8812 / Energy Method To Compare Performance Of New Types Of Sugar Cane Transport Equipment

Authors

Jorge Lopera, Fernando Casanova, Adolfo Leon Gomez Perlaza, and Carlos Daniel Muñoz Delgado

Paper presented at ISTVS 2024 | 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS Keywords: Sugar cane transport; Agricultural Equipment; Tracked Vehicles; Mobility Index https://doi.org/10.56884/TU3WEI8X

Abstract

Mobility indexes (MI) have been used to understand and compare the performance for ground vehicles, which must complete tasks or follows paths for several types of environments. The MI research has been studied by several authors (Wong 2008, Larin 2007, Chudakov, Vantsevich 2022). There are multiple methods that supports the evaluation of mobility, from experimental, numerical, and simulated (VCI, MMP, NTVPM). To estimate the MI is a key feature in an initial stage of concept and design of new types of ground vehicles. At the agriculture industry, the challenges for a MI estimation could be like the ones at military industry, but with different points of interest (soil conservation, reduce load transfer to soil, crop protection). For the sugar cane industry at the Valle del Cauca region (Colombia-South America), these considerations have become important since the sugar cane in that region, is a whole year crop growing, that means harvesting activities are developed no matter if there is dry or wet season. The conservation concerns for the industry at wet seasons appears, because the sugar cane supply equipment (harvester, cranes, trailers) with wheels and even with tracks, reduce the reliability, with the sinkage and compaction phenomena with heavy vehicles. This work proposes the application of mobility index concept for a new type of vehicle to transport the sugar cane on the field. For the sugar cane sector, the adoption for these methodologies would help reducing the risk to deploy unreliable technologies and to compare design alternatives at conceptual phases

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