Structure design and traction trafficability analysis of multi-posture wheel-legs bionic walking wheels for sand terrain

Nowadays, the existing walking wheels still have problems with the wheel-legs structure and the traction trafficability on the loose sand. It is commonly believed that African ostrich (Struthio camelus) is a kind of bipedal species with superior running performance on the sandy environment. Being enlightened by this, four bionic walking wheels (herringbone wheel, in-line wheel, V-shaped wheel and combination wheel) were designed and tested by imitating the structure and posture of ostrich’s feet travelling on sand. The results showed that when the wheel load was 20, 30 and 50N respectively and the slip ratio was less than 35%, the herringbone wheel had better traction trafficability than that of other wheels. When the wheel load was 30, 50 and 70N and the slip ratio was more than 35%, the in-line wheel had better performance than that of other wheels. It was shown in this thesis that the bionic walking wheels designed with the multi-posture wheel-legs and the simple structure could reduce the soil resistance and the disturbance to sand, thereby achieving a superior performance of traveling on sand. In addition, a new idea and research method for designing of walking mechanism on soft terrain has been provided in this thesis.     

Crack identification of the sprocket wheel in sintering machine based on WFEM

In order to identify the crack of the sprocket wheel correctly, the wavelet finite element method is studied in depth. Firstly, the progress of study on the wavelet finite element method is summarized, and then the basic property of wavelet analysis is analyzed, and then the wavelet finite element theory model of sprocket wheel in sintering machine is studied, and the Daubechies wavelet plate element and isoparametric plate element of crack tip are established, and then the theory of constructing crack identification database of the crack for sprocket wheel is studied, and finally the effective of this method is verified by identify the sprocket wheels with five kinds of cracks based on the vibration test, and results showed that this method can identify the crack of the sprocket wheel correctly.     

Performance evaluation of a wire mesh wheel on deformable terrains

Because of the unique lunar environment, a suitable wheel for lunar rover decides the rover’s trafficability on deformable terrains. The wire mesh wheel (hereinafter referred to as WMW) has the advantages of light weight and superior stability, been widely adopted for lunar rovers. But a comprehensive research on performance of WMW on deformable terrains has not been conduct. This paper would provide particular study on a type WMW, including quasi-static pressure-sinkage test and driving performance. A novel pressure-sinkage model for the WMW on deformable soils was presented. In order to investigate the sinkage characteristics of the WMW, tests were performed using a single-wheel testbed for the WMW with different loads and velocities. The effects of load and velocity on sinkage were analyzed, and the relationship between real and apparent sinkage was presented. The research on traction performance of WMW under different slip ratios (0.1–0.6) was also conducted, contrast tests were proceed by using a normal cylindrical wheel (hereinafter referred to as CW). The traction performance of WMW is analyzed using performance indices including wheel sinkage, drawbar pull, driving torque, and tractive efficiency. The experimental results and conclusions are useful for optimal WMW design and improvement/verification of wheel–soil interaction mechanics model.     

Modeling and Simulation of a Three-Wheeled Mobile Robot on Uneven Terrains with Two-Degree-of-Freedom Suspension Mechanisms

A wheeled mobile robot (WMR) will move on an uneven terrain without slip if its torus-shaped wheels tilt in a lateral direction. An independent two degree-of-freedom (DOF) suspension is required to maintain contact with uneven terrain and for lateral tilting. This article deals with the modeling and simulation of a three-wheeled mobile robot with torus-shaped wheels and four novel two-DOF suspension mechanism concepts. Simulations are performed on an uneven terrain for three representative paths—a straight line, a circular, and an ‘S’-shaped path. Simulations show that a novel concept using double four-bar mechanism performs better than the other three concepts.     

