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In this paper a novel approach to dynamic formulation of rovers has been presented. The complexity of these multi-body systems especially on rough terrain, challenged us to use the Kane’s method which has been preferred to others in these cases. As an example, symbolic equations of a six-wheeled rover, named CEDRA Rescue Robot which uses a shrimp like mechanism, have been derived and a simulation of forward and inverse dynamics has been presented. Due to the clear form of equations, each term defines a physical meaning which represents the effect of each parameter, resulting in a framework for performance comparison of rovers. Although the method has been described for a 2-D non-slipping case, it is also very useful for dimensional and dynamical optimization, high speed motion analysis, and checking various control algorithms. Furthermore, it can be extended to 3-D cases and other complicated mechanisms and rovers while conserving its inherent benefits and adding to it the easiness of handling nonholomonic constraints.

SUMMARYWith rapid development of methods for dynamic systems modeling, those with less computation effort are becoming increasingly attractive for different applications. This paper introduces a new form of Kane's equations expressed in the matrix notation. The proposed form can efficiently lead to equations of motion of multi-body dynamic systems particularly those exposed to large number of nonholonomic constraints. This approach can be used in a recursive manner resulting in governing equations with considerably less computational operations. In addition to classic equations of motion, an efficient matrix form of impulse Kane formulations is derived for systems exposed to impulsive forces.

In this paper we have presented a new form of Kane’s equations. This new form is expressed in the matrix form with the components of partial derivatives of linear and angular velocities relative to the generalized speeds and generalized coordinates. The number of obtained equations is equal to the number of degrees of freedom represented in a closed form. Also the equations can be rearranged to appear only one of the time derivatives of generalized speeds in each equation. This form is appropriate especially when one intends to derive equations recursively. Hence in addition to the simplicity, the amount of calculations is noticeably reduced and also can be used in a control unit.

In this paper an effective approach for kinematic and dynamic modeling of high mobility wheeled mobile robots (WMR) has been presented. As an example of these robots, the method has been applied on CEDRA rescue robot which is a complex, multibody mechanism. The model is derived for 6-DOF motions enabling movement in x, y, z directions, as well as pitch, roll and yaw rotations. Forward kinematics equations are derived using Denavit-Hartenberg method and the wheels Jacobian matrices. Moreover the inverse kinematics of the robot is obtained and solved for the wheel velocities and steering commands in terms of desired velocity, heading and measured link angles. Finally dynamical analysis of the rover has been thoroughly studied. Due to the complexity of this multi-body system especially on rough terrain, Kane’s method of dynamics has been used to model this problem. The approach has been developed in such a way that it can easily be extended to other mechanisms and rovers.