See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/360236410

Dynamics modeling and control of active track tensioning system for tracked
vehicle

Article · January 2020

CITATIONS READS

2 547

4 authors, including:

Pingxin Wang Hailong Yu

Nanjing University of Science and Technology Xiamen University
15 PUBLICATIONS 99 CITATIONS 50 PUBLICATIONS 1,974 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Pingxin Wang on 28 April 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Article
Journal of Vibration and Control
2020, Vol. 26(11–12) 989–1000

Dynamics modeling and control of active © The Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
track tensioning system for tracked vehicle DOI: 10.1177/1077546319890748
journals.sagepub.com/home/jvc

Pingxin Wang1, Xiaoting Rui1, Hailong Yu1 and Bo Li2

Abstract
Track assemblies are widely used to reduce vehicles’ ground pressure and improve their off-road performance. During off-
road, the track tension has a significant effect on the performance of the crawler driving system. Previous control strategies
only make use of the motions of partial road wheels. This paper develops a logical improvement to govern the motion of the
track tensioner by using all road wheels. First, a dynamic model of the hydraulic-mechanism coupling system is established
using the transfer matrix method for multibody systems and pressure-flow equations. Then, in order to get the angle of the
idler arm, a modeling method of wheel envelope perimeter is developed, which is based on the locations of all wheels.
Simulation results indicate that the control system maintains the wheel envelope perimeter almost constant while road
wheels swing and decrease the possibility of peel-off and breakage of the track. It alleviates the track repeated stretch and
keeps the tension in a stable range to reduce the fatigue damage. The control strategy can effectively reduce the peak value
of the upper track tension during a vehicle passing through obstacles. This study suggests that the active track tensioning
system can be implemented to improve the driving properties of tracked vehicles.

Keywords
Tracked vehicle, tensioner, hydraulic-mechanism coupling system, active track tensioning system, wheel envelope
perimeter

