958results about "Amphibious vehicles" patented technology

The invention relates to an amphibious vehicle and a running and steering system thereof. The running and steering system of the amphibious vehicle comprises wheels, a suspension swing arm connected to a vehicle frame, a steering gear and a driver. The wheel comprises a rim and a spoke assembly. The spoke assembly comprises a center connecting piece arranged in the rim in a sleeved mode and blades connected between the center connecting piece and the rim. The steering gear is connected to the center connecting piece through the suspension swing arm and used for controlling the turning angle of the wheels. The driver is connected to the center connecting piece through the half shaft and used for controlling rotation of the wheels, and the blades can push the amphibious vehicle to run and steer by controlling the rotation direction and the rotation angle of the wheels. According to the driving and steering system of the amphibious vehicle, a power source and a transmission structure do not need to be additionally arranged, the structure is simple, light weight of the whole vehicle is facilitated, and cost is lower; and the wheels are directly connected with a power system of the vehicle, so that larger torque and thrust can be provided, and the vehicle can run faster in water.

The invention discloses a decoupling control method for motion coupling between a track and a propeller, relates to the technical field of robot control, and realizes accurate and intelligent regulation and control of motion of a sea-land amphibious robot by constructing a complete closed-loop strategy from sensing, recognition, prediction to control. And the motion stability of the robot in a complex mixed environment is obviously improved. According to the method, the undesirable coupling effect between the crawler belt and the propeller can be anticipated and quantified in a prospective mode, suppression is conducted actively through self-adaptive control, impact, vibration and attitude instability caused by power conflicts in land and water transition or rugged terrain are effectively avoided, and stability and safety of a robot platform and loads of the robot platform are guaranteed. The energy utilization efficiency of the robot is greatly improved. And it is ensured that the two power systems work in the optimal cooperative state at any moment, and invalid energy internal consumption and redundant output are avoided.

The invention relates to an amphibious vehicle body stability control method, system, equipment and medium, and belongs to the technical field of vehicle control, the amphibious vehicle body stability control method comprises the following steps: after a vehicle enters water, heeling angle data is acquired in real time; and when the heeling angle data exceeds a set threshold value and the maintaining time exceeds a preset duration, the volumes of air bags arranged on the two sides of the vehicle are adjusted in real time so that buoyancy distribution can be adjusted, and the purpose of stably controlling the vehicle body is achieved. According to the overwater vehicle body stability control method and system based on multi-sensor fusion and dynamic adjustment disclosed by the invention, the problems of turning, heeling and wave interference when the vehicle sails on the water surface are solved. The stability of amphibious vehicle sailing on water is greatly optimized, and the amphibious vehicle is suitable for development of intelligent amphibious vehicles in the future.

The invention relates to a composite deformation wheel type amphibious robot with wheel leg paddle functions. Comprising a sealed cabin, wheel-leg-paddle composite deformation wheels, a transmission structure, a settlement control structure, a visual module and a driving motor, the sealed cabin serves as a robot body support, and the four wheel-leg-paddle composite deformation wheels are symmetrically installed at the four corners of the bottom of the sealed cabin; the two transmission structures are symmetrically arranged on the two sides in the sealed cabin and are connected with the four wheel-leg-paddle composite deformation wheels through through holes in the two sides of the sealed cabin; two driving motors arranged in the sealed cabin drive two groups of wheel-leg-paddle composite deformation wheels on the same side to rotate through two groups of matched transmission structures, and each group of wheel-leg-paddle composite deformation wheels has a wheel type form, a leg type form and a paddle type form which can be switched; when entering a water area, the suspension depth is automatically adjusted through the settlement control structure. The amphibious robot realizes land rolling, obstacle crossing and underwater propelling movement, and is suitable for stable operation in a complex amphibious environment.

The invention relates to a pedal assembly and a vehicle. The pedal assembly comprises a pedal support used for being connected with a chassis of the vehicle; the pedal outer edge is connected with the pedal bracket; the movable pedal is movably mounted on the outer edge of the pedal; the adjusting mechanism is connected with the pedal outer edge and the movable pedal and used for driving the movable pedal to move or rotate relative to the pedal outer edge so as to adjust the posture of the movable pedal. According to the pedal assembly, the adjusting mechanism can drive the movable pedal to move or rotate relative to the outer edge of the pedal so as to adjust the posture of the movable pedal, so that the pedal assembly has the pedal function for people to get on and off a vehicle, and the driving posture of the vehicle can be adjusted by adjusting the posture of the movable pedal; a special posture adjusting device does not need to be additionally and independently arranged, so that the occupied vehicle installation space is effectively reduced, integration of the pedal function and the posture adjusting function is achieved, and the practicability and adaptability of the vehicle in the complex driving environment are improved.

