Chapter06.03 VehicleDynamics

Meccanica delle Macchine M
Dynamics Applications:
Dynamics of Vehicles
Dynamics Applications: Dynamics of Vehicles
1. Dynamics of a ground vehicle in planar motion

Single-track model, vehicle kinematics, DAlembert equations, energy equation,
motor torque, numerical example.
2. Dynamics of a quadcopter
Features, parametrization of the pose, rotor aerodynamics, actuation forces
and torques, inverse dynamics, example: quadcopter on a circular trajectory,
forward dynamics.
1 Dynamics of a vehicle in planar motion
Single-track model
and can be used interchangeably as

the steering variable:
=
tan
, =
sin
The vehicle velocity field may be described

by and (or and ):
=
tan
= = =

The vehicle acceleration field may be

described by and (or and ):

=
= +

1
= =

1
= tan +
cos
Vehicle kinematics
Vehicle kinematics in the fixed frame
(see the Chapter: Kinematics of a vehicle in planar motion):
First-order kinematics:
=
= + = cos + sin
Second-order kinematics:
= =
= + = cos sin + sin + cos

Vehicle kinematics in the body frame:
First-order kinematics:
= =
= + = + = ( + )
= + = + = ( + )
Second-order kinematics:
= + = + = + +
= + = + + + =
= ( + ) +( + )
= + = ( + ) +( + )
DAlembert equations
Forces acting on the vehicle body in the xy-plane:

tractive force on the rear wheel:
= ,
lateral constraint forces:

=
= = ( sin + cos )
inertia forces:
= = + +
, =
Force equilibrium:
+ + + =
sin + =0

+ cos =0 ,
( + )
=
sin
= cos + +
Moment equilibrium about :
+ + , =
+ sin + cos =
+ cos =
cos + =0
,
Substituting for in the moment equilibrium equation yields:
+ cos + + + =0
cos + + =0
By substituting for in the first term, one obtains:
( + )
cos = = ( + )
tan
and thus:
+ + + + =0
= + +

Finally, the vehicles motion law may be expressed as:
= + +

Since:
= , =
tan sin
1
= , =

one also has
tan tan
= + = + +
cos
The explicit expressions of the lateral forces are:
( + ) +
= = = +
sin sin cos sin
= cos + + = +
tan
Notice that, in case of rectilinear motion, we have:
=0
= , = =0

Energy equation
Kinetic energy of the vehicle:
= + , =

1 1 1 1 1
= + = + + = ( + ) =
2 2 2 2 2
where
= +
is the overall mass moment of inertia of the vehicle.

Notice that:
= 2
Energetic formulation of the principle of virtual work:

At the equilibrium, the power performed by the external actions and the internal
dissipative forces must equal the rate of change of the kinetic energy:
The vehicles motion law may be obtained by the energy equation as:
= = =
1 1 = +

= = + = +
2 2
Motor torque
Tricycle model
The tractive force is distributed on the two traction (rear) wheels:
= + = + =
If the mass moment of inertia of the wheel about its axis is disregarded,
the moment equilibrium of the jth traction wheel yields ( = , ):
= 0 =
where:
is the motor torque of the jth wheel;
is the tractive force of the jth wheel.
It may be shown that the equilibrium of the

differential gear train leads to:

= =
The overall motor torque is:
= + = + =
The contribution of the mass moment of inertia of the wheels can be taken into
consideration, in an approximate way, as:
+4 = +4
where is the mass moment of inertia of a single wheel.

Notice that the above formula is exact in the case of rectilinear motion.
Numerical examples
1. A vehicle travels a curve with constant turn radius.
The characteristics of the vehicle are:
= 1300 kg, = 2500 kg m , = 2.5 m, = 1.3 m, = 0.3367 m.
The characteristics of the curve are:
= 20 m, tan = = 0.125, = 7.125.
The vehicle moves along a quarter-circle trajectory, travelling a distance:
= 2 = 31.41 m
Three cases are considered, with the vehicle travelling the curve with:
i. constant velocity = 80 kmh = 22.2 ms, in time = = 1.41 s;
ii. constant velocity = 120 kmh = 33.3 ms, in time = = 0.94 s;
iii. constant acceleration = 9.82 ms , entering the curve at = 80 kmh
and leaving it at = 120 kmh, in time = 1.13 s.
[m]
80 kmh
20 120 kmh
80 120 kmh
= +
cos sin
= 12,8 kN
15
= +
tan
= + +
10