1. Introduction
Due to the advantages of powerful traction, low ground
contact pressure (Rahman et al., 2007; Zhang and Huang,
2015), strong climbing capacity and small swerving radius,
track assemblies have been widely used in military vehicles
and engineering machinery. The track tension has an im-
portant influence on the performance of the crawler driving
system (Huh and Hong, 2001). As the track tension in-
creases, excessive load is generated on tracks and sus-
pension systems. Conversely, if the track tension decreases,
sag or peel-off of tracks may happen. In addition, with the
constant wear and tear of track rubber bushing elements, the
track becomes more slack. Therefore, the track tensioner
plays a very important role in the driving process. It adjusts
the track tension as appropriate to guarantee the stability of
the track ring at all time and then improve its service life and
prevent the malfunction of peel-off caused by the excessive
vibration and impact.
At present, the torsion arm tensioner is adopted in most
tracked vehicles. Track tension is set before the vehicle
starts, and the cylinder is locked while driving. Generally,
the pre-tension takes 8%–10% of the vehicle weight (Xiao
and Li, 2006) and has, for example, three modes: paved-
road, cross-country and pivot turning (Huh et al., 2003; Ryu
et al., 2003). The choice of pre-tension completely depends
on the experience of the driver. However, it may lead to
serious problems such as peel-off and breakage of tracks
once a misjudgment occurs or the road surface condition
changes suddenly.
In view of the above problems, some scholars proposed
auxiliary track tensioning systems to adjust the track ten-
sion. The M1A1 tank uses a mechanical link between the
idler arm and the closest road wheel, where the position
of the idler is obtained by the road wheel without con-
sidering the track tension. Matej (2013) thought that the
motion of the track tensioning element was designed as
a function of all the road wheels’ motions and provided the
1
Institute of Launch Dynamics, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, China
2
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University
of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Received: 18 April 2019; accepted: 30 October 2019
Corresponding author:
Hailong Yu, Institute of Launch Dynamics, Nanjing University of Science and
Technology, No. 200, Xiaoling Wei, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 210094,
China.
Email: yhls0208@sina.com
990
constant coefficients of each road wheel by using the ge-
netic algorithm. However, the tracked vehicle model is too
simple and does not consider the mathematical model of the
actuator. Huh et al. (2004, 2001) designed a fuzzy logic
controller to control the track tension by means of an es-
timated track tension and considering the highly nonlinear
vehicle characteristics. Mȩżyk et al. (2017) assumed a fixed
torque which was loading on the idler and originated from
a hydraulic cylinder to control the track tension.
At present, due to the development of multibody dy-
namic software, the dynamic modeling of tracked vehicles
has become increasingly sophisticated. However, since this
software is based on the usual multibody dynamics method,
it is necessary to re-deduce the dynamic equations when the
system model changes. The workload is heavy, and the low
computational efficiency for complex systems is a serious
problem. Rui et al. proposed a transfer matrix method for
multibody systems (MSTMM) (Gu et al., 2017; Rui et al.,
2017, 2016, 2015), which has the advantages of high
programming, low system matrix order and high compu-
tational efficiency. It provides an effective approach for
modeling of tracked vehicles.
In order to improve ride comfort and achieve significant
performance, road wheels always oscillate with the change
of the terrain, which may change the wheel envelope pe-
rimeter. It will increase the detracking risk and aggravate the
track repeated stretch (Lv et al., 2018). On account of the
slack of track leading to peel-off (Wong and Huang, 2006),
tightening aggravating the wear of the track wheel assembly
and reducing the ride comfort, the wheel envelope perimeter
should be kept as constant as possible. In this paper,
a modeling method of wheel envelope perimeter is de-
veloped, which is based on variations in the relative location
of each wheel of the wheel system. The position of the idler
is actively adjusted according to the position of all road
wheels, so as to keep the wheel envelope perimeter almost
constant. In this way, the possibility of peel-off caused by
excessive impact is reduced, and the track tension can be
kept within a relatively stable range. The effect of the
control system is evaluated with the mathematical model of
Figure 1. Track tensioner (a) and its arrangement principle (b).
Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)
a hydraulic-mechanism coupling tracked vehicle system
based on the MSTMM and pressure-flow equations. Dif-
ferent types of road profiles are tested to prove the proposed
method.
The main contributions of this paper are summarized as
follows:
1. The mathematical model of a hydraulic-mechanism
coupling tracked vehicle system is deduced.
2. A modeling method of wheel envelope perimeter is
developed to govern the motion of the track tensioner
by using motions of all the road wheels.
3. The proposed control strategy effectively reduces the
deformation of the track rubber portion and keeps the
tension in a stable range.
2. Track tension control system
2.1. Track tensioner
A torsion arm tensioner is illustrated in Figure 1(a), and its
arrangement principle is shown in Figure 1(b). P0P2 is the
oscillating rod, which is hinged with the hull at point P0.
P3P2 is the telescopic rod on the hydraulic cylinder, hinged
with the hull at point P3. The track tensioner is essentially
a swing guide mechanism, which converts the linear motion
of the hydraulic cylinder actuator P3P2 into the rotational
motion of the torsion arm P0P2 around point P0.
From the law of cosines, we can get
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
L1 ¼ L22 þ L23  2L2 L3 cosðα  θÞ (1)
2 
L1 þ L22  L23
β ¼ arccos (2)
2L1 L2
By differentiation w.r.t. time, one may find
dL1 L2 L3 sinðα  θÞ dθ
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (3)
dt L2 þ L3  2L2 L3 cosðα  θÞ dt
2 2
Wang et al.
The effective force arm length formed by the hydraulic
cylinder piston rod and revolute joint is
lef ¼ L2 sin β (4)
2.2. Hydraulic unit
A hydraulic servo system is selected as the track tension
control actuator for the proposed tension control system
(Figure 2). The driving force generated by the hydraulic
system is applied on the tensioner torsion arm to control the
position of the idler. While modeling the hydraulic servo
system, the following assumptions are considered:
(a) Ignore the pipe losses;
(b) The oil temperature and density are constant;
(c) The oil supply pressure is constant, and the return
pressure is 0;
(d) Ignore the nonlinearity of the servo valve;
(e) Ignore the influence of friction, transient hydraulic
power and other parts of the system on the valve.
In this paper, the hydraulic system is taken into account
in the whole tracked vehicle system. Therefore, the dynamic
equation of the hydraulic system is not written separately.
Only the hydraulic driving force needs to be deduced. A
mathematical model of the plant can be derived from the
flow equation of the valve and the continuity equation. The
valve-flow-rate equation is highly non-linear and dependent
on the valve displacement from neutral, which is pro-
portional to the input voltage v and the pressure drop across
the load PL (Knohl and Unbehauen, 2000). A Taylor series
linearization leads to
QL ¼ Kq v  Kc pL (5)
Figure 2. Configuration of the hydraulic unit.
991
where Kq is the flow-gain coefficient, Kq = 2.4 m2/s, and Kc
is the flow-pressure coefficient, Kc = 1.67 × 1011 m5/(N s).
Considering the oil leakage, the total oil flow QL is
Vt
QL ¼ AL_ 1 þ p_ þ Ctc pL (6)
4βe L
where A is the surface area of the piston, A ¼ 2:95 ×
103 m2 ; Vt the total compressed oil volume, Vt ¼ 8:85 ×
104 m3 ; βe the bulk modulus, βe ¼ 6:85 × 108 Pa; and Ctc
the total leakage coefficient of the piston, Ctc ¼ 4:5 ×
1010 m5 =ðN sÞ.
Here, it is assumed that the hydraulic cylinder is sym-
metrical. The driving force Fp is
Fp ¼ pL A (7)
Combining equations (4)–(6) results in
4Aβe  
F_ p ¼ Kq v  Kc pL  Ctc pL  AL_ 1 (8)
Vt
2.3. Wheel envelope perimeter modeling
In order to maintain the track tension within a certain range
and improve the service life of the track, the wheel envelope
perimeter should be kept as constant as possible. This paper
proposes a method for calculating the wheel envelope
perimeter with the use of the motions of all road wheels. We
analyzed the influence of the position uncertainty of road
wheels on the wheel envelope perimeter. The method is
further used to match the piston rod elongation and the swing
amplitude of road wheels; consequently, the wheel system
can keep the wheel envelope perimeter unchanged. The
wheel envelope perimeter is divided into two parts: the arc
enveloping the wheel and the tangent between two wheels.
The two adjacent wheels in the wheel system are denoted
as w1 and w2 respectively and their centers are (x1, y1) and
(x2, y2), respectively. As shown in Figure 3(a), AB is the
tangent between two wheels, and one may get
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
L12 ¼ ðx1  x2 Þ2 þ ðy1  y2 Þ2  ðR2  R1 Þ2 (9)
β ¼ atan2ðy1  y2 ; x1  x2 Þ (10)
0 1
B R2  R1 C
θ ¼ arccos@qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiA (11)
2 2
ðx1  x2 Þ þ ðy1  y2 Þ
α¼βþθ (12)
where L12 is the track between two wheels, α is the angle of
the connection between A and w2 wheel center relative to
the x-axis, β is the angle of the tangent between two wheels
relative to the x-axis and θ is the angle of the connection
992 Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)

