VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING FOR CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF TRACKED MOBILE ROBOTS

During the conceptual design stage of a trackedmobile robot, the designerwishes to verify the robot¿s mobility andmanipulation capabilities. Multi-body dynamicssimulation-based virtual prototyping process can beused in theconceptual design stage and can significantly reducethe amount of physicaltesting required at various design stages, andassociated cost. The application ofthis process for tracked mobile robots has beendeveloped and is shown here. Asa test case, it was initially applied to an existingrobot and was validated with testresults. Later it was applied to a new robot whilestill in its conceptual designstage. Multi-body dynamic models of the robots weregenerated and simulationsrelated to mobility and manipulation tasks wereperformed. The usefulness of thesimulation results to verify and improve the robotdesign was demonstrated. Theabove established process can now be applied to newrobot designs, during itsconceptual design stage.