How to Design a High-Performance Track Chassis for Robotics

Taking track chassis as an example, an outstanding design must follow three key principles: terrain adaptability, stability in motion, and flexibility for future expansion. These elements are interrelated and together define the chassis' overall performance.

Hiwonder track chassis with integrated suspension systems have earned widespread recognition from students, engineers, and robotics enthusiasts due to their exceptional performance. Let’s take a closer look at Hiwonder’s Raptor tracked chassis, analyzing the key design aspects from both an academic and engineering perspective.

When the chassis faces conditions like wheels lifting off the ground or uneven ground pressure, it can lose traction and stability. The innovation of the Raptor lies in its High-elasticity Tension Spring Suspension System. At the core of this system is a tension spring-rocker arm mechanism made from high-elasticity carbon steel. When a weighted wheel encounters an obstacle and is raised, the arm forces the tension spring to undergo elastic deformation. This process brings three key benefits:

Passive Self-adaptation: The system operates without the need for sensors or controllers, allowing all loaded wheels to passively maintain contact with the ground as much as possible, increasing the contact area and enhancing stability.

Energy Storage and Release: The tension spring absorbs shock energy when compressed and releases it smoothly during rebound. This effectively absorbs and buffers impacts from the ground, protecting the sensitive sensors mounted above, such as Lidar, depth camera, and the Raspberry Pi 5 controller.

Maintain Traction: On uneven surfaces, ensuring that multiple wheels stay in contact with the ground at all times allows power to be consistently transmitted, preventing slippage and power loss from wheels lifting off the ground.

This design allows the Raptor chassis to shift from a rigid structure to a flexible system that can “sense” and “adapt” to different terrains, significantly improving its ability to tackle rough roads.

The Raptor features a classic differential drive system. Each side of the tracks is independently powered by high-precision encoder motors, creating a closed-loop control system. The controller continuously monitors the exact speed and angle of the motors, allowing for compensation in case of anomalies such as slippage. By adjusting the speed difference between the left and right tracks, Raptor enables forward and backward movement, as well as turns with any radius.

To prevent slippage, the Raptor uses anti-slip nylon tracks, with a tread design that effectively “grips” the ground, providing enhanced traction. The engagement between the chassis' active wheels and the tracks ensures efficient power transfer and prevents derailment. The bearing-based load wheels significantly reduce running resistance, ensuring smooth and stable power transmission to the ground.

An excellent chassis is not just a mobile platform but also a base for sensors and intelligence. The Raptor’s design fully takes this into account.

It can support expansion accessories such as Lidar, depth camera, and robotic arm. Its stability and shock-resistance act as a stable foundation for data collection, ensuring high-quality input for Lidar and depth camera—critical for precise mapping and dynamic obstacle avoidance. The accurate odometry data from the precise encoders and durable chassis minimizes cumulative errors in SLAM mapping and navigation, ensuring consistent and reliable positioning.

Thanks to its well-balanced performance in stability, precision, and adaptability, the Raptor is widely used in Hiwonder’s robots, including the MentorPi-T1 track robot and LanderPi robot. These Hiwonder robots provide a dependable and powerful mobile base for ROS2 learning, AI application development, and advanced embodied intelligence research, supporting you to explore, experiment, and innovate with confidence.

In conclusion, designing a tracked chassis is a complex systems engineering task—it goes far beyond simply assembling parts. The chassis requires precise differential control, anti-slip and high-rigidity transmission components, and a suspension system capable of handling challenging terrain. Deep integration with sensors and intelligent algorithms is also required to fully unlock its potential, delivering a powerful and versatile mobile platform.