0 20 kN
0 5 10 15 20 [m]
2. The same vehicle of the previous example travels a curve with:
variable steer angle: 0 = = 0, 0 = = 0, = 1.13 s,
= 4.91 sin 4 for 0, 2 , = 4.91 sin 4 for 2 , 0 ;
constant acceleration = 9.82 ms , entering the curve at = 80 kmh and
and exiting it at = 120 kmh, thus travelling a distance = = 31.41 m.
1.0
0.25
0.8
0.20 0.6
[rad/s]
[rad]
0.4
0.15
0.2
0.10 0.0
-0.2
0.05 -0.4
-0.6
0.00
-0.8
[s] -1.0 [s]
-0.05 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
[m]
20
trajectory
= + forces
cos sin constant
15
= +
tan
10
= + +

5
0 20 kN
0 5 10 15 20 [m]
16
[kN] 14
12
10
8
= +
6
=
4 = +
2
-2
[s]
-4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
2 Dynamics of a quadcopter
Features
Advantages of multi-rotor aerial
vehicles (MRAV) versus helicopters:
highly maneuverable;
structurally simple, low cost;
improved payload and reliability.
Applications:
rescue, agriculture, delivery;
energy, utilities, mining,
construction;
real estate, news media,
film production.
Mellinger and Kumar, ICRA 2011 video
Quadcopters
Rotors usually come in pairs, i.e. 4, 6, 8; the most common MRAV is the quadcopter.
The axes of all rotors are aligned with a common direction, say .
Collectively, rotors can produce torque along an arbitrary direction, but only force
along the positive direction (thrust force); as a result, the MRAV cannot effectively
decelerate along the positive direction, thus relying on gravity to pull it down.
Position and orientation are coupled and cannot be controlled independently.
The magnitudes of the generated force and torque are controlled by the rotor
speeds, which are limited.
Variable-pitch quadcopters
Unlike helicopters, quadcopters have normally a fixed pitch angle of their blades.
An additional servo motor can be employed to control the blade pitch,
resulting in a variable-pitch MRAV.
Variable-pitch quadcopters have better dynamic performances than their
fixed-pitch counterparts, since now force and torque magnitudes can be controlled
by both the rotor speed and the blade pitch.
Nevertheless, a variable-pitch MRAV still has only 4 controllable d.o.f.
Aerial vehicles with more than four rotors:

Hexacopters and octacopters have similar dynamics in comparison with
quadcopters.
They are mainly used for larger payload, improved agility, and improved
stability against wind disturbance.
Tilting-rotor quadcopters
Each rotor axis may be tilted by an additional servo motor, thus generating a
thrust force along a controllable direction.
The MRAV has now 8 actuated inputs, which may control all 6 d.o.f. of the vehicle.
Today, the standard quadcopter remains the most popular MRAV.
Parametrization of the pose
Two coordinate systems are established:
an inertial frame ;
a frame attached to the vehicle,
with origin in the center of mass .
Generalized coordinates for the position:
Generalized coordinates for the orientation ( Euler-angles convention):

rotation about the -axis: (roll);
rotation about the -axis: (pitch);
rotation about the -axis: (yaw).
Rotation matrix between and (Ch. 2, slide 44):
Orientation of the rotor axes in :
The roll and the pitch angles, and , orient the rotor axes direction (and thus
the thrust force) in space, whereas the yaw angle orient the airframe around .
Vehicles angular velocity in (Ch. 3, slide 30):
Vehicles angular acceleration in (Ch. 3, slide 47):

Rotor aerodynamics
rotor blade radius:
rotor angular velocity:
apparent wind speed at a distance : =
blade B: Blade B
blade A:
Blade A
Lift force (per unit length) on a pair of

sections at a distance from the rotor axis:
2 , =
Drag torque (per unit length) on a pair of
sections at a distance from the rotor axis:
, =2 , =
Rotors thrust force and reaction torque:
Thrust and torque coefficients:

Lift and drag force distributions
on the blade
Actuation forces and torques
for rotor 1 and 3 (counterclockwise)
Rotors rotation direction:
for rotor 2 and 4 (clockwise)
Rotors thrust forces and reaction torques:

Resultant actuation force or thrust:
where:
The quadcopter may generate a thrust

force only in the positive direction.
Resultant actuation moment about :
The quadcopter may generate an actuation moment about any direction in space.
Generalized actuation forces:

a force applied in along :
a pure moment :
Dynamic equilibrium equations
Force equilibrium:
The copter orientation cannot be arbitrary.

