Wheeled chassis or tracked chassis?

As the core hardware platform of mobile robots, the technological progress and application popularization of robot chassis are changing the production mode, service mode and lifestyle of human society. From industrial manufacturing to life service, from dangerous operation to family scene, the intelligent development of robot chassis improves the efficiency of social operation and becomes the key force to promote the evolution of intelligent era.

Different environments have a decisive influence on the choice of robot chassis. For example, wheeled chassis are suitable for flat and hard surfaces, such as city roads, factory floors, shopping malls, office buildings, airport runways, and other flat and regular paved surfaces; Tracked chassis are suitable for soft/complex terrains such as swamps, wetlands, deserts, snow, mountains, ruins, craters, and other unstructured or loose surfaces; Specialty chassis are customized for extreme environments such as hot lava, deep sea, radiation zones, alien surfaces, and other unconventional conditions. Here we describe and compare only two types of chassis so that you can choose the one that best meets your needs.

Wheeled wire chassis and tracked wire chassis are two vehicle platforms based on different mobility principles, with the core difference being the mode of travel and the corresponding performance characteristics.

Wheeled Drive-by-wire Chassis

Wheeled drive-by-wire chassis use tires as the main ground-contacting parts to achieve vehicle movement through tire rotation, and their drive-by-wire systems (e.g., drive-by-wire steering, drive-by-wire) use electronic signals to replace the traditional mechanical connection to achieve more precise control.

This type of chassis usually has the advantages of high-speed driving ability (up to 100km/h or more), strong maneuverability, low energy consumption, easy maintenance, etc., and is suitable for leveling hard surfaces (e.g., highways, city roads).

For example, logistics robots mostly use wheeled wire-controlled chassis to balance efficiency and cost. However, its passability in soft ground (e.g., sand, snow) or complex terrain (e.g., gravel, gullies) is weak and prone to skidding or bottoming out.

Wheeled chassis, with its high efficiency, low energy consumption and high-speed mobility, is mainly suitable for flat, hard and regular terrain, including the following scenarios:

1. Urban roads and indoor environments: highways, sidewalks, shopping malls, office buildings, factory workshops, airport terminals and other paved surfaces.

2. Medium and low load transportation tasks: light goods distribution, express terminal delivery, household cleaning and other low load demand scenarios.

3. Dynamic unstructured environment: crowded areas (such as subway stations, exhibition halls) or places with drastic changes in light.

Tracked In-Line Chassis

The tracked in-line chassis contacts the ground through continuous tracks, utilizes the pattern on the track surface to disperse the weight of the vehicle (the unit pressure can be reduced to less than 1/5 of the wheeled type), and its in-line control system needs to coordinate the differential steering of the tracks and the multi-wheel linkage.

The most important feature of this type of chassis is the excellent cross-country performance, which can adapt to extreme environments such as swamps, mountains, ruins, etc., and has a strong ability to climb slopes (more than 60%) and cross obstacles (obstacles more than half the height of the vehicle).

For example, polar research robots often use tracked wire chassis. However, due to the structural characteristics, its speed is usually lower than 40km/h, and it has the disadvantages of high energy consumption, high steering resistance, and high system complexity. In addition, the track wears out quickly, has high maintenance cost, and has poor adaptability to paved roads.

With ultra-low ground ratio pressure, strong traction and excellent obstacle-crossing ability, the tracked chassis is designed for complex, loose or extreme terrain and is suitable for the following scenarios:

1. Loose ground environment: swamps, deserts, snow, muddy farmland, volcanic ash zones.

2. Difficult off-road terrain: mountains, ruins, forest bushes, gullies, gravel slopes.

3. Extreme working condition scenarios: warm lava area, deep sea, radiation contaminated area, alien surface.

4. High-load transportation needs: heavy military equipment transportation, large engineering equipment handling.

Attachment: Multi-dimensional comparison table