Cycle‐minors and subdivisions of wheels

In this paper we prove two results. The first is an extension of a result of Dirac which says that any set of n vertices of an n‐connected graph lies in a cycle. We prove that if V′ is a set of at most 2n vertices in an n‐connected graph G, then G has, as a minor, a cycle using all of the vertices of V′. The second result says that if G is an n+1‐connected graph with maximum vertex degree Δ then G contains a subgraph that is a subdivision of W_2n if and only if Δ≥2n. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62: 100–108, 2009     

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The minimum number of total independent partition sets of V ∪ E of graph G(V,E) is called the total chromatic number of G denoted by χ _t (G). If the difference of the numbers of any two total independent partition sets of V ∪ E is no more than one, then the minimum number of total independent partition sets of V ∪ E is called the equitable total chromatic number of G, denoted by χ _et (G). In this paper, we obtain the equitable total chromatic number of the join graph of fan and wheel with the same order. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10771091).     

Design and development of a new transformable wheel used in amphibious all-terrain vehicles (A-ATV)

Conventional ground-wheeled vehicles usually have poor trafficability, low efficiency, a large amount of energy consumption and possible failure when driving on soft terrain. To solve this problem, this paper presents a new design of transformable wheels for use in an amphibious all-terrain vehicle. The wheel has two extreme working statuses: unfolded walking-wheel and folded rigid wheel. Furthermore, the kinematic characteristics of the transformable wheel were studied using a kinematic method. When the wheel is unfolded at walking-wheel status, the displacement, velocity and acceleration of the wheel with different slip rates were analyzed. The stress condition is studied by using a classic soil mechanics method when the transformable wheel is driven on soft terrain. The relationship among wheel traction, wheel parameters and soil deformation under the stress were obtained. The results show that both the wheel traction and trafficability can be improved by using the proposed transformable wheel. Finally, a finite element model is established based on the vehicle terramechanics, and the interaction result between the transformable wheel and elastic–plastic soil is simulated when the transformable wheel is driven at different unfold angles. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical analysis, which verifies the applicability and effectiveness of the transformable wheel developed in this paper.     

2D FE–DEM analysis of contact stress and tractive performance of a tire driven on dry sand

Normal and tangential stresses acting over a contact interface of a tire driven on dry sand were investigated to expand the applicability of our model incorporating 2D FE–DEM with proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control. A simple averaging method for contact reaction was introduced: computational segments were defined over the lower half part of the tire circumference that translates without rotation with the tire; then the contact stresses were calculated segment by segment. For the analysis, it was assumed that the tire was in rigid contact mode and that it would travel on the model sand terrain in stationary condition. The integration of normal and tangential contact stresses with respect to the angle of rotation was then applied to calculate the vertical contact load, gross tractive effort, net traction, and running resistance of the tire by parametric (or semi-empirical) analysis. The result of tractive performance obtained through the parametric analysis was found to be similar to the result of tractive performance obtained directly using FE–DEM analysis. A forward shift of the consistent angle of rotation for maximum normal contact stress and that for maximum tangential contact stress with the increase of slip from 22% was also observed in the FE–DEM result.     

一种车辆模型辅助的MEMS-SINS导航方法

针对城市环境中GNSS因遮挡导致MEMS-SINS精度快速降低的问题,在车辆运动学约束的基础上,结合四通道ABS轮速传感器和方向盘转角信息,提出一种新的适用于陆地车辆的MEMS-SINS导航方法。该方法通过分析车辆转弯和运动约束特性,构建角速度和加速度观测量,从而实现基于模型辅助的MEMS误差在线补偿;其次,ABS轮速信息与非完整约束条件结合可额外增加三维车体速度观测量,进一步维持卫星失效时组合滤波器的量测更新。跑车实验表明,在GNSS信号频繁丢失甚至长时间无法定位时,低精度MEMS惯性器件引起的快速误差积累得到有效抑制,与经典车体约束结合里程计算法相比,航向精度提高约70%,位置、速度精度也有相应的提高,验证了算法的有效性。     

除湿转轮的焓湿分析与性能优化

为了探明空气进口参数对除湿转轮性能的影响,本文基于除湿转轮进出口空气的焓湿分析,提出了一个评价转轮除湿性能的综合技术指标(DCOP),在理论和实验上证实了转轮除湿性能严重依赖于再生温度和处理空气的温湿度, 同时对理论模拟结果进行了实验验证,并对转轮除湿性能进行了空气进口参数优化分析。