Abstract:A new approach to realize the wheel-soil interaction simulation was proposed which applied the large-scale multibody contact problem and vehicle terramechanics theory. Using this method, we developed a wheel-soil simulation module in self-developed multibody dynamics simulation platform. Based on modeling of soil and wheel-soil contact, the computational implementation for wheel sinkage was depicted in detail. According to records, it needs only 20 min to simulate the motion of wheel-soil testbed system about 30?s on a microcomputer with general configuration. Under similar conditions simulation and experimental results have good consistency. This indicates that the simulation algorithm could meet the requirement of off-road driving simulation.