A dynamical model of remote-control model cars

TL;DR

This paper develops and validates a nonlinear dynamical model for a remote-control car's motion, using experimental data and numerical fitting to accurately reproduce its velocity and trajectory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective friction model with a velocity exponent and demonstrates its accuracy through experimental validation.

Findings

The model accurately predicts the car's velocity and trajectory.

Non-linear fitting effectively estimates system parameters.

The effective force proportional to velocity raised to a real power improves modeling accuracy.

Abstract

Simple experiments for which differential equations cannot be solved analytically can be addressed using an effective model that satisfactorily reproduces the experimental data. In this work, the one-dimensional kinematics of a remote-control model (toy) car was studied experimentally and its dynamical equation modelled. In the experiment, maximum power was applied to the car, initially at rest, until it reached its terminal velocity. Digital video recording was used to obtain the relevant kinematic variables that enabled to plot trajectories in the phase space. A dynamical equation of motion was proposed in which the overall frictional force was modelled as an effective force proportional to the velocity raised to the power of a real number. Since such an equation could not be solved analytically, a dynamical model was developed and the system parameters were calculated by non-linear fitting. Finally, the resulting values were substituted in the motion equation and the numerical results thus obtained were compared with the experimental data, corroborating the accuracy of the model.