Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present part of the facilities used in off-road mobility performance evaluation process carried out in ETAS : a test centre belonging to French Ministry of Defence.
This process is based on two methods : one main experimental method which takes advantage of investments made at this test centre and a numerical one based on simulations.
The objective is to correctly evaluate off road performance of systems under tests, in controlled conditions, i.e. homogeneous terrains made of characterized soils with a given range of compaction degree.
Due to difficulties specific to off road environments, procedures need to be used in order to control terrain state and to ensure reproductibility of tests.
Focus is made on standards and on test devices used to assess terrain characteristics and off road vehicle performance on test lanes, for elementary tests.
As an illustration of off road mobility performance evaluation, results obtained, up to the mobility limits, on a test lane made of clayey soil, are presented.
Keywords: off road mobility, test tracks, military vehicles, wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles.