Force feedback control of the T3 Z-axis vehicle suspension system

The T3 Omni-directional vehicle (ODV) is one in a series of ODV robots developed at Utah State University's (USU) Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS). In this thesis we describe the control laws and modeling techniques used to develop a force feedback control system for the T3 Z-axis. The purpose of developing a Z-axis force feedback control system is to achieve increased traction control and thereby optimize the vehicle mobility characteristics. The Z-axis control system is designed to equalize the wheel ground contact force by changing individual Z-heights thereby increasing the effective vehicle traction and stability. This thesis introduces the T3 suspension system mechanical design and then goes through the details of the vehicle dynamic modeling, control system development and Z-height control system testing using the Dynamic Analysis Design System (DADS) and Matlab/SIMULINK interactive software package.