An exhaustive investigation into power performance of an unmanned robotized vehicle for industrial transportations

Abstract

Investigation of power performance of an unmanned robotized vehicle for industrial transportations of payloads 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 the first exhaustive investigation for power efficiencies (tractive, slip, and motion power efficiencies) of the vehicle. To this aim, various payloads mounted on a trailer (1–5 kN) were towed by the vehicle through diverse tire air pressures (20.68–55.16 kPa) and drive speeds (0.17–0.5 m/s). Results illuminate that tire air pressure and payload weight had consequential contribution to motion and slip power efficiencies. While, tractive power efficiency mainly depended on payload weight. Linear regression approximations demonstrate that dual cumulative contributory effect of payload weight and tire air pressure on the motion power efficiency (87.28–99.84 %) and slip power efficiency (66.48–98.82 %) was synergetic. Meanwhile, tractive power efficiency (66.31–94.27 %) nonlinearly dropped with augmentation of payload weight. Resultant slip and motion power inefficiency were associate with vehicle motion power loss in amplitude of 0.28–123.52 and 0.21–10.33 W, respectively. Consequently, tractive power inefficiency was associate with vehicle motion power loss in amplitude of 1.30–124.46 W. This amplitude spotlights that 5.78–33.78 % of vehicle motion power inevitably wasted inside wheel-surface interface in 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 performance.