KINEMATIC ANALYSIS FOR AUTOMATIC PLOWING DEPTH CONTROL OF A MINE CLEARING COMBAT VEHICLE

This paper develops a linear closed form equation as required for automatic plowing depth control of a mine clearing combat vehicle. The vehicle will be tasked with using its Mine Clearing Blade (MCB) to remove surface laid and buried land mines on undulating terrain so that other vehicles can follow its path without the threat of mines. Blade control must be automatic to ensure that the target depth of the cleared path is achieved and all mines on the path are removed. A closed form solution for real-time computing relating the MCB motion and hydraulic actuator movement is developed and implemented. The equations are provided in symbolic form so that the dimensions of the mechanism can be directly substituted and/or modified without re-derivation. Results were verified with field measured data and implemented in the controller of a real vehicle to successfully achieve objective goal of Automatic Mine Clearing.