Dynamic simulation of an articulated off-road vehicle

In the space robotics lab, Tohoku University, we have developed a laboratory test-bed of a planetary exploration rover, which has an articulated chassis with both active and passive wheels. The test-bed has shown a good locomotion capability on natural rough terrains. In this paper, we focus the tire mechanics based on the Gim and Nikravesh model. The kinematics and dynamics of the articulated rover is studied for practical computer simulation. The dynamic simulation with the presented tire model shows a good agreement with the experimental result for the winding motion on a flat floor.