Hello, I am trying to find references whether Ardurover supports Ackermann Steering or not. I am trying to build a rocker-bogie rover with 6 wheels and four corner wheel have servo for steering. From my research PX4 supports it but can’t find any references in docs for ardurover.
For more info I am trying to build rover like this. This was asked years ago and no definitive answer so are there any developments for similar setups? Would love to know more if this setup is possible with ardurover.
Ackermann steering is the default configuration for rovers.
Drive wheels would simply operate as throttle out.
Steering servos get assigned the steering function, reversed as necessary to achieve the correct direction.
You will not be able to “crabwalk” if you have 4 corner steering (without scripting or firmware mods). But you will be able to turn tightly if all servo functions are assigned and configured correctly.
Ardurover supports a throttle and groundsteering setup, where the mechanical steering geometry of the rover/RC car does the ackerman steering. Ardurover will not calculate the steering angles for wheels with independent steering. You could use a LUA script to do this for your rocker boogie rover.
It’s a good point that the steering output function is just a singular output value and not a set of calculated steering angles for inner and outer wheel turn radius.
The general expectation is that the steering servo will act on Ackermann-type linkage.
So if you want precise steering angles on a vehicle with 4 corner/4 servo steering, you’ll have to do a little math and scripting, as Count says.
My simplistic first response above is a bit inefficient and could result in wheel scrubbing, especially as steering angle increases.