The Structural Design Of Powertrain For A Wheel-tracked Rescue Robot

Wheel-tracked rescue robot is a new design concept, which combines the features of anordinary wheel and tracked mobile platform. With high maneuverability and obstacleperformance, It can play a good role in the rescue operations.The key technologies of wheel-tracked mobile system are the design of variant wheel andits application on a common chassis. Wherein the structural design and parameter matching ofWheel-tracked rescue robot’s powertrain has a vital role, which is the Guarantee of itspracticability and that whether it can combine the advantages of high mobility and highoff-road. Firstly, the analysis and design of structure of the robot’s powertrain are performed;Secondly, parameters matching of robot’s powertrain are carried out considering thecharacteristics of wheel-track variant wheel and robot’s driving requirements; Finally, Byredeveloping the ADVISOR, the simulation model of the FWD wheel-tracked robot platformwas established. Simulation analyses of the robot’s dynamic and economic performances aredone to provide a reference for more practical applications of the wheel-tracked robot.Simulation results show that the powertrain can meet the requirements of the design for thewheel-tracked robot.In addition, Based on the problems of serious wear of crawler belts and difficult steeringunder crawler type appeared in the experiments of the prototype, and for technologypromotion of the wheel-tracked technology, it is necessary to carry out further analysis ofdriving stability of the robot. Considering the characteristics of wheel-track variant wheel androbot’s driving requirements, the design concept of wheel-tracked variant wheel––doublewishbone suspension model was proposed in this paper, analysis and design of suspensionpositioning parameters have been carried out. And a model for kinematics analysis on thevariant wheel––double wishbone suspension is established. The differences of suspension’smotion characteristics between robot in wheel style and robot in track style have beencompared, and by using ADAMS/CAR software, the robot’s kinematics analysis of thesuspension system has been done. According to the results, refitting variant wheel directly totraditional vehicle chassis caused problems arise. Finally, an optimization for the suspensionis conducted by using Insight software modules. The results show that the motioncharacteristics of the suspension system have been greatly improved after optimization, theproblems appeared in the experiments of the prototype are optimized. A reference forthe application of wheel-tracked technology to other platforms is provided.