AddTraX: Traction Enhancement of Tractors Using Additive Motor-Integrated Driving Wheel Units
Takuten Izumi, Moe Nanakubo, Koki Honda, Takashi Sasabe, Tomoyoshi Sakano, Kenichi Iwami, Rui Fukui
AI summary
Problem
Agricultural tractors require vastly different traction forces for various tasks, but traditional solutions either increase vehicle weight (causing soil compaction) or lack task flexibility.
Approach
The authors propose AddTraX, a system of manually attachable, motor-integrated wheel units that dynamically adjust their height to maintain ground contact and distribute traction evenly across all wheels.
Key results
- Proposed AddTraX concept enabling manual attachment of motor-integrated wheel units
- Achieved 1.9x traction force increase on paved roads with added units
- Wheel height control significantly boosted traction on soft unpaved roads at low weights
- Developed a concise normal force sensing method and height controller for uneven terrain
Why it matters
Enables farmers to use a single electrified tractor for diverse tasks while minimizing fuel use and soil compaction.
Abstract
This study proposes a novel concept of an electric tractor that can flexibly respond to tasks with different traction force requirements. The key idea is to attach motor-integrated additive driving wheel units (AddTraX) to the rear wheel of the tractor according to the required traction force. The required functions for the driving wheel units are to allow manual attachment of the driving wheel units by the operator, and to control the height of the driving wheel units while running so that all the wheels have contact with ground. Driving experiments have been conducted using a single-side 1/4 scale model of the proposed driving wheel units and simply implemented models of several road conditions. On a paved road, the attachment of the additional driving wheel units enhance the traction force by 1.9 times, and wheel height control is unnecessary. On a soft unpaved road, traction force is increased by controlling the height of the driving wheel units when the vehicle weight is low. Furthermore, the experiment also confirms that the additional driving wheel units can help the vehicle overcoming steps on uneven road.