The invention relates to the technical field of ship monitoring and alarming, in particular to a wireless monitoring and alarming system and method applied to an amphibious ship. The method comprises the following steps: building a ship state monitoring alarm device on an amphibious ship; performing hull state monitoring on the amphibious ship through a ship state monitoring alarm device to obtain a real-time hull inclination angle value; performing motion dip angle compensation on the real-time ship body dip angle value to generate a compensation dip angle estimation value; carrying out ship alarm threshold fuzzy reasoning on the compensation inclination angle estimation value, and carrying out scene dynamic adjustment to obtain a dynamic alarm threshold; and performing intelligent alarm judgment on the compensation inclination angle estimation value by using the dynamic alarm threshold value, and generating a final ship alarm signal. According to the invention, the inclination angle change of the ship under different environmental conditions can be accurately identified, and accurate monitoring, intelligent analysis and timely early warning of the inclination angle state of the ship are realized.

A convertible ducted fan engine and mounting system. The convertible ducted fan engine has a shroud encircling a mechanical fan. The convertible ducted fan engine includes a fluid-propulsion configuration in which the mechanical fan rotates freely with respect to the shroud to produce thrust through fluid flow, and a drive-wheel configuration in which the shroud rotates about the rotational axis.

The invention discloses a water-land-air multi-domain cooperative unmanned operation system for solving the problem of large-range water-land-air multi-domain environment cooperative search and detection, and the operation system comprises an amphibious unmanned platform, a plurality of water-air amphibious flight platforms, and a ground station control platform. The amphibious unmanned platform is used for completing underwater search and detection tasks through movement in an underwater environment; the water-air amphibious flying platform is used for completing searching and detecting tasks of air and water surface environments, providing positioning and communication services for the underwater amphibious unmanned platform through an underwater acoustic communication mode, and assisting the amphibious unmanned platform to work in the underwater environment; the ground station control platform communicates with the amphibious unmanned platform and the water-air amphibious flying platform and is used for obtaining information of the amphibious unmanned platform and the water-air amphibious flying platform. The operation system can complete underwater, water surface and land search and detection tasks and the like in complex cross-domain environments such as coast, lake and river.

The invention relates to the technical field of robots, and discloses a robot leg walking mechanism and a quadruped robot, the robot leg walking mechanism comprises a plurality of big arms, one side of each big arm is connected with a floating assembly, the floating assembly comprises a connecting box and an air bag, the connecting box is fixedly connected with one side of the big arm, and a placing groove is formed in the side, away from the big arm, of the connecting box; an air bag is fixedly connected into the containing groove, one side of the big arm is sequentially connected with an inflation assembly, a deflation assembly and an air injection assembly from top to bottom, and one side of the connecting box is connected with a closing assembly. According to the robot leg walking mechanism and the quadruped robot, by means of the floating assembly, the quadruped robot can keep floating in a deep water area, so that a robot body is prevented from being completely immersed in water, the risk that a camera lens is stained with water is reduced, and the quality and accuracy of real-time image transmission are ensured; therefore, a clear visual field and stable walking capability are provided for the quadruped robot, visual misjudgment or distortion can be reduced, and the accuracy and efficiency of inspection tasks are improved.

The invention is an unmanned ground vehicle, comprising a frame section (1) with a deck (2) and a bottom section (3), and a mobility arrangement (4) with an engine (12) in order to propel the vehicle, and which ground vehicle is equipped to be operated via remote controls. The ground vehicle comprises a waterjet assembly for propulsion in water.

The invention belongs to the technical field of mobile robots, and particularly relates to an amphibious hexapod robot which comprises a robot body, six walking feet, a protection box, propellers, a multi-sensor system and a central control unit. The six walking feet are arranged on the two sides of the robot body, and a waterproof driving joint is arranged at the tail end of each foot. The protection box is arranged at the root of the walking foot and internally integrated with propellers; the sensor system comprises a water depth sensor, an attitude sensor and a grounding detection module; the central control unit is used for collecting sensor data in real time, judging whether the current environment is a land or a water area, automatically switching a walking mode or a water propulsion mode, and meanwhile adaptively adjusting gaits and the rotating speed of propellers according to the water depth and the terrain. The robot has environment perception, mode decision, gait generation, grounding prevention protection and energy optimization strategies, full-autonomous and high-adaptability movement in the land and water environment is achieved, and the working capacity and safety of the robot in the complex environment are improved.

