (Transmitter) pin is used for serial communication.
RxD: (Receiver) pin is used for serial communication.
Vcc: supply of module.
It is used to track the buggy through the GPS.

VI. Results and Discussion

A. It was found that the carriage will have the following advantages.
 Very high ground clearance:
The vehicle can climb over and obstacle twice it’s wheel diameter. Suspensions are
what matter when you are off the road. The huge clearance in the mechanism is the
most advantageous for our purpose. India’s borders are surrounded with hilly rocky
regions. Our design will help the carriage to travel into the rocky regions of the
Himalayas and the highlands.

 No Axel or Springs:
Suspensions are what matter when you are off the road. Eliminating the axel
eliminates breakdowns. Manufacturing an axel to withstand heavy weight as well as
have a greater factor of safety because of its off-road utility is difficult. Springs do
give a comfortable passage through the bumpy roads but they increase the pitch of
the vehicle. And increase in pitch is not desirable. The absence of spring also helps
traction of the wheels.

 Traction:
Having six wheels improves the traction of the vehicle. The mechanism also allows
the weight to be distributed between the six wheels equally. While climbing over an
obstacle all the six wheels are grounded and provide traction, thus obstacles twice the
size of the wheel and be overcome seamlessly.

 Versatility:
Our designed vehicle can climb obstacles twice the size of the wheels and have very
high traction to pass through loose gravel patches. The vehicle also has very high
clearance which helps it to pass through sufficient depth rivers.
  Safer than stretchers:
The injured are carried on stretchers which poses two main disadvantages, firstly it is
quite time consuming and secondly it poses a threat to life of the injured as well as
the one carrying them. Our design aims to tackle both these problems.

 Reduced manpower:
At least two people are required to carry one person on the stretcher. Our design
incorporates carrying two people at the same time with no actual manpower. Initially
only 1 person at the base can operate this vehicle reducing risk to humans. With
further development the vehicle can be fully automated completely eliminating the
need of any manpower. Reducing manpower helps reduce the human risk factor
which is one of the major concerns of this industry.

 Low Centre of mass:

The six wheels contribute to the lower centre of mass. The chassis is mounted on the
rocker. And the chassis has the maximum pitching angle of average of the pitching
angle of the two rockers. Thus, the chassis has lower centre of mass. The High-Speed
transversal configuration increases the stability polygon of the vehicle and the
enlarged area lowers the centre of gravity.

 Lower Pitch, Yaw and Roll:

The rotation about the front to back axis (roll) is reduced in the high-speed
transversal configuration. The rotation about the side-to-side axis (Pitch) is lesser as
discussed in the Low Centre of mass point (4th point). The rotation about the vertical
axis (Yaw) is negligible as the resistance provided by the tyres towards the
perpendicular direction is very high.

B. Ansys Analysis
Ansys analysis has been done for the rocker part and the wheel assembly coupling.

Maximum deformation = 1.5 mm

Maximum stress = 160 MPa
VII. Conclusion:
A carriage was designed using rocker-bogie mechanism. This can be used as an All-terrain
vehicle and be used for bringing in casualties or stranded people from areas that are not easily
accessible. The study of remote control communication for remote controlled unmanned
vehicle has been done. Along with this wheel RPM control by the use of motor controller has
been studied.

VIII. Future Scope

As for the future work, we plan to extend our research to a field experimentations stage,
manufacturing and testing a prototype of the model and compare the obtained simulation
results with practical observations of the proposed system’s behaviour. We also need to find
the cost effectiveness of the design to ensure its mass production. Furthermore it can be made
into a complete autonomous system which will require minimum human interference.

IX. References
[1] Chinchkar, Dhananjay & Gajghate, Sameer & Panchal, Rajesh & Shetenawar, Rushikesh
& Mulik, Pramod. (2017). Design of Rocker Bogie Mechanism. International Advanced
Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology. volume 4. 46-50.
10.17148/IARJSET/NCDMETE.2017.13.
[2] Kim, D., Hong, H., Kim, H. S., & Kim, J. (2012). Optimal design and kinetic analysis of a
stair-climbing mobile robot with rocker-bogie mechanism. Mechanism and machine theory,
50, 90-108.
[3] Wang, S., & Li, Y. (2016). Dynamic rocker-bogie: kinematical analysis in a high-speed
traversal stability enhancement. International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2016.
[4] www.mars.nasa.gov
[5] B. Chen, R. Wang, Y. Jia, L. Guo, and L. Yang, “Design of a high performance
suspension for lunar rover based on evolution,” Acta Astronautica, vol. 64, no. 9-10, pp. 925–
934, 2009.