Coordination of an unmanned vehicle with active suspension over extreme terrain

Abstract

Active suspension is now a well-tried technology in road vehicles. It has been installed on a HMMV and demonstrated to significantly improve performance in rough road conditions 1 . This capability presents an opportunity for improved mobility in off-road conditions. The challenge is to devise a means of translating the desired trajectory of the vehicle into commands to the suspension actuators and the traction motors in an optimal, or near optimal manner. In this paper we describe part of a software architecture that was developed to enable such performance from a six-wheeled vehicle with active suspension and independent wheel drives. The vehicle was a concept developed under the DARPA Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle Program.