Figure 3. The tangent between two wheels (a) and two situations of the track deformation (b, c).

between B and w2 wheel center relative to the two wheel A and C are the tangent points between the track and w1
centers connector. and w3, respectively. B is the contact point between the
There are two situations of relative positions of the road track and w2
wheels:  
xA ¼ x1 þ R1 cos α1 xB ¼ x2 þ R2 cos γ
1. When the outer circumference of the middle road yA ¼ y1 þ R1 sin α1 yB ¼ y2 þ R2 sin γ
wheel is below the lower tangent line of the left and 
right road wheels, the central road wheel is sub- xC ¼ x3 þ R3 cos α3
 (15)
sidence. The two track sections between the road yC ¼ y3 þ R3 sin α3
wheels can be approximated by straight lines, and
there is no intersection between the lines (Figure 3(b)). Then, we may obtain
8 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
The descriptions of α1 , α2 and α3 are similar to α which is < L ¼ ðx  x Þ2 þ ðy  y Þ2
the angle of the connection between the tangent point and
12
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
A B A B
ffi (16)
: 2 2
the wheel center relative to the x-axis. L12 is the straight-line L23 ¼ ðxB  xC Þ þ ðyB  yC Þ
deformation of the track between w1 and w2, and L23 is the
straight-line deformation of the track between w2 and w3. If the positions of road wheels are determined, the wheel
L2 is the contact part between track and w2. envelope perimeter is only related to the rotation angle of
α1 , α2 , L12 and L23 can be found by using equations (8)– the idler arm (Figure 4). Define the wheel envelope pe-
(11). α3 equals α2 rimeter as L, and then
L2 ¼ R2 ðα2  α1 Þ (13) L ¼ f ðθÞ (17)

