Advisory Committee Chair
Vladimir Vantsevich
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2024
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
The direction of research for off-road ground vehicles is an ever-growing interdisciplinary field. The strategies and modeling methods range from simple terramechanics mathematical models to complex terramechanics that involve the use of high-performance computing (HPC) systems with varying vehicle metric and performance analysis and information extraction. Current advanced methods based on terrain properties and dynamic models utilize conventional performance metrics that have been supported through decades of research. As automated driving systems (ADS) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) research and development progress, more complexities are unraveled and present the need for novel directions of research. Whereas on-road vehicles have the constraint of non-deformable roads and free of cascading complexities influenced from vast-varying terrain conditions, off-road vehicles require new perspectives on powertrain and sub-systems to operate in a real-time domain. Current modeling and simulation (M&S) require specific given constraints and ground-truths to simulate a real-time scenario. These scenarios are based on post-experiment or post-HPC solvers and do not provide real-time or agile reaction and adjustment. This narrows the scope of applicability for design consideration and provides a best average design case. The need for novel design criteria and indices to liberate driveline coupled dynamics that interfere with real-time flexibility was a major factor in the direction of this research. A major contributor to driving this research is the U.S. Army, which requires agile operation in precarious environments that contain hostile adversaries. The following research furthers the research’s realized goal to synchronizing Army operational philosophy with engineering metrics, producing de-coupled driveline and tire-terrain interactions that evolved from decades of quality research, and formulating a foundation for UGV mobility and maneuvering to advance the Army’s modernization strategy for economizing their force and set novel fundamentals for future vehicle design by incorporating actual simulation performance values, instead of conventional, theoretical, potential metrics. With the progression of this research, detailed comparative analysis can be generated, and tire-terrain analysis now has a foundation for a real-time domain M&S with novel definitions and design factors.
Recommended Citation
Whitson, Jordan, "Fundamentals Of Vehicle Modeling For Mobility And Maneuver" (2024). All ETDs from UAB. 3873.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3873