This study presents a tracked mobile robot featuring a novel bio‑inspired passive suspension system designed to overcome the traditional trade‑off between load capacity and vibration isolation in conventional mass–spring–damper suspensions. Inspired by animal limb structures, the proposed suspension significantly enhances load‑carrying capability, ride comfort, and obstacle‑negotiation performance across rough terrains. To address occasional track slippage caused by the compliant suspension on irregular ground, an advanced autonomous navigation strategy is developed using a double‑layer nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) framework. The upper‑layer NMPC ensures low‑frequency global trajectory tracking, while the lower‑layer NMPC captures high‑frequency local dynamics, including slippage during obstacle traversal. Experimental results demonstrate that the bio‑inspired suspension effectively attenuates strong impact forces, and the proposed double‑layer NMPC substantially improves transient response and tracking accuracy, validating the overall effectiveness of the integrated mechanical and control design.