Proposal of a new evaluation system of terrain trafficability for wheeled vehicles measured by the telescopic penetrometer

In most areas of human activity where vehicles are used, ensuring their mobility is important. One of the components addressed in the framework of mobility is also the movement of vehicles in the field. The article deals with the assessment of wheeled vehicles' trafficability through low-bearing terrain. Therefore, it is important to be able to reliably evaluate whether the terrain is passable or not, i.e. determining the trafficability of the terrain. Currently, two assessment systems are used in the ACR environment to evaluate the bearing capacity of the terrain – one using a PT-45 telescopic penetro-meter and the other using a cone penetrometer. Each of the systems has its advantages and disadvantages, but unfortunately, none of them meet the current requirements of users. Both methods designed for evaluating the passability of wheeled vehicles on terrain always compare the “value of the land” and the “value of the vehicle”. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of both evaluation methods, the authors decided to find out whether it would be possible to combine the advantages of both methods and propose a new evaluation system for the telescopic penetrometer, based on the evaluation system for the cone penetrometer. The following was carried out: i) comparison of individual devices and assessment procedures, ii) correlation of permeability measurement results obtained using both penetro-meters, iii) analysis of individual vehicle parameters included in existing assessment methods. The authors present the results of the analysis of the parameters, propose their reduction, and introduce a new important parameter, which significantly affects the result, that is, whether the vehicle will pass the terrain. In conclusion, a completely new system for measuring the passability of wheeled vehicles through the terrain was designed. The correctness and reliability of the entire newly designed system was verified by measurements in the field. Due to the fact that the authors proceeded to solve the problem of trafficability on the basis of requirements from the field, its results will have a great practical impact – the implementation of the new evaluation system into the Field Manual used by the ACR.