The utility model provides an on-water driving device of an amphibious vehicle, which comprises a connecting assembly, a hydraulic telescopic rod, a plate body and two groups of driving assemblies, and is characterized in that the connecting assembly is connected with a vehicle body of the amphibious vehicle; one end of the hydraulic telescopic rod is pivotally connected with the connecting assembly, and the other end of the hydraulic telescopic rod is pivotally connected with the plate body; the plate body is obliquely arranged, the plate body is attached to a vehicle body of the amphibious vehicle, two lining plates are symmetrically arranged on the plate body, and the lining plates are rotationally connected with the vehicle body of the amphibious vehicle; the two driving assemblies are symmetrically arranged on the two sides of the plate body. According to the overwater driving device of the amphibious vehicle, under the action of the hydraulic telescopic rod, the plate body can be attached to the tail of the vehicle body, and therefore the trafficability and the attractiveness of the amphibious vehicle are improved.

The invention belongs to the technical field of movable type water pumping, and particularly relates to a movable type construction site water pumping device which comprises floating frames, shoe-shaped frames, pump carrying tables, amphibious moving mechanisms, a depth measuring type floating mechanism, a guiding type turbulence preventing mechanism and a water supply mechanism, the floating frames are arranged on the two sides of the shoe-shaped frames, and the pump carrying tables are arranged between the shoe-shaped frames; the amphibious moving mechanisms are arranged at the two ends of the shoe-shaped frame. According to the movable construction site water pumping device, the pump station can be transported to the center of a foundation pit area through the buoyancy moving structure, the placement position of a drainage pipeline is prevented from being changed for multiple times, and then accumulated water in a foundation pit can be continuously pumped by the pump station.

The invention discloses a folding crawler chassis of an amphibious pipeline robot, and relates to the technical field of pipeline machines. The device comprises a chassis assembly; the chassis assembly comprises a shell, four rotating plates connected through torque springs are hinged to the outer bottom of the shell, propellers are installed at the ends of the rotating plates, vertical plates are fixedly connected to the outer walls of the propellers, and first electromagnets are fixedly connected to the tops of the vertical plates; track assemblies are symmetrically and rotationally connected to the opposite side faces of the shell, each track assembly comprises a waterproof box, and a triangular block is fixedly connected to the outer top of each waterproof box. By using the device, the device can rapidly adapt to advancing on land and on a waterway in a pipeline, upward swinging of the crawler belt assemblies and unfolding of the propellers are synchronously achieved, the using convenience and the amphibious rapid switching efficiency are effectively improved, and then the working efficiency is improved.

The utility model belongs to the technical field of robots, and relates to a cluster operation robot which comprises a parent operation robot and a plurality of child detection robots arranged on a body of the parent operation robot, the child detection robots are used for completing multi-modal transformation to achieve multi-habitat detection operation, and multifunctional mechanical arms are arranged on the child detection robots. The multifunctional mechanical arm is detachably mounted on the sub-body detection robot through the load switching module; the load tool switching subsystem is fixedly mounted on the parent operation robot and is used for replacing the multifunctional mechanical arm of the child detection robot as required; and the adsorption type energy supplement subsystem is used for charging the sub-body detection robot. The parent operation robot carries the multiple child detection robots, cluster collaborative operation of the multiple robots is achieved, the working efficiency of collaborative operation of the robots is improved, the robot is suitable for the waterway and air multi-habitat operation environment, and the global and long-time operation requirements are met.

The invention provides a seismic detection system based on a seabed crawl device, and belongs to the technical field of geophysics, the seismic detection system comprises a survey ship, the seabed crawl device, a seismic source, a receiver and a control chip, the survey ship is connected with the seabed crawl device through a traction rope, a dragging cable is arranged at the tail of the seabed crawl device, the seismic source and the receiver are fixed on the dragging cable, and the control chip is connected with the control chip. An electronic cabin is arranged in the seabed crawl device, the data control chip is arranged in the electronic cabin, and the control chip performs data interaction with a driving unit, a seismic source and a receiver of the seabed crawl device; a seismic detection control module is arranged in the control chip and is used for setting vibration parameters of a seismic source and preprocessing data acquired by the receiver to finally obtain seismic detection data; a data transmission device is further arranged in the electronic cabin, the control chip is electrically connected with the data transmission device, and the data transmission device is used for sending seismic detection data to an investigation ship. The problem that an existing method is not high in comprehensiveness and accuracy is solved.

