MotionPort and RecurDyn in Off-Road Vehicle Research
A new robot concept with two sets of tracks seems to hold a lot of
promise for urban reconnaissance. A military research group was asked
to simulate the mobility of the robot in climbing a set of stairs.
They could not do the simulation, although they were experienced with
tracked vehicle simulation with a leading simulation software. A
university research partner knew of the need of the military research
group and also knew of RecurDyn. MotionPort staff quickly developed a
model with over 1,700 degrees of freedom were able to demonstrate the
stair-climbing maneuver (photo courtesy of JPL Robotics).
Model: Robot with four track assemblies
Robustness Advantage: Ability to model stair climbing
See below for video, or access an avi video file of the urban robot (3520KB).
Note: The red arrows indicate the vector forces on the hubs.
