Low-Cost On-board Weight and Center of Gravity Measurement System for Tactical Ground Vehicles

The Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) is used by the Marine Corps to transport a wide variety of assets. To make the most of each supply mission, these vehicles are filled to optimize space, often resulting in an overloaded vehicle with a dangerously high or offset CG. For this reason, one of the MTVR"s top three technical issues is safety, specifically rollover prevention. The solution proposed herein addresses this need with a low-cost on-board measurement system to provide vehicle weight and CG location while the MTVR is being loaded. These parameters are updated in real-time throughout the mission to capture changing or shifting cargo. The information is presented to the driver in intuitive and meaningful terms such as minimum safe breaking distance and maximum turn rate. It will also provide these critical mass property inputs to the vehicle stability control system. The product development plan is centered on the design of a practicable measurement system and underlying signal processing algorithms. Phase I emphasizes prototype hardware implementation, embedded algorithm and code development, and field experiments with a test vehicle that will lead to early insight into system architectures suitable for deployment in the MTVR and other target platforms.