In the initial time, L0 = 15.50 m.

2. When the outer circumference of the middle road
wheel is above the lower tangent line of the left and
right road wheels. If two deformation parts are still
represented by tangents, the two line segments cross
under the middle wheel. Take the middle point as
shown in Figure 3(c).
α1 , α2 , L12 and L23 can be found by using equations (8)–
(11). α3 equals α2 .
ðα1 þ α2 Þ
γ¼ (14)
2
After the positions of the road wheels are measured by
sensors, the reference rotation angle of the idler arm is
calculated as follows:
1. Calculate the maximum Lmax and minimum Lmin of
the wheel envelope perimeter when θmax and θmin are
taken, respectively. If L0 is not within ½Lmin ; Lmax , the
boundary value is selected.
2. If L0 is within ½Lmin ; Lmax , the dichotomy is adopted
to continuously reduce the value range until
Lmax  Lmax < 1 × 104 m.
Wang et al. 993

Figure 4. Wheel envelope perimeter and the rotation angle of the idler arm.

Figure 5. Tracked vehicle (a) and corresponding topology (b).

3. Numerical model
3.1. Dynamic modeling of the tracked vehicle
The tracked vehicle consists of a chassis and two track
subsystems with a dynamic model as shown in Figure 5(a).
Its topology is illustrated in Figure 5(b). The chassis
subsystem includes a hull (1), sprockets (54, 66), support
rollers (61–64, 73–76), idlers (65, 77), road arms (26–31,
33–38), road wheels (55–60, 67–72) and tensioners (32,
39). The sprockets, support rollers, and road arms are
connected to the chassis by revolute joints (2–25, 40–53). In
particular, the tensioner is simplified as a torsion arm, and
994 Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)