Direction must be oriented so as to be
aligned with vector .
The magnitude of the thrust force must be:
Force equilibrium projected in :

Moment equilibrium projected in
Since the quadcopter is symmetric w.r.t. the

body-fixed coordinate planes and , all
inertia products in are zero, namely:
Furthermore, due to symmetry reasons, usually: = =

Hence:
Finally, if we plug in the explicit expressions for and , we obtain, after

simplification:
Inverse dynamics
The force equilibrium allows the computation of the vehicles direction and the
thrust force for a desired trajectory :
Squaring the 2nd and the 3rd equation, and adding up, yields a 4th relationship:
Taking the ratio between the 2nd and the 3rd equation yields:
Taking the ratio between the 1st and the 4th equation provides:
Finally, squaring the 1st and the 4th equation, and adding up, leads to:
Hence, for the assigned trajectory , the thrust force and the roll/pitch angles
may be computed as:
Notice that, since and are functions of , time derivatives ( , ) and ( , )

are functions of and , respectively:
The moment equilibrium allows the computation of the actuation torques for:
a desired trajectory and the corresponding time functions ( ) and ( );
a desired motion for the yaw angle.
The quadcopter is a an under-actuated system:

Steps for solving the inverse dynamics:
2 4
input
intermediate
computation
3
output
Example: quadcopter on a circular trajectory
Horizontal circular trajectory with constantly zero yaw angle:
Start (end)
point
Since the input torques are functions of the 4th-order derivatives of ( ), ( )

and ( ), if the designed trajectory is not smooth enough, we end up requiring
the input torques to be discontinuous, with the following problems:
rotors reaction torque cannot abruptly change, due to rotor dynamics;
torque jumps may cause vibrations.
It is customary to choose the quadcopter trajectories to be made up by
(piecewise) 7th-degree polynomials, since this leads to smooth acceleration and
jerk (3rd derivative), and a bounded snap (4th derivative).
Time profile of parameter ( ):
with boundary conditions (the quadcopter motion begins and ends with a halt):
The first four conditions yield , , and :
Solving for the remaining coefficients provides , , and :

Complete trajectory of the quadcopters centre of mass:

Numerical example:
Quadcopters inertial parameters:

Thrust force:
Note that, at = 0, the thrust

force is:
Actuation torques:
Note that is discontinuous

at the beginning and at the end
of the trajectory.
This is due to the discontinuity
of and, thus, of at = 0.
Desired rotor speeds:

Forward dynamics
Motion equations must be written in state-form to be numerically solved:
State variables of the quadcopter:
State form of the equation of motion:

Solving forward dynamics using ode45:
Simulation result:
Prof. Marco Carricato
DIN
marco.carricato@unibo.it
http://grab.diem.unibo.it/
www.unibo.it/docenti/marco.carricato

Chapter06.03 VehicleDynamics

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Meccanica delle Macchine M

1. Dynamics of a ground vehicle in planar motion

The vehicle velocity field may be described

The vehicle acceleration field may be

= + = cos sin + sin + cos

lateral constraint forces:

Moment equilibrium about :

By substituting for in the first term, one obtains:

Finally, the vehicles motion law may be expressed as:

The explicit expressions of the lateral forces are:

Notice that, in case of rectilinear motion, we have:

is the overall mass moment of inertia of the vehicle.

Energetic formulation of the principle of virtual work:

It may be shown that the equilibrium of the

The overall motor torque is:

where is the mass moment of inertia of a single wheel.

Aerial vehicles with more than four rotors:

Generalized coordinates for the orientation ( Euler-angles convention):

Rotation matrix between and (Ch. 2, slide 44):

Orientation of the rotor axes in :

Vehicles angular velocity in (Ch. 3, slide 30):

Vehicles angular acceleration in (Ch. 3, slide 47):

Lift force (per unit length) on a pair of

Thrust and torque coefficients:

Rotors thrust forces and reaction torques:

Resultant actuation force or thrust:

The quadcopter may generate a thrust

Resultant actuation moment about :

Generalized actuation forces:

The copter orientation cannot be arbitrary.

Force equilibrium projected in :

Moment equilibrium projected in

Since the quadcopter is symmetric w.r.t. the

Furthermore, due to symmetry reasons, usually: = =

Finally, if we plug in the explicit expressions for and , we obtain, after

Notice that, since and are functions of , time derivatives ( , ) and ( , )

The quadcopter is a an under-actuated system:

Steps for solving the inverse dynamics:

Since the input torques are functions of the 4th-order derivatives of ( ), ( )

Time profile of parameter ( ):

Solving for the remaining coefficients provides , , and :

Complete trajectory of the quadcopters centre of mass:

Quadcopters inertial parameters:

Note that, at = 0, the thrust

Note that is discontinuous

Desired rotor speeds:

State form of the equation of motion:

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