• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.551-557
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• 2014

This paper presents a robust lateral controller for autonomous guidance of a farm tractor in field operations. Although mechanical steering actuators have recently been used for passenger vehicles, the steering actuator of the farm tractor is based on a hydraulic system, resulting in limited bandwidth and a larger time delay. Based on a kinematic tractor model with steering actuator dynamics, a nonlinear control technique called dynamic surface control is applied to design a robust lateral controller that compensates for uncertainty owing to steering actuator and road geometry. Finally, tracking performance and robustness of the proposed controller are validated via commercial tractor simulations, with respect to the time delay of the steering actuator and road geometry (e.g., up and down hills), on a given field with a constant friction coefficient.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.773-784
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• 2023

In this study, we developed a dynamic model and steering controller model for an autonomous tractor and evaluated their performance. The traction force was measured using a 6-component load cell, and the rotational speed of the wheels was monitored using proximity sensors installed on the axles. Torque sensors were employed to measure the axle torque. The PI (proportional integral) controller's coefficients were determined using the trial-error method. The coefficient of the P varied in the range of 0.1 - 0.5 and the I coefficient was determined in 3 increments of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1. To validate the simulation model, we conducted RMS (root mean square) comparisons between the measured data of axle torque and the simulation results. The performance of the steering controller model was evaluated by analyzing the damping ratio calculated with the first and second overshoots. The average front and rear axle torque ranged from 3.29 - 3.44 and 6.98 - 7.41 kNm, respectively. The average rotational speed of the wheel ranged from 29.21 - 30.55 rpm at the front, and from 21.46 - 21.63 rpm at the rear. The steering controller model exhibited the most stable control performance when the coefficients of P and I were set at 0.5 and 0.01, respectively. The RMS analysis of the axle torque results indicated that the left and right wheel errors were approximately 1.52% and 2.61% (at front) and 7.45% and 7.28% (at rear), respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.26-32
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• 2019

This study was conducted to analyze the stresses by impact loads on front-end loaders attached to tractors using flexible multi-body dynamics. The model was designed and validated by comparing previous experimental data with the simulation data obtained in this study. Nine sets of conditions were designed using three weights (500, 300, and 100 kg) loaded inside a bucket and three heights (1700, 1350, and 1000 mm) of the bucket from ground level. A parametric study was carried out at five locations for two types of parts of a front-end loader. All the safety factors for the five locations under all conditions were calculated and were greater than 1. Thus, the designs of the front-end loaders were structurally safe. Based on this study, front-end loaders attached to tractors can be designed effectively in terms of cost and safety.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.77-84
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• 2023

In the agricultural sector, power sources are being developed that use alternative energy sources such as electric tractors and hydrogen tractors, away from internal combustion engine tractors. As parts such as engines and transmissions used in conventional internal combustion engine tractors are replaced with motors and batteries, the center of gravity changes, and thus the risk of rollover should be considered. The purpose of this study is to analyze the overturn angle of the main parts of the electric tractor through dynamic simulation to minimize the overturn accident and to derive the optimal arrangement of parts to improve stability. A total of nine dynamics simulations were conducted by designing three components of the PTO motor, drive motor and the battery pack, and three factors of the arrangement method. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that Type3 Level3, in which the drive motor and the PTO motor are located at the front and rear of the tractor, and two battery packs are located in the middle of the tractor, has a high rollover angle. As a result of this study, the stability increased as the center of gravity was placed backward and located below. Future research needs to be done to find the optimal location of parts considering their performance and placement efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the structural safety of the front-end loader for the 90 kW class of agricultural tractors in impact test conditions. Deformation and stress on the loader under the impact test conditions are analyzed using the commercial finite element analysis software ANSYS. In previous research dealing with the initial design of the loader, the maximum stress occurred in the mount and exceeded the yield strength of the material. In this paper, an improved design of the mount of the loader was proposed to reduce the stress concentration in the initial design. The safety of the improved design was verified by performing rigid-body dynamics analysis, transient structural analysis, and static structural analysis under three impact test conditions: a drop and catch test, a corner pull test, a corner push test. It was found that the local stress concentration in the mount that appeared in the initial design was greatly reduced in the improved design, and that the maximum stresses occurred in the three impact test conditions are smaller than the yield strength. It is expected that the design improvement of the mount proposed in this study and the method of analysis may be effectively used to enhance structural safety in the development of new model front loaders in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.1166-1175
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• 1993

The objective of this study is to measure contra-retractive adhesion and lift resistance acting on the rim section of a circular wheel for analyses of their effects on the dynamic load. A circular iron wheel was used for experiments. A part of the wheel rim was cut off, and transducers which can measure normal and tangential forces were installed in this section. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory soil bin which was filled with clayey soil under wet and dry conditions. The mechanism of generating contra -retractive adhesion on a circular wheel were analyzed by the experiments and motion analyses of the wheel. Effects of lift resistance on dynamic load were analyzed by measured forces under wet soil conditions in comparison in comparison with those under dry conditions. The showed that a part of the lift resistance were transferred to the dynamic load. These results may become basic data and ideas for analyses of tractor dynamic under wet soil conditions.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2015

Agricultural tractors are utilized on rough road such as rice paddy field. Therefore, static and dynamic load should be considered when simulating structural analysis with finite element analysis (FEA). But it consumes a lot of time and effort to measure dynamic load because of difficulty and complexity in modeling various field working load conditions and kinematics of machinery. In this paper, to reduce the efforts, 4-post road simulator is developed for agricultural tractor like modeling commercial vehicle. In proving ground test in our facility, I measured acceleration of front/rare axle and strain of body frame to validate input loads. The acceleration is used for defining input loads. And strain is validated with dynamics analysis including mode superposition method. As a result, I was able to calculate 4-post input road profiles, which represent similar proving ground profile with good reliability.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.502-515
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• 2020

To identify the dynamic characteristics of the Auto-leveling system applied to the Tractor-Trailer type Transporter for mounting a large scale precision equipment, Dynamics Modeling & Simulation were performed using general Dynamics Analysis Program - RecurDyn(V9R2). The axial load data, transverse load data and pad trace data of leveling actuators were obtained from M&S. And they were analyzed and compared with each other by parameters, i.e. friction coefficients on the ground, landing ram speed of actuators, and direction & quantity of ground slope. It was observed that ground contact friction coefficients affected to transverse load and pad trace; the landing ram speed of actuators to both amplitude of axial & transverse load, and this phenomena was able to explain from the frequency analysis of the axial load data; the direction of ground slope to driving sequence of landing ram of actuators. But the dynamic behaviors on the two-directional slope were very different from them on the one-directional slope and more complex.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.327-343
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• 1994

This is the second part of the paper (Rojek and Kleiber 1993) devoted to nonlinear dynamic analysis of structures consisting of rigid and deformable parts. The first part contains a theoretical formulation of nonlinear equations of motion for the coupled system as well as a solution algorithm. The second part presents the computer implementation of the equations derived in the first part with a short review of the capabilities of the computer program used and the library of finite elements. Details of material nonlinearity treatment are also given. The paper is illustrated by discussing a practical problem of a safety cab analysis for an agricultural tractor.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.124-130
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• 2001

This paper presents a methodology on automation of a trailer type vehicle which consists of two parts: a tractor and a trailer. Backward moving and parking control is very important to automate this type of vehicle. It is difficult to control the motion such a trailer vehicle whose dynamics in non-holonomic. Therefore, in this paper, the modeling and parameter estimation of the system using a RCGA(real-coded genetic algorithm) is proposed and a backward path tracking control algorithm is then obtained. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.