Kinematics of Wheel-Type Tracked Vehicle with Crawlers in Between the Front and Rear Wheels

Tracked vehicles are generally trucked to the field because they cannot move on the pavement. This operation is very slow and inefficient. To solve the problem, it is necessary to develop tracked vehicles that can move swiftly on both soft ground and pavement. Wheel-type tracked vehicles with crawlers in between the front and rear wheels can move swiftly using only the wheels on pavement and both wheels and crawlers on soft ground. However, such vehicles cannot turn on both wheels and crawlers. In this study, this steering constraint condition of the vehicle was analyzed with inverse kinematics. Using the obtained optimal conditions, numerical simulations and experiments were carried out. The vehicle’s turning performance was also shown to improve.