Conception choice or basis of type and main performance data of
vehicle depends on the method of system analysis. This is connected
with difficult interaction between vehicle, medium and human being
and necessity to select one from a definite number of variants,
only one of which completely satisfies initial requirements. Taking
into account gained experience of development of mechanical systems
"locality-vehicle" in a number of cases it is possible to
accept the decisions on the basis of the analysis of separate base
elements of this system. The analysis of
"locality-vehicle" system usually begins with definition
of the requirements on purpose, such as character of carried out
work, road conditions, technical and economic and ecological
requirements. After that the competing types of the all-terrain or
off-road vehicles (ORV) are selected. Then their comparative
analysis will be carried out and the design and basic parameters of
the ORV gets out optimum.
The researches of the ORV of various types carried out in NAMI,
has allowed to establish the statistically proved dependencies
between some basic parameters of vehicle and to generalize the
actual tendencies in their choice. Thus the carrying capacity
(payload) is accepted as the base parameter describing the most
important technical and performance parameter of a vehicle.
For the analysis three basic types of ORV were chosen - wheeled,
track and air cushion vehicle (ACV). The other types of the ORV
(walking, rotary-spiral, etc.) were excluded from consideration by
ecological and economic criteria.