Jump to content

share your fast rover


Recommended Posts

anyone who's driven a rover knows that in low gravity worlds, stability is a big issue. and the faster you go, the more stability problems you have. and if you go any faster than 6-7 m/s, you risk exploding.

I had devised a method to couteract this, by covering my rover in landing struts. those can tolerate strong hits, and allow my rover to bounce harmlessly when it capsizes. with this, i can go over 30 m/s safely.

and i thought i had a brilliant idea. but then i saw other people referring to their rovers going at those speed safely, so i realized that either i'm not the only one who had that idea, or there are many other equally brilliant tricks to keep your rover safe at high speed.

With this thread, i would like to see what everyone else did. share your projects for rovers that can go fast, safely, on low gravity environment.

the only requirement is that you actually tested it and it actually works well enough

here is mine

CThx7Eu.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sir rocket said:

does my eve rover count? it could go 25-30 meters per second downhill and 10-20 meters per second uphill

how fast does it go on flat ground? 20 m/s on flat ground is enough, considering that if you try that on mun without special precautions you won't last more than a few minutes

1 hour ago, Pds314 said:

Friction control is a pretty useful option here. You can make your rover slide instead of rolling in a hard turn.

what if your rover jumps around on ground irregolarities? I rarely crash because of trying to turn (i learned that particular lesson well enough). it mostly happens as I take an asymmetric bump, I jump and one wheel land in front of the others. or it sets my rover spinning more than SAS can compensate for.

 

thinking on it, I guess a lighter rover may be easier to control with sas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

how fast does it go on flat ground? 20 m/s on flat ground is enough, considering that if you try that on mun without special precautions you won't last more than a few minutes

what if your rover jumps around on ground irregolarities? I rarely crash because of trying to turn (i learned that particular lesson well enough). it mostly happens as I take an asymmetric bump, I jump and one wheel land in front of the others. or it sets my rover spinning more than SAS can compensate for.

 

thinking on it, I guess a lighter rover may be easier to control with sas

It depends. But low friction control settings will definitely help, as the wheel won't grab the terrain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, TheFlyingKerman said:

 I routinely drive 50m/s+ for hundreds of km :)

screenshot0254fbb62bb364c71.png

https://kerbalx.com/TheFlyingKerman/Sparo-3B

 

so... if i am retroengineering this right, you rely on 2 factors to keep you whole:

- the rover is very light and has strong sas, it stays upright with it

- the rover is small and the wheels are big, so that if it tumbles, it hits the ground with the wheels, which are very resistant

am i right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The rover I used to drive to the North Pole is untested on low gravity worlds, but would probably work pretty well.

It relies on a wide wheelbase and low centre of gravity to remain upright, and has a lot of mass due to carrying a lot of fuel and running on fuel cells.

If somehow it does manage to flip, it's a lost cause, but on Kerbin at least, on anything that's not really rough, I can let it run forward at full speed without paying too much attention to it as it's incredibly stable. The slightly offset height on the front and back wheels helps it negotiate slopes and deal with landing after small jumps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

so... if i am retroengineering this right, you rely on 2 factors to keep you whole:

- the rover is very light and has strong sas, it stays upright with it

- the rover is small and the wheels are big, so that if it tumbles, it hits the ground with the wheels, which are very resistant

am i right?

Yes. The rover can actually right itself if it rolls over, and some devils in the details with wheel settings to better absorb impact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine can do 20+m/s on the flat:

KSP%20module%20delivery%203.png

but its far more than "just" a rover. It was delivered using the big fuel tank in the middle and a small jet engine underneath.....and they still work, so it can fly too. Very handy if it tumbles or bounces into the air (just hit the throttle when its pointing up) or if one of its jobs is a little too far away, or the terrain too awkward to drive to. Does slopes well too, about 30-35 deg I'm happy with, maybe more if I'm brave. And it has a docking port on the back, it can move around and tow modules:

KSP%20module%20delivery%204.png

Other features include 8x solar panels. It only needs 1 or 2 to keep up with normal driving, so I only put 1 or 2 up at a time. I've broken 3 but still 5 left. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Kerbal Dakar 2020 rover could hit a top speed of about 65 m/s, without losing too much speed on slopes. However, it uses KF wheels, which have some weird bugs making them hard to use off-planet. They break at odd times and don't seem to be fixable by engineers, unlike stock wheels.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, sturmhauke said:

My Kerbal Dakar 2020 rover could hit a top speed of about 65 m/s, without losing too much speed on slopes. However, it uses KF wheels, which have some weird bugs making them hard to use off-planet. They break at odd times and don't seem to be fixable by engineers, unlike stock wheels.

 

KF? is it a mod?

also, how do you keep it stable? is it just low baricenter and some driving skill, or are there additional tricks?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

KF? is it a mod?

also, how do you keep it stable? is it just low baricenter and some driving skill, or are there additional tricks?

KF is Kerbal Foundries.  It has some cool parts but also some weird quirks. As for driving the rover, those wheels have heavy duty suspension with a lot of tuning options, plus there are reaction wheels in the chassis so that I can orient the wheelbase with the landing zone after a big jump. I also worked on a version using stock + BG robotics, which after a lot of fiddling produced similar handling results but didn't have the speed I wanted. I ended up reusing some of those suspension ideas for this Munar cargo hauler and construction vehicle:

aXfOw8J.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...