Rapid developments in electronics over the past two decades have induced a move from purely mechanical vehicles to mechatronics design. This book introduces this concept, and provides an overview of recent applications and future approaches within this field.

1. Introduction.- 2. Off-road Vehicle Dynamics.- 3. Global Navigation Systems.- 4. Local Perception Systems.- 5. Three-dimensional Perception and Localization.- 6. Communication Systems for Off-road Intelligent Vehicles.- 7. Electrohydraulic Steering Control.- 8. Design of Intelligent Systems.

Rapid developments in electronics over the past two decades have induced a move from purely mechanical vehicles to mechatronics design. Recent advances in computing, sensors, and information technology are pushing mobile equipment design to incorporate higher levels of automation under the concept of intelligent vehicles. Mechatronics and Intelligent Systems for Off-road Vehicles introduces this new concept, and provides an overview of the recent applications and future approaches within this field. Real examples are provided of vehicles designed to move in off-road environments, including agriculture, forestry, and construction machines. These examples describe and illustrate features such as automatic steering, safeguarding, and precision agriculture capabilities.

Mechatronics and Intelligent Systems for Off-road Vehicles will be of great interest to professional engineers and researchers in vehicle automation, robotics, and the application of artificial intelligence to mobile equipment; as well as to graduate students of mechanical, electrical, and agricultural engineering.