For a mobile robot that travels along a terrain consisting of various geology, information on tire force and friction coefficient between ground and wheel is an important factor. In order to estimate the lateral force between ground and wheel, a lot of information about the model and the surrounding environment of the vehicle is required in conventional method. Therefore, in this paper, we are going to estimate lateral force through simple model (Minimal Argument Lateral Slip Curve, MALSC) using only minimum data with high estimation accuracy and to improve estimation reliability of the friction coefficient by using the estimated lateral force data. Simulation is carried out to analyze the correlation between the longitudinal and transverse friction coefficients and slip angles to design the simplified lateral force estimation model by analysing simulation data and to apply it to the actual field environment. In order to verify the validity of the equation, estimation results are compared with the conventional method through simulation. Also, the results of the lateral force and friction coefficient estimation are compared from both the conventional method and the proposed model through the actual robot running experiments.

The robot mechanisms that were previously researched had only been conducted for the purpose of overcoming the obstacles stably at low speed driving and enhancing the stability against high speed circuitous driving, and yet, the mechanism satisfying two purposes. However, in order to stably drive with high speed on rough terrain, there is a need for satisfying both of these purposes, as well as testing the efficiency of the mechanisms at high speed driving. There, this paper simulated some of the passive mechanisms and focused on checking the performances of passive mechanisms through simulations and analyzing each mechanism on the basis of an evaluation index. The simulation was conducted by Adams (The Multi-body Dynamics Simulation Solution) and used various types of passive mechanisms which were introduced in the robotics field. As a result, the study confirmed that passive mechanisms have a number of situations that affect the driving stability on each direction of roll and pitch. Further study is needed about active mechanism.

This paper focuses on development of a testbed for analysis of robot-terrain interaction on rough terrain and also, through one wheel driving experiments using this testbed, prediction of maximum velocity and acceleration of UGV. Firstly, from the review regarding previous researches for terrain modeling, the main variables for measurement are determined. A testbed is developed to measure main variables related to robot-terrain interaction. Experiments are performed on three kinds of rough terrains (grass, gravel, and sand) and traction-slip curves are obtained using the data of the drawbar pull and slip ratio. Traction-slip curves are used to predict driving performance of UGV on rough terrain. Maximum velocity and acceleration of UGVs are predicted by the simple kinematics and dynamics model of two kinds of 4-wheel mobile robots. And also, driving efficiency of UGVs is predicted to reduce energy consumption while traversing rough terrains.