Dynamic Formulation of the Utility Truck with the Morphing Boom Equipment 2022-01-0917

Robotic technology has begun to play an essential role in ground automotive applications. Utility trucks are among the first responders in extreme climate and severe weather conditions, comprised of two systems: a mobile platform and an articulated robotic morphing arm. The conventional industrial manipulators are mounted on stationary bases, while a mobile manipulator is dynamically coupled on a mobile platform. Such trucks with morphing manipulator can increase the possibility of road accidents in many ways and, additionally, create dangerous situations on the roads, and off-road conditions, while moving, and performing tasks. Large boom equipped trucks for reaching elevated heights can become unstable due to drastic variation of the boom equipment moment of inertia causing the extreme weight re-distribution among the wheels. The morphing capabilities of the utility trucks need to be investigated together with the vehicle-road forces in order to hold the truck safe on the roads. In this paper, a novel method and mathematical models are represented to investigate the morphing dynamics of a multi-body combination of the boom equipment manipulator, and the utility truck. This approach integrates the morphing dynamics of the boom equipment with the conventional dynamics of the utility truck and, thus, to manage the dynamic normal reactions of four wheels. The mathematical model of the multi-body combination of the boom equipment are presented and implemented symbolically in compact form with the use of the recursive Newton-Euler dynamic formulation. The multibody 7 degree-of-freedom dynamics of the utility truck with the sprung and unsprung masses is conventional and thus, only dynamics of the boom equipment is included in this paper.