The Development of Ackerman Steering System for 1/10th Scale Autonomous Mining Shuttle Design

Abstract

The usage of Autonomous mining vehicles at mining sites leads to remarkable improvement in the mining industry with efficient truck hauling, safety, and driving assistance. The steering mechanism is one major component of mining shuttle anatomy design. A significant share of failure in safety measures of the mining shuttle is due to steering imbalance. Steering stability is one of the key components of any mining truck design specifically in the recent emerging technology of intelligent transportation systems such as autonomous truck haul. The earlier steering mechanisms for the heavy truck such as the Davis steering mechanism and other steering mechanisms available in both sliding and turning pairs will be present in the front wheel axle which has less stability of tires in a curved path. To overcome the problem, this paper proposes the design of an enhanced Ackermann steering system to meet the stability, control, and other steering capability of mining trucks by turning the front wheels at different angles. This paper also discusses the methodology to implement the designed principles using 1/10th scale of an original vehicle prototype built using STM 32 microcontroller by 3D printing, whose movement is controlled with Remote Control (RC). Hence the designed prototype model prototype with its innovative gear system provides mobility to the mining shuttle without loss in energy due to friction leading to fuel efficient, safe, stable intelligent transport system with green technology.