Abstract
Tractors generally work on uneven and sloped fields, which leads to safety problems. Rollovers are caused by these conditions and account for more than half of all tractor accidents. In Italy, from 2002 to 2012, 43.7% of fatal accidents related to mechanization involved tractors, with 57.4% of them resulting from rollovers. Even if they are not fatal, financial losses due to both damage to equipment and interruption of activity are inevitable. The study of this topic through simulation and experimental activities is therefore very important. It is plausible to characterize the stability in every operative condition and develop more adequate active and/or passive safety systems. In this study, a vineyard tractor has been tested. Two different methods were used: 1. Multibody dynamics (MBD) simulations and 2. Rollover tests performed using tilt table. First, an MBD model was created with the software Adams/View. Then a test-rig was exploited to measure the position of the centre-of-gravity (CoG). A series of rollover test were then carried out considering different CoG configurations and orientations with respect to the line of maximum slope on MBD environment. As a result, various stability maps are obtained for comparison. This is a graphic tool that represents the behaviour of the machine in each configuration with regards to stability. Results showed that the stability behaviour of the machine has no linear relationship with the CoG shift in lateral and vertical direction.