Embedded digital draft force and wheel slip indicator for tillage research

A mechatronic based embedded digital draft force and wheel slip measuring devices was developed. It includes a load cell based dynamometer to measure the draft force, hall sensor based magnetic pins mounted discs to measure wheel slip, an amplifier to amplify the sensing unit signals of dynamometer, and a microcontroller to process the received load cells, hall sensors data to calculate draft force, wheel slip and display on the LCD screen as well as record the data in SD card module. To compare and assess the degree of accuracy of the developed draft measurement system, wheel slip measurement system, a system involving instrumented three point linkages was developed to measure draft force simultaneously and a non contact type radar sensor was used to validate the wheel slip measurement system. It was observed that, a maximum variation of ±410 N draft forces was observed between the developed and strain gauge dynamometer also found close to draft force values calculated by ASABE equation and a maximum variation of ±2.1% wheel slip was observed between developed and manual measured values. The developed devices are simple in construction and can be mounted on any make and model of agricultural tractor implements. The developed devices will be very much helpful for educational institutions and research needs in drawbar performance studies.