The Running Gear Construction Impact on Obstacles Overcoming by Light High-Mobility UGV

Abstract

Rubber tracked running gears are widely used in high-mobility Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) to increase obstacle negotiation possibility in urban and rural terrain. The paper proposes a method of assessing the configuration of the light UGV`s tracked running gear in terms of the ability to overcome terrain obstacles. Five types of obstacles have been proposed: a road ditch, a lying log, a curb, a crop rows and a wavy meadow profile. Then designed four types of running gear with the same geometrical and mass parameters, differing in the way of applying the running wheels (rigid construction, consisted of sprocket, idler and four road wheels, two bogies solution, system with two bogies elastically mounted to frame and rocker-bogie construction). To compare the selected solutions, simulation in the multi-body environment program and the equations based on the Bekker theory was performed. The simulation results showed an improvement in the driving properties with the use of elastically suspended elements. Better copying of the shape of the obstacle by the running gear contributes to the required tractive effort at lower slip values. At the same time, the negative impact of elastically suspended elements on the platform's stability was indicated.