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The use of innovative mobile vehicles with increasingly advanced mechatronic aspects in the agricultural sector is becoming, in recent years, a stimulating field of research and comparison. In particular, the problem addressed in the present work refers to improving the locomotion of mobile vehicles on agricultural terrain by reducing the soil damage and improve the overall performance. Agricultural vehicles generally use tracks and wheels for locomotion; the main difference between the two systems is the contact area with the ground and, consequently, the pressure distribution. The present work presents a new reconfigurable agricultural vehicle that can switch from one locomotion system to another, choosing the suitable configuration according to the terrain conditions. All the mechanical and electronic aspects of the prototype developed are analyzed together with an in-depth analysis of the management of the innovative functions through a user-friendly graphical interface able to control the vehicle.

The use of agricultural machinery damages the soil by compaction and distortion, where the compaction is due especially to vehicle with small contact areas like wheels, while the distortion is caused especially by tracked systems. In this work we discuss a wheel/track reconfigurable robot able to adjust the contact area based on the soil conditions, to minimize soil damage, energy consumption and adapt travers ability. After giving an overview, we propose a control strategy for switching between the locomotion modes.

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