Energy driven design-choices for skid-steering robotic vehicles

Abstract

In the area research on unmanned robotic vehicles, there is a need for systematic analysis of locomotion and energy dynamics, which would enable an efficient design of the vehicle. This research builds upon the earlier research by the authors and develops techniques to derive efficient design parameters for skid steering vehicle in order to achieve optimal performance by minimizing the energy losses/consumption. Two major constituent components of energy losses/consumption of the vehicle are - losses in skid steer turning, and losses in rolling. Our focus is on skid steering, we present a detailed analysis of skid steering for different turning modes; elastic mode steering, half-slip steering, skid turns, low radius turns, and zero radius turns. Each of the energy loss components is modeled from physics in terms of the design variables. The effect of design variables on the total energy losses/consumption is then studied using simulated data for different types of surfaces i.e. hard surfaces and muddy surfaces. Finally, we make suggestions about efficient vehicle design choices in terms of the design variables.