A Comprehensive Framework for Simulating Dynamics of an Off-Road Vehicle in Unconstructed Environments

Vehicle dynamics analysis becomes more demanding for off-road vehicles’ mobility in unconstructed environments. Significant vehicle orientation changes, extreme changes in ground elevation, and uneven ground profiles at tire-road contact regions, etc. must be taken into account. In addition, the simulation computations should strike a balance between the speed and the accuracy of the results. In this paper, a model with fourteen degrees of freedom is used for vehicle dynamics analysis. Integrated within the model, a comprehensive tire model and a system of instantaneous rotation matrices are programmed to address the effect of more extreme ground profiles on the vehicle dynamics. Additionally, an iterative algorithm is developed to explore and determine the tire-road contact point. The results of simulation for two random scenarios are validated versus a commercial vehicle dynamics software showing consistency of results.