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A unique concept for a multi-body test rig enabling the simulation of longitudinal, steering and vertical dynamics was developed at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems (IMS) at TU Darmstadt. A prototype of this IMS test rig is currently being built. In conjunction with the IMS test rig, the Vehicle Terrain Performance Laboratory (VTPL) at Virginia Tech further developed a full car, seven degree of freedom (7 DOF) simulation model capable of accurately reproducing measured displacement, pitch, and roll of the vehicle body due to terrain excitation. The results of the 7 DOF car model were used as the reference input to the multi-body IMS test rig model. The goal of the IMS/VTPL joint effort was to determine whether or not a controller for the IMS test rig vertical actuator could accurately reproduce wheel displacements due to different measured terrain constraints.

In this paper a yaw stability control algorithm along with an emergency roll control strategy have been developed. The yaw stability controller and emergency roll controller were both developed using linear two degree-of-freedom vehicle models. The yaw stability controller is based on Lyapunov stability criteria and uses vehicle lateral acceleration and yaw rate measurements to calculate the corrective yaw moment required to stabilize the vehicle yaw motion. The corrective yaw moment is then applied by means of a differential braking strategy in which one wheel is selected to be braked with appropriate brake torque applied. The emergency roll control strategy is based on a rollover coefficient related to vehicle static stability factor. The emergency roll control strategy utilizes vehicle lateral acceleration measurements to calculate the roll coefficient. If the roll coefficient exceeds some predetermined threshold value the emergency roll control strategy will deploy.

The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are improving modeling and simulation technologies in order to predict the performance of Army ground platforms with a high degree of confidence. In order to provide a framework within which to evaluate the simulation technologies and provide a measure of the progress of the effort, a suite of virtual test operating procedures are being implemented. This framework is called the Virtual Evaluation Suite (VES). It is applicable to the study of ground vehicle stability, handling, ride, mobility, and durability over all terrains under all weather conditions. Although developed in order to evaluate simulation technologies, the VES may be considered a simulation that could be used to exercise any ground platform model that meets the VES standard vehicle interface.

A Vehicle Dynamics and Mobility Server (VDMS) is being developed by the U.S. Army to perform real-time high-fidelity simulation of robotic vehicle concepts. It allows a set of conceptual Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to be selected and configured for the purposes of evaluating their mobility performance in a simulated battlefield scenario. VDMS includes real-time ground vehicle models operating over high-resolution digital terrain. The models consist of three-dimensional multi-body vehicle dynamics, off-road vehicle-soil interaction, collision detection and obstacle negotiation code, and autonomous control algorithms. A minimally completed VDMS was used in an RDEC Federation Calibration Experiment (CalEx) in October 2001 to predict the mobility of ten robotic scout vehicles. This paper presents the rationale, requirements, design, and implementation of VDMS. It also briefly discusses other possible applications of VDMS and the future direction of VDMS.

Accurate terrain models provide the chassis designer with a powerful tool to make informed design decisions early in the design process. It is beneficial to characterize the terrain as a stochastic process, allowing limitless amounts of synthetic terrain to be created from a small number of parameters. A continuous-state Markov chain is proposed as an alternative to the traditional discrete-state chain currently used in terrain modeling practice. For discrete-state chains, the profile transitions are quantized then characterized by a transition matrix (with many values). In contrast, the transition function of a continuous-state chain represents the probability density of transitioning between any two states in the continuum of terrain heights. The transition function developed in this work uses a location-scale distribution with polynomials modeling the parameters as functions of the current state.

A virtual, all-season test site for use in real-time vehicle simulators and mobility models was constructed of an Army firing range in Northern Vermont. The virtual terrain will mimic the terrain of our Virtual Data Acquisition and Test Site (VDATS) at Ethan Allen Firing Range (EAFR). The objective is to realistically simulate on- and off-road vehicle performance in all weather conditions for training and vehicle design for the US Army. To this end, several spatial datasets were needed to accurately map the terrain and estimate the state-of-the-ground and terrain strength at different times of the year. The terrain strength is characterized by terramechanics properties used in algorithms to calculate the forces at the vehicle-terrain interface. The performance of the real vehicles will be compared to the simulated vehicle performance of operator-in-the-loop and unmanned vehicles for validation of the simulations.

The vertical force generated from terrain-tire interaction has long been of interest for vehicle dynamic simulations and chassis development. To improve simulation efficiency while still providing reliable load prediction, a terrain pre-filtering technique using a constraint mode tire model is developed. The wheel is assumed to convey one quarter of the vehicle load constantly. At each location along the tire's path, the wheel center height is adjusted until the spindle load reaches the pre-designated load. The resultant vertical trajectory of the wheel center can be used as an equivalent terrain profile input to a simplified tire model. During iterative simulations, the filtered terrain profile, coupled with a simple point follower tire model is used to predict the spindle force. The same vehicle dynamic simulation system coupled with constraint mode tire model is built to generate reference forces.