Development of a Dynamic Stability Simulator for Articulated and Conventional Tractors Useful for Real-time Safety Devices

The safety of agricultural tractors’ drivers is a very actual topic, especially when tractors operate on side slopes, such as in terraced vineyards. This work approaches the problem of articulated tractors’ stability by modelling, simulating and quantifying the safety of the driver with respect to both roll and pitch overturns. First of all, an articulated tractor has been modelled and simplified; after that, a stability index has been defined and calculated in several simulated slope conditions when the tractor travels along a circular trajectory. Then, the obtained results have been compared with respect to a conventional tractor. This work is a preliminary study for a tilting test platform for real vehicles, capable to reproduce real field conditions (slope, obstacles, roughness). Finally, some directives on how exploiting the obtained results for real-time safety devices have been formulated.