Modeling of tracked mobile manipulators with consideration of track–terrain and vehicle–manipulator interactions

This paper presents a systematic method to establish the kinematics model for a tracked mobile manipulator on firm grounds, with consideration of the interactive motions between the tracks and the terrain, as well as those between the tracked vehicle and the onboard manipulator. Kinematics analysis is essential for real-time pose estimation and online autonomous navigation of tracked mobile manipulators. Furthermore, to improve the effectiveness of motion planning, and to simulate or control tracked mobile manipulators, a reliable kinematics model is required. However, kinematics modeling for a tracked mobile manipulator is complicated by the fact that there are infinite number of contact points between the tracks and the terrain, which makes slippage unavoidable. The track–terrain and vehicle–manipulator interactions make the problem even more complicated as the motion of the onboard manipulator and the centrifugal forces during moderate or high speed motion give rise to transfer of the load distribution, which will affect the longitudinal and lateral tractive forces and the resistance. Also, the motion of the mobile platform contributes to the inertial forces of the manipulator, and the track–terrain interactive forces help balance the gravity as well as the manipulation forces. The developed kinematics modeling approach is presented on the basis of a tracked mobile manipulator in our laboratory, but the forward kinematics analysis method, and the track–terrain and vehicle–manipulator interaction analysis algorithm are general, and can be used for any tracked mobile manipulators with little modification. This work lays a solid foundation for autonomous control, online slippage estimation, real-time traction optimization as well as tip-over prediction and prevention of tracked mobile manipulators.