SBIR-STTR Award

The objective of this project is to develop a modular, open-architecture, physics-based ground vehicle mobility prediction software tool for world-wide terrains that are encountered in military applications including on-road and off-road soft soil terrains. The tool will integrate three modules: (1) Physics-Based Vehicle-Terrain Modeling tool; (2) Geographic Information System (GIS); and (3) Stochastic Design-Of-Experiments (DOE) Mobility Expert System. The physics-based vehicle and terrain modeling tool integrates into one solver: Multibody Dynamics for modeling the rigid vehicle and obstacle components, the Finite Element Method for modeling flexible bodies (including tires, suspension components, and vegetation), a Discrete Element Method complex terramechanics model, a height-field fast simple terramechanics model, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for modeling fluids (including water flooded terrains and liquids in tanks carried by the vehicle). Calibration and validation test procedures for the Physics-Based Modeling tool will be developed using small-scale terramechanics experiments and full-scale instrumented vehicles. GIS will store the terrain topography, soil, vegetation, and obstacle parameters. GIS will also be used to display the output mobility maps. The DOE expert system will be used to create a set of DOE physics-based vehicleterrain runs, then, based on the output, generate stochastic terrain maps of the mobility metrics.