Terramechanics-based performance enhancement of the wide robotic wheel on the soft terrains, Part II: torque control of the optimized wheel

Abstract

The second part of the present paper focuses on torque control of the optimized wide robotic wheels moving on the soft soil. The SCM method is implemented to numerically simulate the soil-wheel interaction during the dynamic control process. The power consumption, maximum sinkage, lateral forces, effective radius and traction error are the measures which are necessary to investigate the effect of the wheel shape in torque control process. The simulations are classified into pure steering, pure linear motion and complex point tracking to calculate the measures in various situations. The pure steering simulation investigates the effect of the wheel shape on the lateral forces and the sinkage. The effective radius and the distance are investigated through the linear movement. The point tracking simulation considers all measures investigated in a torque control process.