Reducing Operation Emissions and Improving Work Efficiency Using a Pure Electric Wheel Drive Tractor

In response to the problems of excessive greenhouse-gas and particulate emissions and the low traction efficiency of conventional diesel tractors in the field,a purely electric wheel-side drive tractor was studied,including an electric motor drive system,a battery ballast system,and an electro–hydraulic suspension system.This paper develops a dynamics model of an electric tractor-ploughing unit under complex soil conditions,leading to the proposal of an active control method for drive wheel torque and a joint control method for the traction force of the suspension system and the front-and rear-axle loads of a tractor.Finally,the tractor is prototyped and assembled,and ploughing tests are carried out.The ploughing results show that the active torque-distribution control method proposed in this study reduces the tractor slip by 14.83%and increases the traction efficiency by 10.28%compared with the average torquedistribution mode.Compared with the conventional traction control mode,the joint control method for traction and ballast proposed in this paper results in a 3.7%increase in traction efficiency,a 15.05%decrease in slip,and a 4.9%reduction in total drive motor energy consumption.This study will help to improve the operation quality and traction efficiency of electric tractors in complex soil conditions.

Design a Special Fixture for Tractor Lever

Aiming at the problems of long time and poor machining precision in processing the tractor lever workpiece,a special fixture suitable for the tractor lever workpiece is designed by analyzing the processing technology of the lever workpiece,and the workpiece is accurately positioned and tightened under the action of the special fixture.Efficient machining of the workpiece can be achieved by using a drill template.The fixture not only has the advantages of high production efficiency,low cost and high life,but also effectively improves the processing technology of the workpiece,and has certain reference value for the subsequent fixture improvement design.

Scheduling on tractor and trailer transportation considering the influence of disrupted events based on the contract net and simulated annealing algorithm

To provide a much more resilient transport scheme for tractor and trailer transportation systems,this paper explores the generation method of tractor and trailer transport schemes considering the influence of disrupted events.Three states of tractors including towing loaded trailers,towing empty trailers,and idle driving are taken into account.Based on the disruption management theory,a scheduling model is constructed to minimize the total deviation cost including transportation time,transportation path,and number of used vehicles under the three states of tractors.A heuristics based on the contract net and simulated annealing algorithm is designed to solve the proposed model.Through comparative analysis of examples with different numbers of newly added transportation tasks and different types of road networks,the performance of the contract net algorithm in terms of deviations in idle driving paths,empty trailer paths,loaded trailer paths,time,number of used vehicles,and total deviation cost are analyzed.The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the model and algorithm,highlighting the superiority of the disruption management model and the contract net annealing algorithm.The study provides a reference for handling unexpected events in the tractor and trailer transportation industry.

On Dual-Mode Driving Control Method for a Novel Unmanned Tractor With High Safety and Reliability

Due to the non-standardization and complexity of the farmland environment,it is always a huge challenge for tractors to achieve fully autonomy(work at Self-driving mode)all the time in agricultural industry.Whereas,when tractors work in the Tele-driving(or Remote driving)mode,the operators are prone to fatigue because they need to concentrate for long periods of time.In response to these,a dual-mode control strategy was proposed to integrate the advantages of both approaches,i.e.,by combing Self-driving at most of the time with Tele-driving under special(complex and hazardous)conditions through switching control method.First,the state switcher was proposed,which is used for smooth switching the driving modes according to different working states of a tractor.Then,the state switching control law and the corresponding subsystem tracking controllers were designed.Finally,the effectiveness and superiority of the dualmode control method were evaluated via actual experimental testing of a tractor whose results show that the proposed control method can switch smoothly,stably,and efficiently between the two driving modes automatically.The average control accuracy has been improved by 20%and 15%respectively,compared to the conventional Tele-driving control and Self-driving control with low-precision navigation.In conclusion,the proposed dualmode control method can not only satisfy the operation in the complex and changeable farmland environment,but also free drivers from high-intensity and fatiguing work.This provides a perfect application solution and theoretical support for the intelligentization of unmanned farm agricultural machinery with high safety and reliability.

Study Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional of the Stress Concentration of the Traction Arm of the NEW HOLLAND TT75 Tractor in Service in CHAD

The New Holland TT75 tractors currently in service in Chad use a tractor arm with three holes, the middle one of which has recurrent failures due to traction. The purpose of this work is to use a finite element model to provide an improvement by modifying the geometric parameters to avoid premature failure of the tractor arms of the New Holland TT75. The ultimate force formula of Eurocode 3 was used to determine the maximum pressure to be applied and. A comparative traction study between the current arm and the proposed arm was performed, taking into account the variation in hole size, arm width and applied pressure for the determination of the stress concentration factor Kt. With the determination of Kt and for the arm width (w) less than or equal to 85 mm;the results showed that the proposed arm geometry is better.

