A REALTIME DYNAMIC VEHICLE TEST SYSTEM

Abstract

A realtime, multi-system, dynamic vehicle test capability has been developed for the testing of tanks and large vehicles under all possible conditions of terrain and environment. The systems, produced under a turnkey contract, include: a fixed base ground data processing system; a mobile ground station with the same processing capability; two vehicle-borne systems with on-board computing, recording and telemetry; and a large integrated software package for all four systems. The mobile ground station can be mounted on a rail car, a ship or the chassis of a diesel truck capable of operating across open field terrain. All four systems have computers and realtime EU data displays. The vehicle-borne systems can be assembled and mounted inside a tank turret for underwater testing. Optionally, they can be installed in an environmental enclosure mounted to the outside of the vehicle for open field testing or tests where the armament supply hardware must be installed inside the armored vehicle. Several special sensors were developed for the vehicle-borne instrumentation to permit measurement and display of terrain contour, ground speed, track efficiency, power train performance, vehicle direction, velocity and acceleration in 3-axes, vehicle attitude and stability, dynamic gun pointing accuracy, engine and transmission performance and operator reaction to the test requirements and the vehicle environment.