Monitoring of the operating parameters of agricultural tractors

Methodologies for the definition of mission profile of vehicles and agricultural machines have been developed recently with the goal to updating design and testing targets of new products. Mission profile is usually defined by means of surveys, load measurements under specific conditions, and assumptions made by engineers. The total idling time is the most important, since it reduces the mission severity and permits to design less robust machines with the same expected life. A methodology to measure and statistically analyze idling time usage from a fleet of agricultural tractors, is shown in this paper. An onboard data-logger able to acquires and stores engine working parameters was installed on a fleet of tractors. Tractors were distributed in different countries and used for almost one year in different tasks. The acquired data was statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with tractor location as factor. From the analysis of the results, a dependency between total idling time and tractors location was found. Especially, tractors based in areas with extreme temperatures and fuel cost low, run in idling for longer time to maintain the optimal engine temperature and cab thermal comfort during stops. With the methodology outlined in this paper, the knowledge of idling usage of agricultural tractors is improved and this allows the definition of more precise design targets for new machines.