Concept of a safety system to be used when performing dynamic tests of stability on agricultural machines

An innovative test facility to be installed within the “Agroforestry Innovation Laboratory” of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, located at the upcoming “NOI - Technology Park”, has been developed with the aim of performing new stability tests on agricultural machines. It is basically a large tiltable platform (about 15×15 m), and it is composed by two test systems integrated together, (1) the tiltable and angleable plane and (2) the tiltable turntable. During the tests at this facility, machines are given some specific motions (rotation around a vertical axis, translation on circular trajectories). The considerable masses (up to 5000 kg) of the tested machines have raised the need to equip the facility with a safety system able to retain the vehicles when they reach the overturning. Studying the possible motions and trajectories of tested vehicles, a system that can provide up to 6 selectively-lockable degrees of freedom has been proposed. It can be named to as: system with rotating-translating pincer-cage and carousel-like arm.