the idler is connected to the chassis through it. A track where, x€, y€ and z€ are accelerations, V _ y and V
_ x, V _ z angular
subsystem consists of 84 track shoes (78, 80, …, 244), accelerations, mx , my and mz internal moments and qx , qy
where adjacent track shoes are connected by revolute joints and qz internal forces described in the inertial frame.
(79, 81, …, 245) (Choi et al., 1998). Because track shoes are On the right track subsystem, the revolute joint 245 is cut
generally made of steel, they are modeled as spatial rigid off and its effect on the closed-loop multibody system is
bodies. The mass of a track shoe is 28.1 kg. The body-fixed treated as an elastic-damping model. In this way, the track
frame of a track shoe is shown in Figure 5(a). The pa- subsystem is processed into an open-loop system by
rameters of these track shoes are identical, where the co- a closed-loop system. The transfer equation is
ordinates of the mass center and the output point and the
moment of inertia relative to the mass center in the body- U Tall zTall ¼ 0 (24)
fixed frame are as follows. where
rIC ¼ ½ 0:09215 0
T
0  m; rIO ¼ ½ 0:1843 0
T
0  m; U Tall ¼ ½I T 24478  (25)
J C ¼ diagð0:79 0:86 0:12Þ kg m 2
 T
zTall ¼ zT244;0 zT78;0 (26)
The elastic-damping model is adopted for the contact
between wheels and track shoes (Lee et al., 1998). It should
T 24478 ¼ U 244 U 243 U 242 /U 79 U 78 (27)
be noted that the driving force generated by the hydraulic
system is applied to the idler arm as an external torque. Its For the chassis subsystem, the output of body element 1
value can be obtained by the following formula. is selected as the reference point. Its generalized coordinates
md ¼ Fp  lef (18) are the position coordinates and Euler parameters of this
reference point in the inertial frame and relative rotation
According to the dynamic model and topology of the angles of all revolute joints, i.e.
chassis subsystem, the transfer equation of the chassis  T
subsystem can be obtained based on the automatic de- ychassis ¼ x1 ; y1 ; z1 ; ε1;1 ; ε2;1 ; ε3;1 ; ε4;1 ; θ2 ; θ3 ; …; θj (28)
duction theorem (Rui et al., 2015) as
For the right track subsystem, element 78 is selected as
U all zall ¼ 0 (19) the base element. Similar to the chassis subsystem, its
2 3 generalized coordinates are
I T 154 T 155 / T 177
6O G 3;54 G3;55 / G 3;77 7 ytrack r ¼ ½x78 ; y78 ; z78 ; ε1;78 ; ε2;78 ; ε3;78 ; ε4;78 ; θ79 ; θ81 ; …; θ243 T
6 7
U all ¼6
6O G 4;54 G4;55 / G 4;77 77 (20) (29)
4 « « « 1 « 5
O G25;54 G4;55 / G 25;77 The generalized coordinates of a tracked vehicle system
are
 T h iT
zall ¼ zT1;0 zT54;0 zT55;0 / zT77;0 (21)
y ¼ yTchassis ; yTtrack r ; yTtrack l (30)
8 8 
>
> T 154 ¼ U 1 U 2 U 54 >
> G 3;54 ¼ H 3;2 U 54 The generalized coordinates and velocities yT y_T
T
< <
T 155 ¼ U 1 U 3 U 26 U 40 U 55 G 3;55 ¼ H 3;3 U 26 U 40 U 55 may be considered as the state of the dynamic system
>
> « >
> « known at any time ti . At the initial moment, y is acquired
: :
T 177 ¼ U 1 U 25 U 77 G3;77 ¼ H 3;25 U 77 according to the installation dimensions of the vehicle, and
8 8 y_ ¼ 0. Then, the transfer matrices U all and U Tall are known.
>
> G 4;54 ¼ H 4;2 U 54 >
> G 25;54 ¼ H 25;2 U 54 Solving equations (18) and (23), the state vector of every
< <
G 4;55 ¼ H 4;3 U 26 U 40 U 55 G 25;55 ¼ H 25;3 U 26 U 40 U 55
/ connection point in the system can be obtained successively
>
> « >
> «
: : according to the system transmission path. If the state
G 4;77 ¼ H 4;25 U 77 G 25;77 ¼ H 25;25 U 77 vectors of the revolute joint’s input and output are already
(22) known, the second time derivative of the joint coordinate θ€j
can be calculated as
where Uall is the overall transfer matrix of the chassis
subsystem and Zall is the total state vector. According to the €θj ¼ H 3 AT V _ j;O  H 3 AT V _ j;I  H 3 ω
~ j;I ωr;j (31)
j;I j;I
MSTMM, the state vector of a connection point between
two elements is defined as where H 3 ¼ ½ 0 0 1  denotes the z-axis in the joint-fixed
h iT frame and ωr;j ¼ 0 0 θ_ j . The transformation matrix
T
_x V
z ¼ x€ y€ z€ V _y V _ z mx my mz qx qy qz (23) Aj;I describes the local coordinate frame of joint j with
Wang et al.
respect to the inertial frame, and ω~ j;I is a skew-symmetric
matrix of angular velocities ωj;I in the joint-fixed frame.
Here, the generalized accelerations y€ are solved. Com-
bined with a 4th order Runge–Kutta method, the general-
ized coordinates and velocities at the next time step tiþ1 can
be calculated.
Seen from the above solution process, for a chain system,
the overall transfer matrix is the continuous multiplication
of the transfer matrix of each element from the beginning to
the end of the chain. Owing to the extreme low order of the
system matrix, the calculation speed is extremely high. In
Gu et al. (2017) and Rui et al. (2017, 2016, 2015), the
comparisons of computational precision and speed between
the MSTMM and other dynamics methods can be found.
3.2. Simulation process of the active track
tensioning system
In order to achieve the real-time tension control of tracked
