Environmental Impacts of a Tractor Working On Different Soil Structures.

Environmental impacts of a tractor working on different soil structures

The research aims to analyse the environmental impacts of an agricultural tractor working on different soil structures, namely the fuel consumption and the soil compaction.

The tractor is equipped with several sensors measuring the forward speed, the drawbar pull, the slip, the fuel consumption, the tool height, … These variables are acquired at frequency of 5 Hz and sent to a laptop embedded in the tractor. 

The tractor is working on different soil structures resulting from different kinds of tillage: conventional tillage and simplified techniques. In each situation, the soil properties are characterized: texture, organic matter, water content. The soil compaction is evaluated by three criterions: the bulk density, the precompression stress and the cone index.

The data are used to model the fuel consumption and the soil compaction.