Abstract—This paper compare the locomotion capabilities of the dual adaptability mechanical suspension system, designed for an air intakes inspection robot of a Dassault Mirage 2000P fighter aircraft, with independent suspension coil springs and solid axes suspension systems, which are the most commonly used in wheeled mobile robots for the inspection of pipes, ventilation ducts, tunnels and collapsed buildings, due to their partial similarity to the geometry of the inspection environment. The dual adaptive suspension system is a new mechanism that allows the variation of the relative position of each wheel thanks to two lateral joints that join the two pairs of longitudinal wheels to a central joint that controls the camber. The experimental test in this study evaluate the influence of the suspension on: adaptability, maneuverability, locomotion efficacy, manufacturability and handling complexity. The tests demonstrated technical superiority of 35.6% and 32.9% compared to the Solid Axles system and the Independent Suspension system respectively, proving that it is the most suitable system in environments similar to the air intakes of a fighter aircraft.

Keywords—robot, suspension, curved surfaces, mechanism, mechanical design, inspection robot, variable camber, Suspension, Wheeled Mobile Robots (WMR)

Cite: David Meneses, Sebastian Delour Pacheco Gutierrez, Mayki Mamani Marmillo, Yuri Lester Silva Vidal, and Jorge Luis Apaza Gutierrez, "Dual-Adaptive Suspension System for Fighter Jet Air-Inlet Inspection Robots," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 384-394, 2025. doi: 10.18178/ijmerr.14.4.384-394

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).