Abstract
Articulated tracked vehicles have been traditionally studied and appreciated for the extreme maneuverability and mobility flexibility in terms of grade and side slope capabilities. The articulation joint represents an attractive and advantageous solution, if compared to the traditional skid steering operation, by avoiding any trust adjustment between the outside and inside tracks. This paper focuses on the analysis and control of an articulated tracked vehicle characterized by two units connected through a mechanical multiaxial joint that is hydraulically actuated to allow the articulated steering operation. A realistic eight degrees of freedom mathematical model is introduced to include the main nonlinearities involved in the articulated steering behavior. A linearized vehicle model is further proposed to analytically characterize the cornering steady-state and transient behaviors for small lateral accelerations. Finally, a hitch angle controller is designed by proposing a torque-based and a speed-based Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) logics. The controller is also verified by simulating maneuvers typically adopted for handling analysis.
Highlights
The activity presented in this paper describes a non-linear model for a typical articulated tracked vehicles (ATVs)
The linearized ATV model represents a promising tool for ATV dynamics analysis only in the range of small lateral accelerations
The linearized ATV model shows a stable behavior over the whole speed operative range, and it is characterized by a “slow” open-loop dynamics due to the presence of relatively small natural frequencies
Summary
The cornering behavior of tracked vehicles has peculiar characteristics that are different from wheeled vehicles. For tracked vehicles with two or more units, the steering operation may be achieved by a relative yaw rotation between units through a specific mechanism on the connecting joint [3,4]. A non-linear mathematical model of an ATV was described by [18,19] where the effect of a hitch angle, i.e., the relative yaw angle between the ATV units, feedback controller was analyzed through steady-state cornering maneuvers. The main paper contribution focuses on the methodology for an analytical evaluation of the ATV lateral dynamics behavior, a hitch angle controller is presented to explore the influence of a hydraulic actuation system for the steering operation. The paper structure is organized as follows: a non-linear mathematical model of the ATV is presented in Section 2 by including the effect of rigid bodies planar dynamics, hydraulic steering dynamics, and angular tracks dynamics.
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