Research Progress on Configuration Design of All-Terrain Transport Vehicles

All-terrain transport vehicles must maintain traction, stability, and useful payload capacity across surfaces whose geometry and mechanical properties vary. This narrative review examines wheeled, legged, tracked, and wheel-legged configurations with an emphasis on how contact geometry, load transfer, slip, and articulation influence mobility. The literature is organized by the dominant ground-contact and propulsion mechanism; mixed ground modes are identified explicitly, while non-ground systems provide boundary cases. A qualitative synthesis relates configuration choices to soil deformation, obstacles, payload, energy use, and control complexity. Illustrative platform results are reported with their test context and are not used as universal configuration ratings. The review identifies requirements for comparable measurements and discusses the coupling of perception, electrification, adaptation, and lightweight design. The synthesis supports mission-dependent configuration selection based on contact mechanics, payload and whole-system energy, with matched test conditions required for quantitative comparison.