A NEW PROGRAM FOR PREDICTING OFF-ROAD VEHICLE MOBILITY

An off-road vehicles` mobility program that predicts off-road vehicles mobility has been created to meet requirements for both research and educational programs. The program allows quick prediction of off-road vehicles` performance prior to their usage in sites as it checks whether soil properties are compatible with vehicles` parameters and configuration. The program also may be helpful in comparing and assessing the results of vehicles` mobility investigation obtained by using different methods and concluding the parameters affecting vehicles` mobility. The program has been written in Microsoft Visual Basic.net 2008 and can be considered as a new tool for predicting off-road vehicles` mobility. The program provides an intuitive user interface by linking databases such as offroad vehicles` specifications, soil parameters, and empirical equations to predict the wheel formula, motion resistance ratio, torque ratio, net traction ratio and the traction efficiency. It has been proven that the program is easily to use, simple, and efficient.