Rul-tractor装置辅助经剑突下胸腔镜胸腺肿瘤切除术学习曲线分析

目的评估在Rul-tractor装置辅助下,经剑突下胸腔镜胸腺肿瘤切除术的手术效果和学习曲线。方法纳入2019年1月至2020年5月武警安徽省总队医院胸外科29名前纵隔肿瘤患者,由年轻外科医生独立完成Rul-tractor装置辅助下剑突下胸腔镜胸腺肿瘤切除手术。总结临床特点和手术结果,并以手术时间的累积和(CUSUM)值评价学习曲线。结果所有患者均接受全胸腺切除术,包括肿瘤R0切除,无中转至正中胸骨切开。如合并重症肌无力(Myasthenia gravis,MG)则需行前纵隔脂肪扩大清扫术,合并MG的患者有4例(13.8%);临床特点中肿瘤直径为2.6~7.0 cm,平均直径4.3±1.8 cm;位置较高骑跨于无名静脉的肿瘤18例(62.1%);术后组织学病理特征中胸腺瘤17例(59.0%)、胸腺囊肿9例(31.1%)、胸腺癌1例(3.3%)、胸腺增生1例(3.3%)、畸胎瘤1例(3.3%);手术时间70~150 min,平均时间(103.0±19.8)min,术中出血量15~100 mL,平均为(31.5±15.8)mL,带管时间1~5 d,平均(2.9±2.2)d,住院天数3~9 d,平均(5.4±2.1)d;术中术后并发症4例(13.8%),无肌无力危象发生;无术后死亡及复发病例。手术时间在19例后趋于下降平稳趋势。结论在Rul-tractor胸骨牵拉装置的辅助下实施剑突下胸腔镜胸腺肿瘤切除术,学习曲线约为19例,可被无丰富手术经验的年轻外科医生快速掌握,获得的手术结果可以接受。

Multi-objective Stability Control Algorithm of Heavy Tractor Semi-trailer Based on Differential Braking

Rollover and jack-knifing of tractor semi-trailer are serious threats for vehicle safety, and accordingly active safety technologies have been widely used to reduce or prevent the occurrence of such accidents. However, currently tractor semi-trailer stability control is generally only a single hazardous condition (rollover or jack-knifing) control, it is difficult to ensure the vehicle comprehensive stability of various dangerous conditions. The main objective of this study is to introduce a multi-objective stability control algorithm which can improve the vehicle stability of a tractor semi-trailer by using differential braking. A vehicle controller is designed to minimize the likelihood of rollover and jack-knifing. First a linear vehicle model of tractor semi-trailer is constructed. Then an optimal yaw control for tractor using differential braking is applied to minimize the yaw rate and lateral acceleration deviation of tractor, as well as the hitch articulation angle of tractor semi-trailer, so as to improve the vehicle stability. Second a braking scheme and variable structure control with sliding mode control are introduced in order to achieve the best braking effect. Last Fishhook maneuver is introduced to the active safety simulation and the active control system effect verification. The simulation results show that multi-objective stability control algorithm of semi-trailer could improve the vehicle stability significantly during the transient maneuvers. The proposed multi-objective stability control algorithm is effective to prevent the vehicle rollover and jackknifing.

Path-tracking Control of a Tractor-aircraft System

An aircraft tractor plays a significant role as a kind of important marine transport and support equipment. It＇s necessary to study its controlling and manoeuvring stability to improve operation efficiency. A virtual prototyping model of the tractor-aircraft system based on Lagrange＇s equation of the first kind with Lagrange mutipliers was established in this paper, According to the towing characteristics, a path-tracking controller using fuzzy logic theory was designed. Direction control herein was carried out through a compensatory tracking approach. Interactive co-simulation was performed to validate the path-tracking behavior in closed-loop, Simulation results indicated that the tractor followed the reference courses precisely on a flat ground.

