MOBILITY SYSTEMS BRANCH, ERDC, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
This talk will discuss the importance of sensors to autonomous ground vehicle mobility and some of the challenges involved in accurately modeling these sensors to provide useful data in modeling and simulation tools.
Read MoreSOIL MACHINE DYNAMIC LABORATORY, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
This talk focuses on the virtual performance analysis of bulldozer blades and subsoilers to optimize design, train AI, and advance automation for earth-moving vehicles. It integrates high-fidelity elasto-plastic cohesive DEM soil models, similitude scaling, and validation experiments to predict energy and dynamic soil interactions. This approach supports digital twin development, enhances electric-powered off-road vehicle design, and accelerates AI-driven automation in earth-moving operations.
Read MoreThis talk will explore how the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center - ERDC (previously known as WES) approaches mobility for ground vehicles operating in adverse conditions. In particular, this presentation talks about mobility research on soft soils and cold regions from Dr. Brad Hansen and Mr. Michael Parker
Read MoreZeinab El-Sayegh, PhD, PEng, Department of Automotive and Mechatronics Engineering, Ontario Tech University, will introduce the concept of virtual soil moisturization and its impact on the performance of 315/80R22.5-sized truck tires. The truck tires are simulated using multiple layers and materials in a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) environment. Moist sand, composed of layered water and sand particles, is simulated using the Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) technique. The tire-sand interaction is defined by a hybrid FEA-SPH interaction model, and the tire's tractive performance—including tractive effort, motion resistance coefficient, and tire sinkage—will be presented.
Read MoreChristopher Goodin, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University, will introduce the MAVS and show some examples of how it is being used in the classroom as an instructional tool for autonomous vehicles, by graduate students for research, and by researchers around the world in a variety of military and commercial applications. The technical underpinnings of the MAVS will also be presented.
Read MoreDan Negrut, NVIDIA CUDA Fellow, Bernard A. and Frances M. Weideman Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Simulation-Based Engineering Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our lab has worked on several projects aimed at improving the mobility of autonomous rovers operating in lunar conditions. The design of such rovers increasingly relies on computer simulation. The talk will cover two main topics: it presents an overview of terramechanics models in robotics, and it briefly describes the sensing used in lunar mobility simulations.
Read MorePaweł Tomiło, Ph.D., Lublin University of Technology. The session will introduce the hybrid-locomotion rover concept. The design of a hybrid robot combines the characteristics of wheeled and legged robots. The rover is equipped with a crawling mechanism that will allow it to climb steep slopes areas where a wheeled vehicle could slip due to loose ground. The concept of the rover will be discussed, the current state of research, and future work on the development of the rover will be presented.
Read MoreRECORDING | TERRABITE — The 11th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS was held online in September 2022, hosted by the Harbin Institute of Technology, PR China, and included presenters from around the world. The Conference Committee identified papers whose authors were encouraged to submit manuscripts for a Special Issue of the Society’s Journal of Terramechanics. The Special Issue that resulted represents a selection of the best papers of the conference: Best Papers of 11th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS. ISTVS has been hosting online events for ongoing and recent research on terramechanics and terrain-vehicle systems under our Digital Event Series since 2021. Recordings from the series are posted to our YouTube channel. Please join us in two upcoming sessions dedicated to the best papers from this Special Issue. This first session is on February 1.
Read MoreRECORDING | TERRABITE — The editors of the upcoming Journal of Terramechanics Special Issue on Soil Modeling and Simulation for Terramechanics Applications of Manned and Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles will discuss the topics of this special issue, invite authors to submit to the special issue, and open for questions for further discussion with the attendees. The proposed open-for-paper submission date will be June 2023.
Read MoreRECORDING | TERRABITE — Chris Mason, CEO, will join us to detail the rich history of FISITA, its modernization program, and how it is fit for purpose as a membership organization of the future. ISTVS is an affiliate of FISITA and we are pleased to host Chris for this talk about modern membership organizations in technical and engineering domains. We also talk about the FISITA World Congress in Barcelona in September, the ISTVS presence at the congress, and how ISTVS members can get involved.
Read MoreCarl Becker, Ph.D., Vehicle Dynamics Group, University of Pretoria. Carl Becker’s work looks at the importance of using artificial terrain in a laboratory environment that is representative of in-field terrains to characterize tyres and the effect of tyre wear. The presentation will cover the doctoral work Carl did to investigate changes in tyre characteristics with tyre wear, terrain interaction, and terrain characteristics of large lug tyres.
Read MoreTheunis Botha, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Vehicle Dynamics Group, University of Pretoria. The presentation will present camera-based measurement techniques developed at the University of Pretoria’s Vehicle Dynamics Group. The methods allow useful measurements to be obtained for vehicle research with the presentation focused on off-road terrain and vehicles.
Read MoreDr. Peter Kiss, Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Science. Dr. Peter Kiss and Ph.D. candidate Nihal Salman discuss a state-of-the-art on load-bearing capacity of soil as a homogeneous finite half-space and ongoing research in terramechanics and land locomotion.
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