A Study of the Lateral Stability of Self-Propelled Fruit Harvesters

Maurizio Cutini, Massimo Brambilla, Carlo Bisaglia, Stefano Melzi, Edoardo Sabbioni, Michele Vignati, Eugenio Cavallo and Vincenzo Laurendi
Additional contact information
Maurizio Cutini: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processingvia Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Massimo Brambilla: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processingvia Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Carlo Bisaglia: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processingvia Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Stefano Melzi: Politecnico di Milano Department of Mechanical Engineering, via La Masa 1, 20156 Milan, Italy
Edoardo Sabbioni: Politecnico di Milano Department of Mechanical Engineering, via La Masa 1, 20156 Milan, Italy
Michele Vignati: Politecnico di Milano Department of Mechanical Engineering, via La Masa 1, 20156 Milan, Italy
Eugenio Cavallo: National Research Council (CNR) of Italy, Institute for Agricultural and Earthmoving Machines (IMAMOTER), Strada delle Cacce, 73, 10135 Torino, Italy
Vincenzo Laurendi: INAIL, Dipartimento Innovazioni Tecnologiche e Sicurezza degli Impianti, Prodotti e Insediamenti Antropici (DITSIPIA), P.le Pastore 6, 00144 Rome, Italy

Agriculture, 2017, vol. 7, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Self-propelled fruit harvesters (SPFHs) are agricultural machines designed to facilitate fruit picking and other tasks requiring operators to stay close to the foliage or to the upper part of the canopy. They generally consist of a chassis with a variable height working platform that can be equipped with lateral extending platforms. The positioning of additional masses (operators, fruit bins) and the maximum height of the platform (up to three meters above the ground) strongly affect machine stability. Since there are no specific studies on the lateral stability of SPFHs, this study aimed to develop a specific test procedure to fill this gap. A survey of the Italian market found 20 firms manufacturing 110 different models of vehicles. Observation and monitoring of SPFHs under real operational conditions revealed the variables mostly likely to affect lateral stability: the position and mass of the operators and the fruit bin on the platform. Two SPFHs were tested in the laboratory to determine their centre of gravity and lateral stability in four different settings reproducing operational conditions. The test setting was found to affect the stability angle. Lastly, the study identified two specific settings reproducing real operational conditions most likely to affect the lateral stability of SPFHs: these should be used as standard, reproducible settings to enable a comparison of results.

Keywords: safety; tiltable platform; rollover angle; agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/7/11/92/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/7/11/92/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:7:y:2017:i:11:p:92-:d:117260

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().