Design and Optimization of a Variable Angle Blade for Dozing and Cutting Operations

摘要

Currently, the majority of medium to large scale dozing operation are conducted using tracked vehicles with a fixed blade. There is interest from industry to employ smaller wheeled vehicles because the increased mobility they offer. This increased mobility comes at the cost of overall push force and dozing ability. This paper investigates a variable angle blade design that would decrease the power required for dozing operations. The forces experienced during dozing are derived and an optimization is developed to change the blade angle to the optimal configuration. This new design and control is shown to greatly increase the dozing ability of the vehicle.