Mechanical characteristics and firing disturbances of quadruped combat platforms under multiple shooting modes

Urban operations such as counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and building clearance are the primary forms of modern warfare. The large scale of unstructured terrain makes quadruped combat platforms have great military potential and combat effectiveness in modern warfare. To explore the mechanical characteristics and firing disturbances of quadruped combat platforms under multiple shooting modes, the structure of the quadruped combat platform strike system was developed. Then, the rigid–flexible coupling launch dynamics model was built using ANSYS and ADAMS; in addition, simulations under single and continuous shooting modes were conducted by changing loads. According to the dynamic model, the launching process of the quadruped combat platform was simulated, the joint torque characteristics and firing disturbance of the quadruped combat platform were examined, and the method for suppressing the firing disturbance was explored. At last, the quadruped combat platform was confirmed by a live firing experiment in a 100-m indoor shooting range. Findings revealed that the joint torque distribution of the quadruped combat platform presents an uneven trend under static load conditions. The effect of the launching load resulted in a significant torque impact and oscillation to the joint of the quadruped combat platform. Moreover, firing disturbances were produced. Under the single shooting mode, the maximum amplitude of the muzzle center point of the quadruped combat platform along the z-axis direction is 8.42 mm, the maximum amplitude along the y-axis direction is 1.87 mm, and the firing disturbance momentum is 0.39 mm. Under the continuous shooting mode, the impact torque and firing disturbance of the first shooting are near the single shooting mode, whereas the impact torque of the subsequent firing increases by 25.8% compared with the first shooting. Meanwhile, with the superposition effect of the continuous firing vibration, the average firing disturbance also increases to 2.15 mm. Considering the reduction in firing disturbance, the effects of various buffers were discussed. The suppression effect of the unidirectional buffer was found not obvious due to the presence of the impact force during the return and forward processes, whereas the bidirectional buffer with damping can effectively lower the firing disturbance, and its average firing disturbance is 1.02 mm, decreased by 52.56% compared with the rigid connection. The live firing experiment confirmed the possibility of the quadruped combat platform, and the R₅₀ of the platform with a bidirectional buffer was reduced by 47.0% compared with that with a rigid connection, demonstrating its effectiveness in suppressing the firing disturbance and enhancing the firing accuracy.