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Soil parameter identification for wheel-terrain interaction dynamics and traversability prediction

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel technique for identifying soil parameters for a wheeled vehicle traversing unknown terrain. The identified soil parameters are required for predicting vehicle drawbar pull and wheel drive torque, which in turn can be used for traversability prediction, traction control, and performance optimization of a wheeled vehicle on unknown terrain. The proposed technique is based on the Newton Raphson method. An approximated form of a wheel-soil interaction model based on Composite Simpson’s Rule is employed for this purpose. The key soil parameters to be identified are internal friction angle, shear deformation modulus, and lumped pressure-sinkage coefficient. The fourth parameter, cohesion, is not too relevant to vehicle drawbar pull, and is assigned an average value during the identification process. Identified parameters are compared with known values, and shown to be in agreement. The identification method is relatively fast and robust. The identified soil parameters can effectively be used to predict drawbar pull and wheel drive torque with good accuracy. The use of identified soil parameters to design a traversability criterion for wheeled vehicles traversing unknown terrain is presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK

    Suksun Hutangkabodee, Yahya Hashem Zweiri, Lakmal Dasarath Seneviratne & Kaspar Althoefer

Authors
  1. Suksun Hutangkabodee
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  2. Yahya Hashem Zweiri
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  3. Lakmal Dasarath Seneviratne
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  4. Kaspar Althoefer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suksun Hutangkabodee.

Additional information

This work was supported in part by the EPSRC (No. GR/S31402/01).

Suksun Hutangkabodee was born in Thailand in 1976. He received his B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in 1999. He received his M.Sc degree in computer-aided mechanical engineering from King’s College London, England in 2002, and is currently working towards a Ph.D. at the same institution.

His research interests include vehicle-terrain interaction dynamics and soil parameter identification.

Yahya Hashem Zweiri obtained his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Jordan, Jordan and his Ph.D. degree in Diesel Engines Modelling and Estimation from King’s College London, England, 2003. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at King’s College London, working on the vehicle-terrain interaction dynamics of unmanned ground vehicles. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mu’tah University, Jordan, and is currently on leave from Mu’tah University.

He has over 16 years research experience in the modelling, estimation, and control of mechanical systems, and has published over 40 refereed research papers in international journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include non-linear modelling, estimation, and control.

Lakmal Dasarath Seneviratne obtained his B.Sc (Eng.) and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from King’s College London. He is currently a professor in Mechatronics at King’s College London. He is also the Director of the Centre for Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at King’s College London.

His main research interests include Robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems.

Prof. Seneviratne is a Member of the IEEE.

Kaspar Althoefer holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Technology Aachen, Germany. He carried out his doctoral research in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at King’s College London (KCL), where he completed his Ph.D. in 1997. He is now a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KCL.

Being engaged in research on mechatronics since 1992, he has extensive expertise in the areas of robot-based applications, sensing and embedded intelligence.

Dr. Althoefer is a Member of the IEEE and the IEE.

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Hutangkabodee, S., Zweiri, Y.H., Seneviratne, L.D. et al. Soil parameter identification for wheel-terrain interaction dynamics and traversability prediction. Int J Automat Comput 3, 244–251 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-006-0244-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-006-0244-0

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