Cobalt Crust Mining Articulated Tracked Operations Vehicle Simulation Study

At present, our country is research on the deep sea cobalt crust mining system. The miner is the most critical and complex part of the mining system. And the most important part of the miner is the running machine. The running machine walks on complex terrain carrying many equipments. So the running machine has the performances of maneuverability, traction, stability and reliability. Having good bility of adhesive function, clambing property, obstacle-navigation, obstacle avoidance and so on. Moreover, it is very influent on the stability of the mining system by mining head. So the reseach on the mining head is very necessary.According to the analysis and research of many all-terrain vehicles' structure and rideability, especially the specific environment of marine mountains, a new articulated tracked service vehicles with good trafficbility was presented in this paper, including articulated tracked vehicles and a mining head. Then, two tracked vehicle, a joint and a mining head were designed.The paper did research for articulated tracked service vehicles base on the virtual prototype technology, and established the virtual type model of the articulated tracked vehicles and the virtual type of the marine terrain, including obstacles, ditches, slope and so on according to the Vehicle-Terramechanics and landform of the hills based on the multi-rigid-body theory and mechanical dynamic analysis software ADAMS/View and ADAMS/ATV.Established the virtual prototype model of the mining head. Validated the feasibility of the simulation by comparing the experiment data and simulation results. Analyzed articulated tracked service vehicles mining stability and traficbility on typical terrain based on simulation results. Including turning performance and rideability. And analyzed some kinematics and dynamics parameters of the articulated tracked service vehicles. Predictd and evaluated the performance of the articulated tracked service vehicles.The simulation results showed that the articulated tracked service vehicles could work stably when the mining head was working, and could turn successfully when indicators of hydraulic cylinder was elongating. The articulated tracked service vehicles which having good bility of rideability and trafficability could get across the obstacle that the height was 0.4 miter, the ravine that width was 1.2 miter, the slope that the inclination angle was 20 degree.