Wheels Statistical Analysis for Mobile Robots in Irregular Surface: Spring Stiffness Calculation

Obtaining contact models that can optimize wheel design depends on certain variables such as impact velocity, material properties of the colliding bodies and geometric characteristics of the contact surfaces. These models can provide much in terms of stability for mobile robots. The aim of this research is to demonstrate that the wheel shape has significant impacts on the contact force calculating the spring stiffnes for linear hooke model. The method proposed is the obtention of data from simulations and a statistical analysis based on non parametric test to determine the contact force and the level penetration due to the geometry and material properties. As main result the spring stiffnes constant was approximate for different wheels geometry.