Highlights Soil thrust acts as a traction force for unmanned ground vehicles. Significant loss of soil thrust due to the interference effect occurs. Interference effect is obvious at a higher soil density and lower shape ratio. Interference effect reduced soil thrust due to the overlapping shear zones. A soil thrust multiplier, an empirical reduction factor, is developed.

    Abstract The traction force of a tracked unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) depends on the soil thrust generated by the shearing action on the soil-track interface. In the development of soil thrust, because the continuous-track system consists of a number of single-track systems connected to each other, interference occurs between the adjacent single-track systems through the surrounding soil. Thus, the total soil thrust of the continuous-track system is not equal to the sum of the soil thrust of each single-track system, and the interference effect needs to be carefully considered. In this study, model track tests were conducted on model single-, double-, and triple-track systems according to relative density of soil and shape ratio (i.e., the length of the track plate to grouser depth). The test results indicated that the interference effect reduced soil thrust due to the overlapping shear zones between adjoining single-track systems. The loss of soil thrust increased as the relative density of the soil increased and the shape ratio decreased. Based on these findings, a soil thrust multiplier that can be utilized to assess the soil thrust of a continuous-track system was developed.


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    Title :

    Investigation of the soil thrust interference effect for tracked unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) using model track tests


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2020-06-18


    Size :

    11 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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