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This paper describes an approach to integrating high-fidelity vehicle dynamics with a high-fidelity gaming engine, specifically with respect to terrain. The work is motivated by the experimental need to have both high-fidelity visual content with high-fidelity vehicle dynamics to drive a motion base simulator. To utilize a single source of terrain information, the problem requires the just-in-time sharing of terrain content between the gaming engine and the dynamics model. The solution is implemented as a client-server with the gaming engine acting as a stateless server and the dynamics acting as the client. The client is designed to actively maintain a locally cashed terrain grid around the vehicle and actively refresh it by polling the server in an on-demand mode of operation. The paper discusses the overall architecture, the protocol, the server, and the client designs. A practical implementation is described and shown to effectively function in real-time.

Tanks play a pivotal role in swiftly deploying firepower across dynamic battlefields. The core of tank mobility lies within their powertrains, driven by diesel engines or gas turbines. To better understand the benefits of each power system, this study uses geo-location data from the National Training Center to understand the power and energy requirements from a main battle tank over an 18-day rotation. This paper details the extraction, cleaning, and analysis of the geo-location data to produce a series of representative drive cycles for an NTC rotation. These drive-cycles serve as a basis for evaluating powertrain demands, chiefly focusing on fuel efficiency. Notably, findings reveal that substantial idling periods in tank operations contribute to diesel engines exhibiting notably lower fuel consumption compared to gas turbines. Nonetheless, gas turbines present several merits over diesel engines, notably an enhanced power-to-weight ratio and superior power delivery.

Tradespace exploration (TSE) describes the activity occurring early in the design process through which stakeholders explore a broad solution space in search of more-optimal alternatives. In doing so, these stakeholders attempt to maximize the utility inherent in the chosen solution while understanding the tradeoffs and compromises that may be required to find an acceptable solution. In the field of vehicle design, tradespaces are often comprised of vast amounts of alternatives which increases the complexity of the decision-making process. Additionally, the number of stakeholders has grown, as decision-makers seek to include more variety in both perspectives and expertise. As such, decision-making stakeholders can often find themselves working at odds and attempting to maximize vastly different objectives in the process. One way to rectify these contrasting viewpoints can be to intentionally introduce a group framing prior to the start of decision making.

Vehicle navigation in off-road environments is challenging due to terrain uncertainty. Various approaches that account for factors such as terrain trafficability, vehicle dynamics, and energy utilization have been investigated. However, these are not sufficient to ensure safe navigation of optionally manned ground vehicles that are prone to detection using thermal infrared (IR) seekers in combat missions. This work is directed towards the development of a vehicle IR signature aware navigation stack comprised of global and local planner modules to realize safe navigation for optionally manned ground vehicles. The global planner used A* search heuristics designed to find the optimal path that minimizes the vehicle thermal signature metric on the map of terrain’s apparent temperature. The local planner used a model-predictive control (MPC) algorithm to achieve integrated motion planning and control of the vehicle to follow the path waypoints provided by the global planner.

In alignment with the U.S. Army's Climate Strategy and the broader trend in automotive technology, there is a strategic shift towards electrification and hybridization of the vehicle fleet. While a major goal of this effort is to mitigate the carbon footprint of the U.S. Army's vehicle operations, this transition also presents an opportunity to harness advancements in automotive electrification. Among the key vehicles in focus are tactical wheeled vehicles, which provide military forces with versatile and rugged transportation solutions for various combat scenarios, ensuring mobility, protection, and adaptability on the battlefield. This study investigates the potential of electrified tactical wheeled vehicles by conducting a survey involving a diverse group of vehicle operators across various ranks within the U.S. Army.

The limitations of commonly used materials such as steel in withstanding high temperatures led to exploring alternative alloys. For instance, Inconel 825 is a nickel-based alloy known for its exceptional corrosion resistance. Thus, the Inconel 825 is used in various applications, including aerospace, marine propulsion, and missiles. Though it has many advantages, machining this alloy at high temperatures could be challenging due to its inadequate heat conductivity, increased strain hardening propensity, and extreme dynamic shear strength. The resultant hardened chips generated during high-speed machining exhibit elevated temperatures, leading to tool wear and surface damage, extending into the subsurface. This work investigated the influence of varying process settings on the machinability of Inconel 825 metal, using both uncoated and coated tools.

Aluminum alloys are employed in agricultural equipment, aerospace sectors, medical instruments, machinery, automobiles, etc. due to their physical and mechanical characteristics. The geometrical shape and size of the parts are modified in turning operation by using a single-point cutting tool. A356 aluminum alloy is widely used in various engineering sectors, hence there is a necessity to produce A-356 components with quality. The inappropriate cutting parameters used in turning operation entail high production costs and reduce tool life. Box–Behnken design (BBD) based on response surface methodology (RSM) was used to design the experiments such that the experiment trials were conducted by varying cutting parameters like N-spindle speed (rpm), f-feed rate (mm/rev), and d-depth of cut (mm). The multi-objective responses, such as surface roughness (SR) and metal removal rate (MRR) were analyzed with the desirability method.

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