- #1
RonnieTheBear
- 3
- 0
Hi folks, my first post here, looks like a very helpful website though, so i thought i'd share my problem.
I'm a mechanical engineering student working on a vehicle that has a zero turning radius system, which is to say (for the purposes of this problem) that it's controlled by 2 drivewheels fixed in line with the body (i.e. straight ahead) that can turn at different velocities independent of one another.
So say one wheel is at V1 and the other is at V2 (linear, not rotational). What I'm trying to figure out is the turning radius for the vehicle as a function of V1 and V2. My basic mechanics are a little rusty (so please correct me if I'm wrong), but I had figured if you just approximate the vehicle as a point, it will contain a tangential velocity that's the lesser of the two wheel velocities (say V1), and a rotational velocity [tex]\omega[/tex] that is equal to the difference of the two velocities over the distance between the wheels, L ( or [tex]\stackrel{V1 - V2}{L}[/tex]. I'm not sure how to take those components and find the turning radius from there, though. Any help you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Also, let me know if I've been way too vague and you need a picture or something for explanation. Thanks in advance!
I'm a mechanical engineering student working on a vehicle that has a zero turning radius system, which is to say (for the purposes of this problem) that it's controlled by 2 drivewheels fixed in line with the body (i.e. straight ahead) that can turn at different velocities independent of one another.
So say one wheel is at V1 and the other is at V2 (linear, not rotational). What I'm trying to figure out is the turning radius for the vehicle as a function of V1 and V2. My basic mechanics are a little rusty (so please correct me if I'm wrong), but I had figured if you just approximate the vehicle as a point, it will contain a tangential velocity that's the lesser of the two wheel velocities (say V1), and a rotational velocity [tex]\omega[/tex] that is equal to the difference of the two velocities over the distance between the wheels, L ( or [tex]\stackrel{V1 - V2}{L}[/tex]. I'm not sure how to take those components and find the turning radius from there, though. Any help you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Also, let me know if I've been way too vague and you need a picture or something for explanation. Thanks in advance!