The invention relates to the field of extended-range hybrid electric vehicle control, and particularly discloses a multi-mode self-adaptive amphibious vehicle extended-range system start-stop control method, which comprises the following steps of: switching to a corresponding working mode according to a driving environment of a vehicle, the range extending system is adaptively adjusted to a power generation working condition or a stop working condition according to different working modes; the range extending system start-stop control module comprises a range extender starting module and a range extender stopping module, and the engine starting module is divided into a starter emergency starting mode and an ISG reverse dragging engine starting mode; task requirements of a driver can be met, operation states of all parts can be coordinated more sufficiently, energy output efficiency is improved, the range extending system is higher in starting and response speed and lower in oil consumption and emission in the starting process, meanwhile, the mode that an engine is started by a starter is reserved to cope with emergency situations, and the range extending system is suitable for popularization and application. And the stability and the reliability of the whole system are improved.

The invention belongs to the related technical field of robots, and discloses an amphibious medium-crossing movement waterproof vertical steering wheel and a wall-climbing robot, the steering wheel is specifically characterized in that an opening is formed in the bottom of a waterproof shell, a steering shaft is rotatably and hermetically connected to the opening, and a driving motor is vertically and integrally rotatably connected with the steering shaft; the top of the waterproof bearing seat is in sealed connection with the bottom of the steering shaft, the driving motor is connected with the transmission assembly and is in transmission connection with an output shaft arranged at the bottom of the waterproof bearing seat through the transmission assembly, and output sealing structures are arranged between the two ends of the output shaft and the wheel carrier and between the two ends of the output shaft and the waterproof bearing seat respectively. The steering motor is in transmission connection with the steering shaft through the steering assembly to drive the steering shaft to rotate. The waterproof shell can effectively isolate the motor from the external water environment, and high-grade waterproof performance is achieved; through the compact design, high waterproof performance is achieved while flexible mobility and large driving force are guaranteed, and powerful support is provided for multifunctionality of the amphibious wall-climbing robot.

The invention discloses an underwater operation nuclear industry robot which comprises an amphibious moving system, and the amphibious moving system comprises a chassis, a land moving module, an underwater moving module and an adsorption fixing module; the two sets of operation systems are installed on the front side of the top face of the chassis, each operation system comprises a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and a grabbing mechanical arm, the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arms are installed on the top face of the chassis, and the grabbing mechanical arms are installed at the ends of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arms; the recovery and storage system is mounted on the top surface of the chassis; the visual recognition system is installed on the rear side of the top face of the chassis, and the visual recognition system comprises a supporting module, a lighting module and a recognition module; and the amphibious moving system, the operation system, the recovery and storage system and the visual identification system are all connected with the terminal controller. The underwater robot can flexibly enter an underwater operation area from the land, and is suitable for operation in various complex environments.

Amphibious bicycle trailer, AFA (1), designed to be towed in a land configuration by a land vehicle (16) and in a floating water configuration by a watercraft (17), comprising: - a hull (10); - at least two running wheels (18) which are attached to the hull (10); - at least two extendable or foldable supports (6, 13) extending laterally from the hull (10), at the ends of which floating pontoons (2, 12) are attached, the water configuration comprising the extended or unfolded configuration of the supports (6, 13); - a rigid trailer coupling element (7) designed to alternately connect the amphibious bicycle trailer (1) to a respective land vehicle (16) and / or watercraft (17).

The invention relates to the technical field of amphibious robots, and discloses an amphibious robot which comprises a robot body, a pushing mechanism, a steering mechanism and a pitching mechanism, the pushing mechanism, the steering mechanism and the pitching mechanism are connected to the robot body, the robot body comprises an inner shell, a propeller and a rolling outer shell which are sequentially connected in a sleeved mode from inside to outside, and the inner shell is cylindrical; the pushing mechanism comprises a support, a driving motor and a first balancing weight, a stator of the driving motor is fixed to the side end of the support, the first balancing weight is fixed to the bottom of the support, the support is sleeved with the inner shell, one side end of the inner shell is connected with a rotor of the driving motor, and the other side end of the inner shell is rotationally connected with the support; according to the amphibious robot, the stator rotates to drive the first balancing weight to rotate, kinetic moment is provided for the robot body, the rotor rotates to drive the inner shell, the propeller and the rolling outer shell to rotate synchronously, the robot is pushed to move on the water surface / water by means of counter-acting force, and the driving system and the control system of the amphibious robot are simplified.

