Citation

Dieter Kutzbach H. J. Agric. Eng. Res. 2000; 76(3): 237-247.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1006/jaer.2000.0574

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The economic situation and the future supply of food for the growing world population require the productivity of power and machinery to increase further. Moreover, legislation and demands in the areas such as environmental protection, maintenance of product quality and facilitation of work are factors that will exert a decisive influence on future developments. In the foreseeable future, the trend towards larger, more powerful machines will remain undiminished. Mobile machines are becoming even more complex due to the combination of work steps and because subsequent processing has been taken over by these machines. The percentage of self-propelled machines will grow further. Self-propelled machines are also being developed for those kinds of work that are still carried out by tractors and implements today. Nevertheless, the development of new sensors for the control of additional machine functions makes operation easier. Despite high vehicle mass, further developments in tyres and tracks avoid harmful soil compaction. In the future, continuously variable, power-splitting hydrostatic transmissions with electric control will lead to further increase in the productivity of agricultural tractors and simplify their operation. Electric power-splitting transmissions will gain in importance as an alternative to hydrostatic transmissions. Automatic vehicle control, especially through high-precision global positioning systems (GPS), will allow new working procedures such as onland ploughing to be carried out. In addition, the driver's work load will be reduced further, and productivity will increase due to higher driving speed and extended work time during twilight periods. Only after numerous safety questions have been solved will autonomous, unmanned vehicles be employed. At first, their use will be restricted to simple work such as tillage.

Language: en