Agricultural production has clearly benefited from the development of the tractor. The tractor provides a traction device and mobile power source. However, operating large equipment with high clearance on uneven ground leads to stability and overturn issues. Around the world, tractor overturns are still a leading cause of agricultural production fatalities. This special issue of the Journal of ...

Previous studies have reported that tractors are responsible for high proportions of fatal and nonfatal agricultural injuries. However, many common and preventable risk factors, conditions, and associated costs related to tractor-related injuries have not been investigated. This case-based study used workers' compensation data to investigate tractor-related injuries. The objectives of this stud...

Current commercial tractor guidance systems present to the driver information to perform agricultural tasks in the best way. This information generally includes a treated zones map referenced to the tractor's position. Unlike actual guidance systems where the tractor driver must mentally associate treated zone maps and the plot layout, this paper presents a guidance system that using Augmented ...

Operator exposure to high levels of whole-body vibration (WBV) presents risks to health and safety and it is reported to worsen or even cause back injuries. Work activities resulting in operator exposure to whole-body vibration have a common onset in off-road work such as farming. Despite the wide variability of agricultural surface profiles, studies have shown that with changing soil profile a...

This paper presents a method to develop a system, which will enable an autonomous agricultural vehicle to follow a leading vehicle with a given lateral and longitudinal offset. With the aid of the RTK GPS systems the position of the leading tractor was obtained every 500 ms with accuracy in the range of centimeters. To provide the target position for the guidance of the following agricultural v...

CVETANOVIC, B. and D. ZLATKOVIC, 2013. Evaluation of whole-body vibration risk in agricultural tractor drivers. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1155-1160 During their work, agricultural tractor drivers are exposed to various negative influences, among which vibrations are especially harmful. It is about vibrations generated in engine while the tractor is working, which are then transmitted to the dri...

This paper describes an agricultural vehicle modified to serve as a research platform for agricultural engineering. A tractor was equipped with a global positioning receiver, inertial/GPS system, geomagnetic direction sensor, and a monochrome camera for local and global sensing. For steering control, the tractor was equipped with an electro-hydraulic proportional steering valve, PWM coil valve ...

Fatalities due to tractor overturns have long plagued the U.S. farm community. Constituting 20% of agricultural fatalities, tractor overturns contribute significantly to high rates of fatal injuries. In the past, many efforts have been directed toward reducing tractor overturns, with one successful US-based program offering rebates to farmers who retrofit their tractors with rollover protective...