Prediction and Evaluation of Vibration Characteristics of an Agricultural Rubber Crawler Vehicle Equipped with Movable Track Rollers

Abstract

In this study, a dynamic model for agricultural rubber crawler vehicles equipped with movable track rollers was constructed by considering pitch motion in order to clarify their vibration characteristics. Further, motion equations were formulated from this model. Driving experiments were conducted for an agricultural rubber crawler vehicle equipped with movable track rollers in order to investigate its vibration characteristics and verify the validity of the analysis based on these motion equations. Furthermore, the measured and simulated results were compared with those for a conventional rubber crawler vehicle, in which the track rollers are fixed on the track frame. The results indicated that in both cases, the vibration characteristics were different, although the location arrangements of the track rollers were similar.