Abstract
In this paper, an efficient track-soil interaction model for real-time vehicle simulation is introduced. For the real-time simulation, the model can be carried out with lower CPU power than that required for the conventional approaches such as Finite Element Method (FEM) or Distinct Element Method (DEM). The major features of the model are (i) distributed vertical force under the track to calculate motions and forces of all track shoes and connectors; (ii) consideration of track sinkage, slip and longitudinal/lateral forces by empirical equations such as Bekker, Janosi and Rankine; (iii) 100m square virtual soil bin, which is modeled with several two-dimensional matrices to store the soil deformation and the state history. The proposed model was implemented to our Combat vehicle concept simulator-2 (COVECS-2), which was designed to simulate both of the tracked and wheeled combat vehicles in real time. By the proposed model the COVECS-2 can perform high fidelity simulation of vehicle's mobility at various terrain conditions. The COVECS-2 can also simulate a contact with the soil surface and the hull bottom of the combat vehicle that has large influence on vehicle's mobility. Currently, technical validation of the COVECS-2 is being carried out.
