METHOD OF STEERING ARTICULATED CRAWLER VEHICLE AT CORNERING Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: transport engineering; steering of movable objects.

SUBSTANCE: according to proposed method, cornering torque is created and applied to front section of vehicle in direction of movement owing to changing of speed of one of tracks of said section, and front section is turned until new direction of vehicle movement coincides with required one. In process of cornering, torque are additionally created by means of power hydraulic cylinders in its plane and are applied to each section to bring direction of first section in coincidence with required direction of turning and provide opposite direction of turning of rear section. In process of cornering, tilting of sections relative to each other in longitudinal plane square to plane of cornering is increased in inverse proportion to radius of cornering.

EFFECT: improved maneuverability of crawler vehicles, cross-country ability and 10-12% increase of time characteristics at negotiating difficult-to-pass sections of terrain at cornering.