vehicles, the reference rotation angle θref is calculated every
2 × 102 s. During each time period, the block diagram of the
active track tensioning system is shown in Figure 6. Con-
sidering the nonlinearity of the hydraulic system and system
integration difficulties, the simulation step length is selected
as 104 s. We have implemented a proportional-integral-
derivative (PID) controller to make the idler arm to achieve
the reference rotation angle. Its discretization is as follows.
Xk
uðkÞ ¼ Kp errorðkÞ þ Ki errorð jÞ þ Kd ðerrorðkÞ
j¼0
 errorðk  1ÞÞ
(32)
In order to test the running conditions of the tracked
vehicle in the process of passing obstacles, a road surface
Figure 6. Block diagram of the active track tensioning system.
Figure 7. Road surface: obstacles (a) and D-grade (b).
995
with four triangular obstacles (Figure 7(a)) is used. The
front 50 m is a flat road, enabling the tracked vehicle to
accelerate from 0 km/h to 30 km/h, and the total simulation
time is 10 s.
To prove the proposed method, a stochastic road for test
is necessary. The variation of road height h(x) is re-
constructed with a harmonic superposition method. It can be
performed with different forms of triangular series. Select
a certain array h(xi) from several generated arrays as the
road profile. Based on D-grade, a 200 m running road is
simulated, as shown in Figure 7(b).
4. Simulation results
In this section, the simulation was carried out with respect to
two road conditions, respectively. The proposed control
method in this paper was compared with the fixed tensioner
and the controller in Huh et al. (2004), respectively. The
differential equations of the tracked vehicle can be solved
by using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta numerical integration
method. The genetic algorithm is applied to find the PID
coefficients, where for the right tensioner, Kp = 9.945 ×
102, Ki = 1.247 × 104 and Kd = 1.967 × 104, and for
the left tensioner, Kp = 8.327 × 102, Ki = 6.901 × 105 and
Kd = 8.712 × 103. The sampling time is decreased to 0.02 s
for wheel envelope perimeter calculation.
4.1. Simulation of the tracked vehicle passing
obstacles
Figure 8 presents time dependent charts of rotation angles of
idler arms. As a result, the wheel envelope perimeters in
time are shown in Figure 9. Compared with the fixed
tensioner, this solution allows a significant decrease of the
996
Figure 8. Comparison of simulation and reference rotation angles of the right (a) and the left (b) idler arm.
Figure 9. Cure of wheel envelope perimeters.
variance of the wheel envelope perimeter. A slight shaking
appears and causes a sudden change of the wheel envelope
perimeter when the vehicle starts. It can be seen that the
control system quickly adjusts the wheel envelope perim-
eter to 15.50 m. Due to the delay of the hydraulic system,
the wheel envelope perimeter cannot be constant all the
time; especially when the vehicle is over obstacles, the road
wheel positions change drastically. However, the control
system still makes its scope narrower to a smaller extent.
The closed-loop transfer functions of the left and right
controller are
8 7:088s2 þ 67:75s þ 0:05614
>
> 6 4
þ 1:287 × 102 s3 þ 8:088s2
left
>
< 8:908 × 10 þs67:75s þ 0:05614
>
> 0:16s þ 80:91s þ 0:1015
2 separated from wheels while the vehicle passing obstacles.
>
: right
8:908 × 106 s4 þ 1:287 × 102 s3 þ 1:16s2
þ 80:91s þ 0:1015
(33)
The real parts of their characteristic roots are all negative,
so these two systems are stable.
For a hydraulic system, its flow-gain coefficient Kp,
flow-pressure coefficient Kc and leakage coefficient Ctc are
Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)
uncertainties. Here, Kp is increased by 50%, Kc reduced by
50% and Ctc increased by 100%, respectively. Their rotation
angles of right idler arms are presented in Figure 10. Ob-
viously, the controller still has a good tracking effect after
the parameters change.
A screen shot of animation of the right track ring in the
moment of passing obstacles is shown in Figure 11(a).
While the vehicle passing obstacles, road arms swing
sharply (Figure 12), causing the right idler arm to swing
sharply. After the vehicle passes through obstacles, it
bounces on the ground, which explains why the road arms
and idler arms still swing greatly between t = 6.5 and 8 s.
As a comparison, a screen shot of animation of a vehicle
with fixed tensioners is presented in Figure 11(b). As in-
dicated by the circles in the figure, the track shoes are
Correspondingly in Figure 11(a), due to the active track
tensioning system, the track shoes are always in contact
with wheels, which reduce the possibility of peel-off.
As shown in Figure 4, the upper span of the track is
divided into five segments by support rollers. The tension
variations of these five segments are exhibited in Figure 13.
Obviously, when the vehicle passes obstacles (t = 5–6 s), the
tension of the upper track increases sharply. Compared with
Wang et al. 997

