It is expected that robot technology is applied to some mission on rough terrain, for example,rescue activity and planetary explorer. Tracked vehicles are effective against such environment because contact pressure can be distributed wider. In order to get some progress of the tracked vehicle, we have proposed a mechanism, “Flexible Mono-tread mobile Track (FMT)”. FMT has only one track which wraps around the vehicle body, and the body flexes in shape flexibly in three dimensions when the vehicle turns, climbs up and down stairs, and so on. Pressure distribution in the contacting surface of FMT on the ground varies depending on its configuration, thereby a property of compounded centre of gravity movement varies. However, geometrical centre of its tread belt decides travel path. Hence, the property should be took in consideration for control and its autonomy. In the paper, a dynamic model for the FMT is derived in sagittal and lateral planes to treat the movements. Then, some simulation are shown to analyse the lateral movement with respect to various pressure distribution affected by the retro-flexion. Finally, the analysis is validated through some experiments.
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