ABSTRACT Mobility assessment for combat vehicles is often a great challenge for the military due to various subjective attributes. The attributes' characteristics vary significantly depending on the vehicle type and its operating environments such as terrain, weather, and human factors. A clear definition and relationship between multiple attributes including human factors is necessary to assess mobility. To the best of authors' knowledge, many existing mobility assessment techniques use complex analytical methods and focus on individual attributes. In this paper, for the first time, the authors propose a novel approach to define vehicle mobility and its influencing attributes using qualitative linguistic fuzzy variables, which are defined as having values between 0 and 1. The authors also propose a fuzzy logic mobility (FLM) model and a simulation approach to assess a combat vehicle's mobility. INTRODUCTION Vehicle mobility is a subjective and broader term used to represent a vehicle's characteristics or dynamics. In other words, it is a vehicle's capability to move over a specified terrain, which is influenced by other environmental conditions such as weather. Mobility is a vehicle's ability to reach its destination by overcoming all hindrances such as weather and operating environments in addition to varying terrain. In other words, mobility describes how fast a vehicle can drive, how efficiently it can traverse various terrains, and how its propulsion and suspension systems behave while moving. For example, the mobility of a combat vehicle (CV) can be defined using maximum vehicle speed on paved roads,cruising range on snowy paved roads, and towing capability up a 20% slope. Generally, mobility engineers establish a set of attributes that influence a CV's mobility, perform complex mathematical calculations, determine numerical values, and inspect and correlate each value to other values that define a vehicle's mobility. The mobility assessment of a CV is one of the key tasks necessary before fielding any vehicle, especially one potentially engaged in combat operations. The mobility assessment starts with a pre-defined mobility requirement with a set of attributes appropriate for the intended mission. Normally, mobility engineers develop CV simulation models to understand, assess, and analyze a vehicle's mobility. Simulation models are a necessary tool to minimize a vehicle's development cost and time. Each CV has its unique attributes, which influence its mobility. Nunez et al. propose a virtual modeling and simulation [ 1] suite for evaluating a CV's mobility under all expected terrain and weather conditions [ 1]. The Army has used NATO Reference Mobility Model (NRMM) [ 2] for mobility analysis. The NRMM simulation depends on empirical data, has range limitations, and does not have an adequate model to handle high mobility vehicles on urban and complex terrains. The NRMM requires a lot of effort to build a complete vehicle model before using it to assess mobility. Often, mobility engineers develop homegrown tools such as spreadsheets or software applications to assess a CV's mobility. We need an approach to define and assess a CV's mobility and allow both engineers and non-engineers to understand and compare the mobility of multiple vehicles. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no standard methodology exists to A Novel Approach for Combat Vehicle Mobility Definition and Assessment2012-01-0302 Published 04/16/2012 Macam S. Dattathreya TARDEC Harpreet Singh Wayne State University Copyright © 2012 SAE International doi:10.4271/2012-01-0302Downloaded from SAE International by University of Michigan, Saturday, July 28, 2018define either a CV's mobility or an approach to assess it. In general, vehicle mobility is a subjective concept and mobility engineers have their own interpretations in defining it. A CV's mobility strives to represent reality, but the complex mathematical calculations used to define and assess it do n