Many advances in digital agriculture focus on improving farm productivity — but there’s scope to use them to improve farmers’ health and wellbeing, too.
Researchers from Palermo, Italy, sought to do just that, designing a system for tractor seats that monitors vibrations while the vehicle is in use, alerting them when they pose health threats to the operator. Risks of what extended exposure to what are known as whole body vibrations (WBV) can result in musculoskeletal disorders and numbness.
In the research, presented at the conference Biosystems Engineering Promoting Resilience to Climate Change, the team used a Raspberry Pi microcomputer as the basis of the system, with two sensors and an LED and LCD screen to communicate with the driver. They developed a piece of software to monitor and analyse vibrations, recording them with precision timestamps.
In a series of tests of the technology, which is independent from existing vehicle electronics, they validated the effectiveness of the alert system, using operators of three different masses and simulating incorrect seat position and excessive speed. As well as proving its viability, they found that monitoring the seat shell was more effective than doing so on the seat cushion.
Vibrations in the workplace are covered by both national and international-level legislation, and in the scientists’ tests, the system warned farmers when levels reach a threshold set down by Italian law.
Practical tech for small and medium tractors
While seats with adaptable suspension are beginning to appear in high-end tractors, the researchers noted, these solutions can be expensive and have “sometimes dubious functionality.” Their own design aims to provide an option so that operators of more modest machines know when they are at risk for “a few tens of Euros,” so they can make simple changes such as adjusting the seat or reducing speed.
“Due to its affordability, the system can be seamlessly integrated into seats and connected to the dashboard, providing operators with indications on the level of WBV risk, thereby mitigating risks for operators,” they said.
Further work is required to explore whether sensors can be directly integrated into tractor seats, they explained, with a need to find the most appropriate, protected but also accessible points.
“These sensors represent a significant investment towards modern and sustainable agriculture, where technology is used to improve the quality of work and the safety of operators,” they added.