Figure 10. Rotation angles of the right idler arm with different parameters: (a) Kp +50%, (b) Kc 50% and (c) Ctc +100%.

Figure 11. Screenshots of the right track subsystem with active tensioners (a) and fixed tensioners (b).

the estimated track tension controller (Huh et al., 2004), the
control method proposed in this paper can effectively re-
duce the peak value of the tension during the obstacle
crossing. The reason for this result is that the estimated track
tension controller only uses the motion of the first road
wheel, while the control method in this paper uses the
motions of all the road wheels.
Besides the track tension, the ride comfort is also im-
portant. We also selected the vertical displacement and
acceleration of the center of mass of the chassis as com-
parison indexes. The results are illustrated in Figure 14.
There is almost no difference. Therefore, the active track
tensioning system does not increase the vibration of the
chassis. It has no negative effect on the ride comfort.
4.2. Simulation of the tracked vehicle running on
the D-level road surface
Taking into account the randomness of the driving condi-
tion, while the vehicle running on the D-level road surface,
the selected driving speeds of the vehicle are 10 km/h,
20 km/h, 30 km/h and 40 km/h. The distributions of wheel
envelope perimeters are shown in Figure 15. Through the
adjustment of the active tensioning system, the wheel en-
velope perimeters stabilize at 15.50 ± 0.005 m. The wheel
envelope perimeter variations with a fixed tensioner are
larger than that with an active track tensioning system. In
addition, for the vehicle with fixed tensioners, the wheel
envelope perimeters decrease slowly with the increase of
998
Figure 12. Rotation angles of road arms 1–6.
Figure 13. Tension variation of each track segment: (a) span 1; (b) span 2; (c) span 3; (d) span 4; (e) span 5.
the driving speed. In contrast, the active tensioning system
can control the wheel envelope perimeters to remain stable
regardless of the speed of the vehicle.
5. Conclusions
This paper investigates an application of the active track
tensioning system to control the track subsystem. Based on
the proposed modeling method of wheel envelope perimeter,
all road wheels are used to govern the motions of tensioners.
The tensioner is actuated by a hydraulic system with
a PID controller. The mathematical model of a hydraulic-
mechanism coupling tracked vehicle system based on the
MSTMM and pressure-flow equations is established. The
Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)
genetic algorithm is applied to find the PID coefficients. The
effectiveness of the proposed track control system is ver-
ified by simulating a tracked vehicle passing obstacles.
Simulation results indicate that the active track tensioning
system can maintain the wheel envelope perimeter almost
constant while road wheels swing, so that the possibility of
peel-off and breakage of the track decreases. Keeping the
wheel envelope perimeter constant can effectively reduce
the axial deformation variations of the rubber bushing el-
ements and further prolongs the lifespan of the track. In
addition, the solution decreases the variance of the track
tension to reduce the fatigue damage while the vehicle
passing obstacles. Compared with the control strategy of
using motions of partial road wheels, the control method
Wang et al. 999

Figure 14. Cure of vertical displacement (a) and acceleration (b) of the center of mass of the chassis.

