A vibration-powered wireless system to enhance safety in agricultural machinery

In this paper, we present a wireless sensing system capable to enhance safety in agricultural machinery. Modern farm tractors adopt vehicle stability control algorithms to enhance safety and prevent accidents. The main limitation in current approach is that the tractor has no information about the implement connected on the front/rear. The system we propose provides information on the connected implement to the tractor control unit allowing the vehicle characteristics update, which allows enhancing vehicle safety. The system we developed is comprised of two wireless devices. The first one, called Master Device (MD), is mounted on the tractor and receives power supply from on-board electrical system. The second one, called End-Device (ED), is mounted on the implement and gathers the supply energy from implement natural vibrations by using a vibrational energy harvester and a piezoelectric transducer. With this approach, the device can recharge an energy reservoir (e.g. a battery) during the implement usage, thus avoiding the need of frequent battery replacement and leading the wireless system to autonomously work for several years.