Research and Design of Hydro-mechanical Continuously Variable Transmission for Tractors

A new type continuous variable transmission device, a hydro-mechanical continuously variable transmission （HMCVT） for agricultural tractors is developed, which is composed of a single planetary gear differential train, a hydraulic transmission system consisted of variable displacement pump and fixed displacement motor and a multi-gear fixed step radio transmission. Based on the analysis of types of hydrostatic mechanical transmission （HMT） and styles of hydraulic transmission, the general drive scheme for HMCVT is obtained. The method of selecting mechanical parameters and hydraulic units is explained, and the stepless speed regulation characteristic of HMCVT is analyzed. This paper also specializes the calculating method of transmission efficiency. It shows that tractors assembled with HMCVT can obtain a continuously variable speed and achieve high drive efficiency.

Design of User Interface for Tractor Cab Real-time Information Management System

In this paper,the user interface of tractor cab real-time information management system was designed. Based on the principle of "user friendly",it reasonably arranged spatial position of information management system according to spatial distribution of tractor cab. Then,it analyzed operation habits and thinking ways of drivers,and formulated design principle meeting demands of drivers. Besides,it used LabView software to design user interface,including interface layout and interface design. User interface includes basic information interface,job information interface,camera monitoring interface,and fault diagnosis interface. Finally,it made evaluation of the user interface from color,indicator lamp,dial,and pointer. Results indicate that the designed user interface layout conforms to cognition mentality and operation habits and easy to get familiar and grasp; graphical interface is vivid and easy to stimulate pleasure of drivers in operation; interface color matching is coordinated; the layout of controls is hierarchical and logic,and operating mode is consistent with Windows system.

A Newly Developed Differential Steering Rubber-tracked Agriculture Tractor

This paper introduces a newly developed ag tractor.The differential steering system and rubber tracks are described in detail.

Design and Experiment of Electronic-hydraulic Loading Test-bed Based on Tractor's Hydraulic Steering By-wire

An Electro-hydraulic loading system is designed based on a test-bed of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire. To simulate the steering resistance driving tractor in many kinds of soils and roads,the loading force is controlled to make proportional and continuous variable by an electro-hydraulic proportional relief valve. A steering resistance loading test-bed is built to test three kinds of steering resistance including constant,step and sine style. Tire lateral resistance is also tested under different steering conditions. The result shows that the electro-hydraulic loading system has high stability and following performance. Besides,the system's steady state error is lower than 3. 1%,and it meets the test requirement of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire.

Numerical investigation of hydrodynamic tractor-retarder assembly under traction work condition

To obtain the performance characteristics of hydrodynamic tractor-retarder assembly under traction work condition,a numerical simulation model of flow channel was established and tetrahedron unstructured grids were adopted in the meshing stage.The racing rotating speed of the brake wheels was calculated by computational fluid dynamics（CFD） calculation and interpolation,and then accurate boundary condition was applied to the CFD simulation to study the pressure and velocity distribution of internal flow field in hydrodynamic tractor-retarder assembly.Finally,the original characteristics were calculated by CFD post-processing analysis.Comparison of experimental data and flow field analysis results showed that the calculation tolerance of the torque ratio K and the efficiency η was less than 5%,and the calculation tolerance of the pump torque coefficient λ was less than 10%.

Design and Analysis of an Active Helical Drive Downhole Tractor

During oil-gas well drilling and completion, downhole tools and apparatus should be conveyed to the destination to complete a series of downhole works. Downhole tractors have been used to convey tools in complex wellbores, however a very large tractive force is needed to carry more downhole tools to accomplish works with high efficiency. A novel serial active helical drive downhole tractor which has significantly improved performance compared with previous work is proposed. All previously reported helical drive downhole tractors need stators to balance the torque generated by the rotator. By contrast, the proposed serial downhole tractor does not need a stator; several rotator-driven units should only be connected to one another to achieve a tractive force multifold higher than that was previously reported. As a result, the length of a single unit is shortened, and the motion flexibility of the downhole tractor is increased. The major performance indicators, namely, gear ratio, velocity, and tractive force, are analyzed. Experimental results show that the maximum tractive force of a single-unit prototype with a length of 900 mm is 165.3 kg or 1620 N. The analysis and experimental results show that the proposed design has considerable potential for downhole works.

