Modeling and Simulation of a Simple Cart with Low-Impact Casters

Abstract

Low-impact casters are of great importance in realizing low-crash and anti-vibration carts for a range of purposes. Here the principle of center of percussion is efficiently applied to a caster in order to suppress the transfer of crash forces to the cart from the caster. Excellent performance of this force suppression has been confirmed previously by both simulation and experiments in a single-caster cart. However, carts in real-life applications usually require four sets of casters. In this context, a mathematical model of a cart with four sets of low-impact casters was formulated. In this paper, the modeling a four-caster cart, and simulations for the cart passing over a bump are discussed.