Sometimes you get an idea...

[newthings]

I would like to pose a hypothetical to the group consciousness in the hope of tapping into experience far greater than my own.

Sometimes you get an idea based on a bunch of tech from different areas.
Think – Baja off road, Hopping Chevys, and Autonomous robotic vehicles ……..
This is such an idea and I wonder if anyone has seen it done and how well it worked.

If a vehicle with long suspension travel used a two axis level sensor to direct the extension and compression of a hydraulic cylinder at each wheel (Shock) independently, could the vehicle body be held as near to level as possible at various tilt angles?
Could you rock crawl and maneuver up, down, and over things, to a greater degree than just using just passive long travel suspension?
The system would only have to work as quickly as the tipping rate of a change of slope. This system, or a secondary system, would cope with the normal jounce and rebound functions of the suspension.

I ask the following questions:
Could it be done?
Do you think it would give a control and climbing advantage?
Could the system decide how to keep the center of gravity below the tipping point dynamically?
I am thinking about lowering the uphill side and raising the downhill side of the vehicle.
Would it make for a more comfortable ride?

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Roy

[Joe_Black]

There have been a number of multi-ped robot designs that have used this principle to traverse difficult terrain, and various militaries has examined both wheeled and tracked weapons platforms that use active suspension systems to aim a fixed weapon while on the move.

So the idea is sound and has been demonstrated, although not perhaps for the exact application you're thinking of. As for your questions, I believe all are feasible (if enough $$$ available, of course!) with the exception of a more comfortable ride. My experience with suspension systems in rally and baja indicate comfort usually isn't compatible with performance.

[Techy-D]

This may be a bit out there, but large Combines use a similar system. You may be able to get some help from what they learned? I belive it's only to keep the cab level (gotta keep those guys comfey), but it's the principal.

[ZEUS]

A helicopter gyro could sense the angle of the vehicle on any terrain and if hooked to an independent valving setup could compress or extend hydraulic cylinders to compensate; keeping things level. There are some fancy rock buggies that use air bags or hydraulics to more or less accomplish this idea. The ones I have seen are manually controlled though versus computer or gyro. It would be very expensive and involved to accomplish since you would be piecing everything together based on hunches. A forced articulation suspension designed to overcome antisquat, body roll, diving, and other negative things would be more practical.

[colmhd]

But would you be able to see where you are going?
Down hill slope ,level cab, blue skies? where's the ground at?

[Triathlete]

I believe there is a guy on the Pirate 4X site that built a jeep that uses a series of computers,driver input and gyro's to affect the levelness of the vehicle under various terrain conditions.

By the way, how is the roboVX? Haven't seen any updates lately.