The invention discloses a vehicle control method, a vehicle, a vehicle controller and a storage medium, the vehicle comprises a driving and transmission system used for running on land, and the driving and transmission system comprises driving motors used for driving wheels and arranged in a distributed mode; the vehicle control method comprises the steps that vehicle state information is acquired; in response to a floating driving trigger instruction, target control parameters of each driving motor are obtained according to the vehicle state information and the floating driving characteristic information; and controlling the corresponding driving motor according to the target control parameter so as to enable the vehicle to run in a floating manner. According to the method and the vehicle, two running modes of land running and floating running can be achieved, the multifunctionality and adaptability of the vehicle are enhanced, floating running of the vehicle can be achieved based on a driving and transmission system of land running, two sets of different power transmission systems do not need to be used, and therefore the complexity of the system is reduced, and the cost is reduced. And the production cost is reduced.

A buoyancy-adjustable amphibious humanoid robot underwater posture adjusting method comprises the following steps that an amphibious humanoid robot enters water in a cross-medium mode, and the water entering state of the amphibious humanoid robot is judged by conducting data detection through a first depth meter; after the amphibious humanoid robot is completely submerged in water, the underwater posture of the amphibious humanoid robot is adjusted through a buoyancy adjusting device and a posture adjusting propeller; when the amphibious humanoid robot goes out of water, the thrust of the propeller is adjusted to adjust the pitch attitude until the third depth gauge does not display corresponding data, it is indicated that the head of the amphibious humanoid robot goes out of water at the moment, then the buoyancy adjusting cabin is controlled to slide upwards to the topmost end, and the legs of the amphibious humanoid robot are controlled to rotate; and controlling the amphibious humanoid robot to walk out of the water surface until the first depth gauge does not display data, and indicating that the amphibious humanoid robot is completely discharged out of the water as a whole.

The invention relates to the technical field of amphibious robots, and discloses a posture-adjustable amphibious inspection robot which comprises a hollow machine body, a front sealing bin, a middle bin and a rear sealing bin are sequentially arranged in the machine body from front to back, and a front air hole and a front water permeable hole are formed in the top face and the bottom face of the front sealing bin respectively. The top face and the bottom face of the rear sealing bin are provided with a rear air hole and a rear water hole respectively, control mechanisms are arranged at the positions of all the holes, steering engines are symmetrically and fixedly arranged on the two sides of the front sealing bin and the two sides of the rear sealing bin respectively, wheel web assemblies are arranged at the positions of the four steering engines respectively, and each wheel web assembly comprises a connecting rod and a walking wheel web. The connecting rod comprises a machine body section, an inclined section and a wheel web section which are sequentially connected, the machine body section is fixedly connected with an output shaft of the steering engine, the walking wheel web is rotatably connected with the wheel web section, and a plurality of web pieces are evenly distributed on the outer circumference of the walking wheel web; the unmanned aerial vehicle has the function of adjusting the posture of the vehicle body on land and on water, can adapt to different types of bank slopes when landing in water, and is high in terrain adaptability.

A robot for cleaning the outer wall face of an underwater pipeline comprises oppositely-arranged supporting frames, the two supporting frames define a circle, the connecting positions are connected through magnetic attraction quick buckles, the upper supporting frame and the lower supporting frame are each provided with two supporting frames, a plurality of limiting supporting plates distributed at intervals are fixedly installed between the upper supporting frame and the lower supporting frame, and a long round hole is formed in each limiting supporting plate. A sliding block is installed in the oblong hole in a matched mode, the hydraulic oil cylinder is vertically fixed, the output end of the hydraulic oil cylinder is fixed to the sliding block, spring connecting rods are symmetrically hinged to the two outer sides of the sliding block, and upper connecting rods are symmetrically hinged to the two outer sides above the limiting supporting plate; the deep-sea motor drives the crawler device to act, and the other ends of the spring connecting rod and the upper connecting rod are both mounted on the crawler device; a plurality of steel wire brushes are installed on the inner wall face of the supporting frame located at the top, 360-degree steering of thrust can be achieved, the thruster can be retracted into the platform light shell, cleaning is more effective, and working reliability is guaranteed.

