Presentation of Prof. Cesare Fantuzzi of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia during CAPIGI 2011 in Amsterdam 5 April 2011.

1. Automation
Robotics and
System
CONTROL Università degli Studi
di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Geo-Information for Safe
Agriculture
Cesare Fantuzzi
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
CAPIGI 2011
TUESDAY 5 APRIL 2011
Session: Machine Guidance
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 1

2. Impelling need for safe
Agriculture
! Agriculture and forestry have the worst fatal accident rate
than any other industry.
! Only construction has a comparable incidence rate of fatal
accidents at work.
! However, there has been a steady
decline in fatal accidents in
construction, but this is less so for
agriculture.
! The standardized incidence rate for
agriculture, hunting and forestry of
fatal accidents at work in the EU was
12.6 per 100,000 workers
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 2

3. Statistics
! Standardized incidence rate by economic activity (fatal
accidents) [source: EUROSTAT]
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 3

4. Situation in UK
! Agriculture has one of the worst fatal accident and occupational ill
health records of any major employment sector.
! Less than 1.5% of the working population is employed in
agriculture yet the sector is responsible for between 15% and
20% of fatalities to workers each year.
! The provisional fatal injury rate in agriculture for 2007/08 was 9.7
fatalities per 100,000 workers - the highest of any industrial
sector.
! In the 10 year period from 1997/1998 to 2006/2007 a total of 464
people have been killed as a result of agricultural work activities
and many more have been injured or suffered ill health.
! This means an average of 46 people each year are killed in the
industry – almost 1 death per week!
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 4

5. The main causes of death
! transport (being run over or vehicle overturns) -
accounting for 24% of fatalities.
! falling from a height (through fragile roofs, trees etc) - 17%.
! struck by moving or falling objects (bales, trees etc) - 15%.
! asphyxiation / drowning - 10%
! livestock related fatalities - 10%
! contact with machinery - 8%
! trapped by something collapsing or overturning - 7%
! contact with electricity - 5%
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 5

6. Situation in Italy
! In 2010 there were 300 accidents in agriculture involving
tractors.
! 176 of these accidents caused the death of people involved.
! 221 people seriously injured.
– Source: Centauro-Asaps study.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 6

7. Tractor Overturn Hazards
! The central concept in tractor stability/
instability is Center of Gravity (CG).
! For a tractor to stay upright, its CG
must stay within the tractors stability
baseline
! When a tractor is on an incline, the
distance between the tractors CG and
stability baseline is reduced.
! If equipment, such as a front-end
loader, a round bale lifting fork, or a
chemical side saddle tank is mounted
on the tractor, the additional weight
shifts the CG toward that piece of
equipment.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 7

8. Important Factors for Tractor
Stability/Instability
! The following factors works through the CG. Each of these
factors may cause the tractor's CG to go beyond the
tractor's stability baseline and overturn:
! Centrifugal force (CF),
! Rear-axle torque (RAT),
! Drawbar leverage (DBL).
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 8

9. Centrifugal force (CF)
! The relationship between CF and tractor speed, however, is
not directly proportional.
! Centrifugal force varies in proportion to the square of the
tractors speed.
! Centrifugal force is often a factor in tractor side overturns.
! When the distance between the tractor's CG and side
stability baseline is already reduced from being on a hillside,
only a little CF force may be needed to push the tractor
over.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 9

10. Rear-axle torque (RAT)
! Rear-axle torque involves energy transfer between the
tractor engine and the rear axle of two-wheel drive tractors.
! Engaging the clutch of such tractors results in a twisting
force, called torque, to the rear axle.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 10

11. Drawbar leverage (DBL)
! When a two-wheel drive tractor is pulling a load, its rear
tires push against the ground.
! Simultaneously, the load attached to the tractor is pulling
back and down against the forward movement of the tractor.
! The load is said to be pulling down because the load is
resting on the earth's surface.
! This backward and downward pull results in the rear tires
becoming a pivot point, with the load acting as force trying
to tip the tractor rearward.
! An angle of pull is created between the grounds surface and
the point of attachment on the tractor.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 11

12. Drawbar leverage (DBL) Cont.
! Suppose the tractor is hitched safely.
! The tractor is engaged and begins to pull on the stump.
! When the tree stump does not pull loose, the tractor will
react in one of two ways:
– The most expected reaction will be a slipping (spinning) of the rear
tires.
– The second reaction may also involve a slipping of the rear tires, but
the slipping may be neither smooth nor consistent.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 12

13. “Smart Sentinel” Project
! Acquire information to compute possible hazardous conditions.
Source of information:
– Inertial characteristics (acceleration, twist, etc.) from on-board sensor
that directly affects the tractor CG.
– Tractor location using geo-localization information, to augment
inertial information.
– Information on current implement attached to the tractor about its size,
weight and CG, to compute overall CG (tractor+implement).
To allow automatic detection, this information can be stored in the
Implement ECU or in a dedicated smart tag placed on the implement
itself.
! Compute counteraction in case of detection of hazardous
conditions.
– Passive: inform the human operator about the danger.
– Active: takes the control of the tractor.
! Immediate call for rescue assistance in case of accident.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 13

14. Geo-spatial data for safety
! Identify safe and unsafe area for tractor operator
! Set control parameter depending on geo-localization.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 14

15. ICT boosts farm activities
! The Smart Sentinel project requires a smart ICT structure:
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 15

16. State of the art
! Italian company Co:Bo S.p.A. has developed an inertial
platform (on-board source of information), and a warning
system (passive counteraction) named Sentinel.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 16

17. Sentinel Concept
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 17

18. ISOTRACTOR Project
! Smart Sentinel project aims to
augment the functionalities of
Sentinel product in a way to include:
– Geo-spatial information and automatic
loading of implement parameters that
influence the CG of the whole system.
– Active counteraction on tractor guidance.
! Smart Sentinel is a task in a wider
project supported by regional
government of Emilia Romagna
called ISOTRACTOR.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 18

19. ISOTRACTOR Project
! Public bodies and Company interaction
Industry Association
(“Mechatronic” Club)
University of
Modena and Reggio Emilia
Industries
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 19

20. ISOTRACTOR goals
! ISOTRACTOR aims to develop HW-SW
applications ISOBUS compliant for
agricultural machines and implement.
! Open architecture, targeting to merge
seamlessly different vendors systems.
! Addressing ISOBUS limitation, as bus
bandwidth, safety and real time.
! Develop Task Controller and Sequence
Controller Applications.
! Smart Sentinel will be one of the
ISOTRACTOR node
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 20

21. Conclusion
! We presented a project named “Smart Sentinel”.
! Smart Sentinel is a active system for increase safety of any
farming tasks which involves a tractor (often with an
implement attached).
! A Geo-localization system and an accurate field map can
provide necessary information to detect that the tractor is
working in hazardous conditions.
! This information can be merged with on-board sensors to
detect twist, bend or dangerous acceleration conditions.
! These information will be used to compute an active
countermeasure to reach an “always-safe” working
condition for humans and machines.
CAPIGI C. Fantuzzi 21