An All-Wheel Drive Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with individual electric motors for each wheel offers tremendous potential to control indirectly the torque delivered to each individual wheel and thus control UGV energy efficiency and mobility. The objective of this study is to develop an analytical method for a single wheel angular velocity control that is based on inverse longitudinal dynamics of a quarter-of-vehicle. The method includes a stochastic terrain model and an inverse dynamics-based control algorithm of a UGV single pneumatic wheel to overcome stochastic terrain behavior.
A stochastic terrain mathematical model was developed and used as a disturbance load in the control algorithm to introduce the on-line (real time) influence of the terrain conditions on a single wheel of UGV. The control algorithm is based on a developed strategy that utilizes the inverse dynamics approach and the wheel torque control that provides a wheel with both the specified/required angular velocity and rolling radius.
Such an approach opens up new ways of optimization and control of both unmanned ground vehicle dynamics and vehicle performance by distributing power between the drive wheels.
