Rollover Safety and Workable Boundary Suggestion of an Agricultural Platform with Different Attachments

Abstract

Overturning accidents in agriculture offroad vehicles have been reported annually around the world. Safety structures, such as rollover prevention, have been adopted to mitigate these accidents. Despite this, accidents remain persistent but less fatal. This study investigated the safe driving boundary for a multi-purpose platform with attachments (cargo, pepper harvester). Mathematical formulations of the roll and pitch motions for multi-purpose platforms were created. The critical overturning angle, at five load levels for each machine (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 kg), was determined using Recurdyn, a dynamic analysis software. Regression analysis of each coordinate of the center of gravity was conducted to verify the most critical coordinate against gaining loads. The critical overturning angle for the X and Y directions was found. The cargo and pepper harvester had 28.64° and 21.04° of critical overturning angles in the Y direction, respectively, with a full loading state while climbing a steep hill. The regression model of the X, Y, and Z coordinates of CoG suggested that the most critical coordinate of the CoG against the loads was in the Y coordinate for the pepper harvester and the X direction for cargo. This study could be applied to develop an awareness safety system that warns the operator of the risk of a fatal accident.

Enhancing Safety through Optimal Placement of Components in Hydrogen Tractor: Rollover Angle Analysis

“…Moreover, considering the driving and operating environment of such vehicles, the demands for research on rollover in the agricultural tractor are soaring [22,23]. Thus, studies for proving the working boundary [24], evaluating stability behavior [25], and static or dynamic analysis using computational analysis methods have been performed so far [26,27]. Despite extensive research on tractor rollovers, tractor rollover accidents still account for a considerable proportion of agricultural machinery accidents [28,29].…”

Enhancing Tractor Stability and Safety through Individual Actuators in Active Suspension

“…Compared to automobiles, tractors are often operated in difficult driving conditions, such as uneven terrain or slopes, thus having a relatively high risk of rollover accidents [1]. As per statistics, rollover accidents not only account for a large portion of agricultural machinery accidents but also cause serious injuries and driver deaths [2][3][4]. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [5], rollover accidents account for the highest percentage of accidents in the agricultural sector.…”

Design and Lateral Stability Analysis of an Attitude Adjustment Tractor for Moving on Side Slopes

“…A considerable amount of research has been devoted to tractor lateral stability, which can be divided into passive safety prevention and active safety protection [6,7]. The rollover protection structure (ROPS), as a kind of passive way, has been one of the most important advances in protecting the driver from tractor overturn accidents.…”

“…In addition, ROPS do nothing to prevent accidents, they only reduce the likelihood of serious injury [8]. By contrast, mainstream research on active safety prevention seeks to establish static/quasistatic/dynamic models to reveal the behavior of tractors on different terrains [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Based on these models, tractor stability indicators are able to evaluate the stability of the tractor.…”