Design Methodology and Control Strategy for the Locomotion of a Tracked Unmanned Ground Vehicle

In the last twenty years, interest in Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) has grown significantly, driven by their applications in defense, precision agriculture, and infrastructure control. In this context, the main contributions of this work are the definition of a systematic design methodology for mobile robots and the development of dynamic models and control strategies for UGVs. The article begins with an introduction to the world of UGVs and presents the objective the design achieved. The design methodology, virtual model, and electromechanical schematics are then illustrated in detail. The approach demonstrated combines the 3D CAD development phase with multibody modeling and simulation to develop a control algorithm. In particular, a dual PD control system is proposed for tracking the desired trajectory. The results obtained show that this control system is sufficient for monitoring the UGV’s trajectory. This work provides an initial methodological basis, and the described approach can be applied to different design concepts characterized by different architectures and extreme operating conditions, corroborated by computer models.