Development of a Terrain Adaptive Stability Prediction System for Mass Articulating Mobile Robots

Abstract

Dynamic stability is an important issue for vehicles which move heavy loads, turn at speed, or operate on sloped terrain. In many cases, vehicles face more than one of these challenges simultaneously. This paper presents a methodology for deriving proximity to tipover for autonomous field robots which must be productive, effective, and self reliant under such challenging circumstances. The technique is based on explicit modelling of mass articulations and determining the motion of the center of gravity, as well as the attitude, in an optimal estimation framework. Inertial sensing, articulation sensing, and terrain relative motion sensing are employed. The implementation of the approach on a commercial industrial lift truck is presented.