Figure 15. Distributions of wheel envelope perimeters at different driving speed. (a) v = 10 km/h; (b) v = 20 km/h; (c) v = 30 km/h; (d) v =
40 km/h.

proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the peak Bo Li  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4189-6408

tension of the upper track.

Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declare no conflict of interest in preparing this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The
authors are grateful for the support from the Science Challenge
Project (No. TZ2016006-0104) and Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 11472135).
ORCID iDs
Hailong Yu  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5415-2833
References
Choi JH, Lee HC and Shabana AA (1998) Spatial dynamics of
multibody tracked vehicles part I: spatial equations of motion.
Vehicle System Dynamics 29(1): 27–49.
Gu J, Rui X, Zhang J, et al. (2017) Riccati transfer matrix method
for linear tree multibody systems. Journal of Applied Me-
chanics 84: 1–12.
Huh K, Choi J and Yoo H (2003) Development of a multi-body
dynamics simulation tool for tracked vehicles (part II, appli-
cation to track tension controller design). JSME International
Journal Series C 46(2): 550–556.
Huh K, Chung CC, Kim IM, et al. (2004) Track tension controller
design and experimental evaluation in tracked vehicles.
Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control
126(4): 764–771.
1000
Huh K and Hong D (2001) Track tension estimation in tacked
vehicles under various maneuvering tasks. Journal of Dynamic
Systems, Measurement, and Control 123(2): 179–185.
Huh K, Kim J and Hong D (2001) Estimation of dynamic track
tension utilizing a simplified tracked vehicle model. In: Pro-
ceedings of the American Control Conference, Arlington, TX,
USA. New York: IEEE.
Knohl T and Unbehauen H (2000) Adaptive position control of
electrohydraulic servo systems using ANN. Mechatronics 10:
127–143.
Lee JH, Choi JH and Shabana AA (1998) Spatial dynamics of
multibody tracked vehicles part II: contact forces and simu-
lation results. Vehicle System Dynamics 29(2): 113–137.
Lv K, Mu X, Li L, et al. (2018) Design and test methods of rubber-
track conversion system. Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engi-
neering 233: 1903–1929.
Matej J (2013) Terrain-adaptive auxiliary track tensioning system
for tracked vehicles. Journal of Computational and Nonlinear
Dynamics 8(3): 0310131–0310138.
Mȩżyk A, Czapla T, Klein W, et al. (2017) Numerical simulation of
active track tensioning system for autonomous hybrid vehicle.
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 89: 108–118.
Rahman A, Yahya A and Mohiuddin AKM (2007) Mobility in-
vestigation of a designed and developed segmented rubber
track vehicle on Sepang peat terrain in Malaysia. Proceedings
View publication stats
Journal of Vibration and Control 26(11–12)
of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of
Automobile Engineering 221(7): 789–800.
Rui X, Bestle D, Zhang J, et al. (2016) A new form of the transfer
matrix method for multibody systems. Multibody System
Dynamics 38: 137–156.
Rui X, Gu J, Zhang J, et al. (2017) Visualized simulation and
design method of mechanical system dynamics based on
transfer matrix method for multibody systems. Advances in
Mechanical Engineering 9(8): 1–12.
Rui X, Zhang J and Zhou Q (2015) Automatic deduction theorem
of overall transfer equation of multibody system. Advances in
Mechanical Engineering 6: 1–12.
Ryu HS, Huh KS, Bae DS, et al. (2003) Development of a mul-
tibody dynamics simulation tool for tracked vehicles (part I,
efficient contact and nonlinear dynamic modeling). JSME
International Journal 46(2): 540–549.
Wong JY and Huang W (2006) Study of detracking risks of track
systems. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical En-
gineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering 220(9):
1235–1253.
Xiao Y and Li X (2006) Effect of track pre-tension on the ride
quality of high-speed tracked vehicle. Computer Simulation
23(7): 253–255 (in Chinese).
Zhang Y and Huang T (2015) Research on a tracked omnidi-
rectional and cross-country vehicle. Mechanism and Machine
Theory 87: 18–44.