Independent Speed Controller for Integrated Motion Control of Tracked Vehicle with In-Track Motors

DC motor are known for simple design and consistency and commonly used for actuation system in most control applications. This paper presents an independent control approach for regulating the speed and motion of a DC motor in a tracked vehicle equipped with in-track DC motors. The proposed method involves the implementation of an independent open-loop controller. The open-loop control strategy is usually known to be less stable and accurate compared to closed-loop controller. However, this can be improved by an accurate system modelling to be used in the controller. In this study, the independent speed controller is developed by acquiring the speed characteristics of the DC motor in relation to its voltage input. Both DC motors on each track will be characterized and a model will be developed with these characteristics to be implemented in the open-loop control strategy. Data collection, controller development, and experimental validation will be described in this paper. The developed model shows good agreement with the actual vehicle response and open-loop controller are shown to produce the desired speed with good accuracy. The maximum percentage error obtained between the desired and actual speed of DC motor is 2%. With this controller, an integrated motion control for the tracked vehicle that governs the motion in longitudinal as well as lateral direction can be developed. It is hoped that this study can be served as an initial perspective on the development of basic control scheme, aiming to provide valuable insights for readers who are newcomers in the control field.