Evaluation of safety volume to protect the driver during the rollover of small agricultural vehicles

Vehicle rollover is a common event in agriculture due to the variability of the pedological and orographical condition of the soil and/or to human incorrect practices. Tractors since 1930 have been considered at risk of rollover and they were fitted with roll-over protective structures (ROPS) which had to provide a survival volume for the operator. The Directive 2006/42/EC currently foresees the same approach for the agricultural machines when a risk of rollover is recognised. The main purpose of the work was to identify a suitable survival volume for small multi-tasks agricultural vehicles. The study carried out evidenced that the design and operational characteristics of these small vehicles require an ad hoc survival volume. Indeed the official volumes already consolidated for tractors and other machines, even if in all cases consider the dimension of a seated male operator, had to be adapted in respect to the space actually provided by the features and operational characteristics of the small sized vehicles in order to preserve their functionality in the normal operation.