Deep Orange 14: A Full-scale Tracked High-speed Off-road Autonomous Prototype with a Comprehensive Multi-surface Dataset for Dynamics

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed description of the design and development process of the Deep Orange 14 vehicle, a full-scale tracked, skid-steered autonomous research prototype developed in Clemson University's Deep Orange program, together with the accompanying multisurface dataset for off-road vehicle dynamics research. The 3-ton series-hybrid platform was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) to support remote reconnaissance, disaster relief operations and advanced data collection. Multidisciplinary challenges in systems integration, spanning autonomy, powertrain, control, and operational safety, were addressed using state-of-the-art hardware through a multi-year effort by a team of 31 graduate students, three faculty, and four staff members. The paper summarizes the vehicle requirements, system architecture, control and safety systems, autonomy integration, instrumentation, validation testing, and data-processing workflow. It relates the prototype design decisions to the resulting dataset and provides a reference for researchers developing full-scale autonomous ground vehicle platforms and dynamics-focused datasets.