Establishment of a measuring unit based on Arduino board for recording vibrations on an agricultural tractor during tillage process

Abstract

When it comes to agricultural tractor ergonomics, vibration is one of the most important factors to consider. However, little research has been done to evaluate this parameter and its impact on workers’ health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to fabricate a portable vibration measurement unit (PVMU) based on an Arduino microcontroller and a vibration sensor (accelerometer ADXL335). The PVMU performance was tested in combination with a commercially available three-axis USB vibration measurement device (VB10). Furthermore, the vibration measurements were used to calculate the tractor driver’s whole-body vibration load according to ISO 2631-1 along three perpendicular axes (X, Y, and Z) during soil tillage using a disk harrow under different tillage speeds of 4.0, 5.5, and 7.0 km/h at a tillage depth of 15 cm in a sandy loam soil. Performance tests of the PVMU and the commercially available three-axis USB vibration meter (VB10) revealed a highly significant level of agreement based on a correlation coefficient of 0.9822. It was found that the vibration level increases with increasing tillage speed. The highest vibration level, 0.80 m/sec2, was observed in the vertical direction (Z-axis) at a tillage speed of 7.0 km/h. The lowest vibration level, 0.12 m/sec2, was observed in the lateral direction (Y-axis) at a tillage speed of 4.0 km/h. The dominant frequency range of vibration transmitted to the tractor seat was found to be between 2.04 Hz and 20.14 Hz. The daily exposure values that is, A (8) determined during this study to assess the health hazards due to vibration for tractor drivers ranged from 0.01 m/sec2 to 0.06 m/sec2 lower than the recommended exposure action value (EAV) limit that is, 0.5 m/sec2. This means that there is no health risk for the driver during the soil tillage using a disk harrow plow. The PVMU proposed in this study is very reliable and can be used as a vibration assessment tool for other agricultural tractor-implement combinations.