On the power characteristics of an unmanned tracked vehicle for autonomous transportation of agricultural payloads

Elucidation of power characteristics of an unmanned tracked vehicle for autonomous transportation of agricultural payloads in greenhouse constructions leads to appearance of an applied research in this study. This novel aim has been chosen based on operational requirement of the vehicle. Hence, it can be highlighted that this paper is initiative study described results of power efficiencies (motion, slip, and tractive power efficiencies) of the vehicle. To this aim, various payloads mounted on a trailer (1–5 kN) were towed by the vehicle through diverse drive speeds (0.17–0.5 m/s). Results illuminate that vehicle drive speed and payload weight had consequential contribution to vehicle motion and tractive power efficiencies. While, vehicle slip power efficiency mainly depended on payload weight. Linear regression approximations demonstrate that dual cumulative contributory effect of the drive speed and payload weight on the motion power efficiency (84.98–97.69 %) and tractive power efficiency (78.62–92.92 %) was antagonist and synergetic, respectively. Meanwhile, the slip power efficiency (81.71–98.36 %) linearly dropped with augmentation of payload weight. Resultant slip and motion power inefficiency were associate with vehicle motion power loss in amplitude of 0.39–67.98 and 2.65–14.03 W, respectively. Consequently, tractive power inefficiency was associate with vehicle motion power loss in amplitude of 3.15–82.01 W. This amplitude spotlights that 3.35–43.62 % of vehicle motion power inevitably wasted inside track-surface interface in agricultural towing tasks. Overall, numerical and analytical descriptions of the results as well as practical suggestions provide appropriate guidelines for vehicle supervisor in order to optimize power characteristics.