Step-Obstacle Negotiation: A Contact Force Analysis

Traverse rough terrain with a wheeled vehicle is something that happens in a lot of everyday activities. Nevertheless, tyre deformation analysis during the negotiation of an step-obstacle is still an unsolved problem. This document presents a recent study accompanied by experimental results to analyze what happens during the contact between a deformable tyre and a step-obstacle edge corner as well as what forces are exchanged between these two elements. We provide a comparison with a theoretical method too. Finally, it is shown how tyres with lower pressure can overcome a step-obstacle of greater height.