Development of a Data Acquisition System to Optimizing the Agricultural Tractor Performance

A novel data acquisition system was successfully integrated on-board the Massey Ferguson 3,000 series agricultural tractors for measuring tractor-implement performance. A commercial load cell was incorporated into the existing system for the needed tractor-implement performance, measurements. This system is capable of measuring, displaying and recording, in real-time, the tractor＇s theoretical travel speed, the actual travel speed, the engine speed, the fuel consumption rate, and the drawbar pull. Static calibration tests on various associated sensors for the required measurements show excellent linearity with correlation coefficients that are close to 1. The developed system was extensively and successfully field demonstrated for tractor-implement performance with offset disc harrows on dry, undisturbed loamy soils. Under these conditions, a ratio of tractor power to implement width is suggested. The data also show the existence of a linear relationship between fuel consumption per hectare and specific draught, for the 4 to 9 kN m^-1 range, which suggests the possibility of extending the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers model of draught prediction to forecast fuel consumption. The configuration of the tractor-harrow combination, based on the measurement of the draught required under operational conditions, provides the manufacturers with a reliable indication of the recommended power required for each harrow model. With this type of information farmers can make decisions regarding selection of a suitable tractor-implement combination for their farms. As a consequence, there is improved tractor-harrow productivity and field efficiency.

Kinematics Simulation and Structure Optimization of Tilting and Lifting Mechanism of ITER Tractor

The ITER （international thermonuclear experimental reactor） tractor is an in-cask remote handling equipment, its tilting and lifting mechanism is important for the tractor operated with forty-five-ton plug in front of the ports of Hot Cell and VV （vacuum vessel） successfully. In order to better analyse the movement of this mechanism and decide the key design parameters accurately, a mathematical model of 7-1ink complicated plane mechanism was built up, and the calculation of design and kinematics simulation were implemented. The established mathematical model was proved to be valid by comparing the calculated result with that of kinematics simulation. Finally, the structure analysis and the optimization of its key part, tilting and lifting frame, were performed to guarantee the frame＇s strength in bearing the heavy load of plug.

Study on dynamic model of tractor system for automated navigation applications

This research aims at using a dynamic model of tractor system to support navigation system design for an automati- cally guided agricultural tractor. This model, consisting of a bicycle model of the tractor system, has been implemented in the MATLAB environment and was developed based on a John Deere tractor. The simulation results from this MATLAB model was validated through field navigation tests. The accuracy of the trajectory estimation is strongly affected by the determination of the cornering stiffness of the tractor. In this simulation, the tractor cornering stiffness analysis was identified during simulation analysis using the MATLAB model based on the recorded trajectory data. The obtained data was used in simulation analyses for various navigation operations in the field of interest. The analysis on field validation test results indicated that the developed tractor system could accurately estimate wheel trajectories of a tractor system while operating in agricultural fields at various speeds. The results also indicated that the developed system could accurately determine tractor velocity and steering angle while the tractor operates in curved fields.

Study on Large Power Tractor Driver's Heart Rate and Fatigue in Sowing Work

In order to reduce the driving fatigue in sowing work, this paper based on heart rate （HR） as the main indicator to survey, tested and analyzed the fatigue condition of the drivers of three imported tractors and one domestic tractor in sowing work. The results showed that when driving the imported tractors in sowing work, the HR increasing rate was 10.4%-14.3%, labor intensity belonged to the light level; when driving domestic tractor in sowing work, the HR increasing rate was 23.4%-33.0%, it was remarkably bigger than that of driving imported tractors （P〈0.05）, labor intensity belonged to the middle level. The main effects on driving fatigue included the control methods, tractors＇ cab environment, processing time, operating content, and so on. Finally, we proposed the concrete measures and suggestions to reduce driving fatigue and improve drivers＇ work condition.

Statistical analysis on reliability and serviceability of caterpillar tractor

For further understanding reliability and serviceability of tractor and to furnish scientific and technical theories, based on the promotion and application of it, the following experiments and statistical analysis on reliability （reliability and MTBF） serviceability （service and MTTR） of Donfanghong-1002 and Dongfanghong-802 were conducted. The result showed that the intervals of average troubles of these two tractors were 182.62 h and 160.2 h, respectively, and the weakest assembly of them was engine part.

The Research on Selecting the Optimum Coefficient of Inharmonious Motion for the Front Wheel Assist Tractor

Based on dynamic analysis for the Front Wheel Assist (FWA) tractor, a calculating and analysing method on selecting the optimum coefficient of inharmonious motion for the FWA tractor is described in this paper and the mathematical models arc also established. The article first time dlefines the ratio of thrust of front wheels to that of rear wheels, which is an important parameter affecting the tractive performance of the FWA tractor and establishes the condition of no power circulation of the FWA tractor. The optimum coefficient of inharmonious motion for a FWA tractor (UTB-445) is also given.