Modelling and simulation of multibody mobile robot for volcanic environment explorations

This paper presents a dynamics analysis of a mobile robot, named M6, developed for volcanic environment exploration. The architecture of this kind of robot has six wheels which are coupled to the chassis by means of revolute joints. The robot is built by the DEES of Catania University. A multibody model of the system was constructed in a calculation code. Particular attention was given to the choice of tyre model to simulate the real tyre-road contact. A comparison of the simulation and experimental results confirmed the good agreement between the model and the real system.