Modeling and Simulation of a Full Vehicle With Parametric and External Uncertainties

Abstract

This paper presents the mathematical development of and simulation results for a full vehicle model with parametric uncertainties operating over unprepared terrain. The vehicle is modeled as a rigid multi-body dynamic system, consisting of chassis and four suspension and tire subsystems. The vehicle parameters considered uncertain are the suspension damping and the tire stiffness. The terrain profile is also modeled as a stochastic function. The uncertainties are explicitly represented using polynomial chaos decompositions. The computational technique presented in this study is more efficient than the traditional Monte Carlo approach, in modeling nonlinear multi-body dynamic systems with uncertainties. The numerical results presented here are very promising. The general computational tools discussed in this paper can be applied directly to any area that involves multi-body dynamic models, e.g., robotics, autonomous mechanical systems, actuator dynamics, and automatic control of systems with uncertainties.