Data acquisition system to monitor tractor performance

Abstract

A data acquisition system was developed to measure various tractor performance parameters such as wheel forces, three-point linkage forces, drawbar force, PTO torque and ground speed. An electronic circuit was designed and fabricated to provide exact angular position measurement of the clevis bolts in the tractor wheels at any travel speed and scanning rate of the datalogger used. This measurement is found to be more accurate and reliable as compared to the measurement by the marker pulse of the optical shaft encoder, which is dependent on the datalogger scanning time. The force measurement from the clevis bolts combined with the angular position measurement gives the total horizontal and the vertical components of forces on the revolving wheel. An onboard datalogger was used to sample signals from the various transducers as well as the angular position measurement circuit in the system. The system was field tested for its performance and found to be accurate and reliable in measurement of tractor performance parameters.