This paper presents a robotized small tractor designed to perform humanitarian demining operations and agricultural operations when demining is accomplished. This dual use makes this system unique. The focus is on the design of the machine, including the modeling for design and control, the characteristics of the tools operated by the machine, the motion control at tele-operated, and semi-auton...

Tractor overturning remains a serious problem in agricultural activities. A detailed analysis of problems and causes leading to a tractor overturn have revealed that by improving tractor’s static stability we can positively infl uence the safety as early as during the concept phase. We designed a mathematical model and a numerical simulation of the static stability of a tractor with an oscillat...

Agricultural work injury data are less available than data for other industries, so an overview of existing data is provided. Agriculture has the highest annual work death rate of all industries, 52 per 100,000 workers, which is five times the combined rate for all industries. Tractor-related injuries are the leading types of fatal injuries; injuries involving agricultural machinery, animals, a...

Introduction: Slippage is usually measured with a standard manual method, however, if it required slippage information inline in extensive areas of cropland, mechanical and electronic equipment have to be developed. Objective: To design, assemble evaluate (in laboratory under field conditions) an encoder-based measurement system. Methodology: The system was integrated tested the laboratory, whe...

The ability to define in-field tractor load states offers the potential to better specify and characterize fuel consumption rate for various field operations. For the same field operation, the tractor experiences diverse load demands and corresponding fuel use rates as it maneuvers through straight passes, turns, suspended operation for adjustments, repair and maintenance, and biomass or other ...

In Spain, there are more than 250,000 tractors built before 1980, when it became mandatory for all new tractors to be equipped with a rollover protective structure (ROPS). A similar situation is found in the European Union, but the situation is worse in the U.S. and in developing countries. Directive 2003/37/EEC establishes that tractors over 800 kg weight can be homologated by using the OECD s...

Historically, the purpose of farm safety and health educational materials and programs has been to persuade, convince or educate farmers, members of their families, and hired employees to voluntarily engage in safe behavior during farm or nonfarm work activities (Murphy, 1992). Increasingly, authors have noted that traditional farm safety educational programs have been relatively ineffective (A...

Fatalities associated with farm tractors are the most common cause of work-related death in the U.S. agricultural industry (1). To characterize farm-tractor-related fatalities in Kentucky, the Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (KY FACE) Project studied all fatal farm injuries occurring among persons in that state during 1994, the initial year of operation for FACE in Kentucky....

So called automatic guidance systems are becoming more common in agricultural tractors, so that a driver does not need to steer the vehicle. The systems are mostly relying on GPS with correction. However, these systems usually steer only the tractor itself, despite the fact that the implement is the one that has to be run side by side with the previous swath. With towed implements, or trailers,...