Analysis of Tread ICRs for Wheeled Skid-Steer Vehicles on Inclined Terrain

The instantaneous centers of rotation (ICRs) for the two treads skid-steer vehicles moving with low inertia on hard horizontal terrain almost remain constant local coordinates, which allows to establish an equivalence differential-drive locomotion. However, this significant kinematic relationship has not been analyzed yet sloped ground. One relevant difficulty studying ICR behavior inclined terrain, even a flat surface, is continuous variation pitch and roll angles while turning. To overcome problem, paper analyzes dynamic simulation vehicle ground where gravity substituted by equivalent external force in such way that are kept constant. Relevant tread variations have deduced, impact kinematics. These new findings corroborated experimentally four-wheeled mobile robot turns plane.