The invention discloses an amphibious bionic robot in the technical field of bionic robots. The amphibious bionic robot comprises a head mechanism, a leg mechanism, a tail mechanism and a chest power mechanism. The head mechanism is connected to the front end of the chest power mechanism, the tail mechanism is connected to the rear end of the front end of the chest power mechanism, and the leg mechanism is connected to the side edge of the chest power mechanism. The chest power mechanism is used for driving the leg mechanism to achieve the walking function of the amphibious bionic robot and driving the tail mechanism to achieve the swimming function of the amphibious bionic robot. According to the amphibious biomimetic robot, the land propelling device and the water propelling device are integrated, and the amphibious biomimetic robot has the advantage of land and water motion integration, is good in environmental adaptability and amphibious motion performance and has the advantages of being simple in structure, easy to control, flexible, light, handy and high in motion stability.

The application relates to the technical field of robots, and discloses a robot leg walking mechanism and a quadruped robot, which comprise a plurality of large arms, one side of each large arm is connected with a floating assembly, the floating assembly comprises a connecting box and an air bag, the connecting box is fixedly connected with one side of the large arm, a placing groove is formed in the side of the connecting box away from the large arm, and the air bag is fixedly connected in the placing groove; the large arm is sequentially connected with an air charging assembly, an air discharging assembly and a jetting assembly from top to bottom on one side; and the connecting box is connected with a closing assembly on one side. The robot leg walking mechanism and the quadruped robot utilize the floating assembly, the quadruped robot can float in a deep water area, the body is prevented from being completely immersed in water, the risk that a camera lens is splashed with water is reduced, the quality and accuracy of real-time image transmission are ensured, a clear field of vision and stable walking ability are provided for the quadruped robot, visual misjudgment or distortion is reduced, and the accuracy and efficiency of a patrol task are improved.

The present invention provides a vehicle buoyancy-aiding and drag-reducing inflatable film material and a manufacturing method thereof. The inflatable film material adopts a three-layer composite structure and is composed of an outer abrasion-resistant layer, an intermediate reinforcing layer, and an inner contact layer. Among them, the outer abrasion-resistant layer is made of cis-butadiene rubber, the intermediate reinforcing layer is formed by braiding and winding high-strength carbon fiber strands, the inner contact layer is made of nitrile rubber, and epoxy resin is used for bonding between the intermediate reinforcing layer and the outer abrasion-resistant layer and the inner contact layer. The above-mentioned inflatable film material is prepared by the soft-core method. The present invention can greatly improve the bursting strength of the film material and solve the technical problem of the failure of the inflatable film structure caused by the wave impact load approaching the inflation pressure of the inflatable film material under high-speed and high-sea conditions. It can also maintain the characteristic of low linear density of the film material, effectively cope with the high-speed and high-sea environment, provide material guarantee for realizing the hydrodynamic modification of the vehicle body by replacing the rigid deformation of traditional metal materials with the flexible deformation of inflatable film materials, save power energy, and relieve the pressure of logistics support.

A vehicle (10) comprising a chassis suspension system (400). The chassis suspension system (400) comprises a plurality of wheel arms (402), each wheel arm (402) extending away from a different chassis mount (220) on the chassis (200) to a respective drive wheel (404), each drive wheel (404) being pivotably mounted relative to its respective wheel arm (402). Each drive wheel (404) is coupled to a drive system (700) operable to drive the drive wheel (404). The vehicle (10) is configured to move from one location to another and / or change the orientation of the chassis (200) from a first orientation to a second orientation using a first mode of operation wherein the drive system (700) is operable to drive the drive wheel (404) along and / or through the support medium (500). The vehicle (10) is configured to move from one location to another and / or change the orientation of the chassis (200) from a first orientation to a second orientation using a second mode of operation wherein the chassis suspension system (400) is operable to draw the chassis (200) in a first direction (D1), locating a first drive wheel (404-1 ) of the plurality of drive wheels (404) into driving engagement with the support medium (500), and controlling the respective wheel arm (402) to pivot relative to the chassis (200) along the x-axis, y-axis and / or z- axis to exert a force on the support medium (500) in a second direction (D1) via the first drive wheel (404-1 ) in order to generate a reaction force to propel the chassis (200) in the first direction (D1), wherein the second direction (D2) is in an opposite direction to the first direction (D1).