Feasible Contact Forces in Semi-Active Vehicles
Abstract This article provides an integrated approach for identifying the feasible contact force distribution in various classes of semi-active vehicles including (a) vehicles with and without omni-directional motion capability, (b) vehicles with varying levels of actuated, unactuated, and spring joints, and (c) vehicles in singular kinematic configurations. The emphasis is on studying systems that have some level of overactuation which is defined as the number of actuators minus the mobility of the vehicle system. It is well known in the active vehicles and biomechanics literature that such overactuation can be used to optimize contact conditions to enhance locomotion capability. Once appropriate contact forces are computed, the desired actuator efforts can then be obtained. A geometric approach based on screw theory that leads to invariant analytical results has been used.