Drop impact simulation of tracked mobile robot body

The impact of mobile robot body dropping on ground is a high nonlinear structure problem. The dynamic process of drop impact of the body can be effectively investigated by means of numerical and test simulation technique. Drop impact of the small tracked mobile robot body was simulated by nonlinear finite element method. The robot 3D solid model was established with application of the ProE software to obtain the accurate mass, position of center of mass and inertia moment. The plastic track wheels and rubber tracks in two sides were simplified to four hyperelastic rubber wheels and the ground was simplified to rigid body. The contact stiffness between them was substituted for that of impact drop between ground and the robot equivalently. The holes of housing bear seat were neglected and the mass of the parts in the case were allocated to the case by equivalent mass method. The drop impact process of the body in different heights and different touchdown attitudes was analyzed with ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The stress and deformation of the drop impact body was obtained. The distribution of internal stress-time, stains and deformation-time of the body was obviously indicated by the result of simulation. Compared with test method, nonlinear finite element method could save the time consumption, the test cost and improve the design quality significantly. It is referred to design and research mobile robot.