An Unmanned Tiltable Narrow Reverse Tricycle Vehicle for Uneven Terrain Travel

To travel in the uneven and multi-obstacle terrain autonomously, an unmanned reverse tricycle vehicle, which mainly includes the steering, active tilting and driving actuators, is designed. A kinematic modeling framework incorporates terrain-induced camber, pitch, and tilting angles to characterize the vehicle's dynamic behavior. The analytical investigation focuses on caster angle optimization and demonstrates how a multi-link parallelogram chassis architecture achieves kinematic decoupling between steering and tilting functions. To validate the potential of travelling in uneven terrain, the strait forward traveling across the road bank with near '0' inclination, active tilting assistant turning on the level surface, and the challenging counter-gradient slope turning experiments are carried. Experimental validation encompasses three critical scenarios: straight line forward traversal across road bank with near-zero lateral inclination, active tilt-assisted turning on planar surfaces, and counter-gradient slope turning. These trials substantiate the vehicle's capability to maintain stability while executing complex maneuvers across uneven terrain.