Power Take-Off Electrification Through Power Flow Analysis of a Specialized Tractor

Agricultural tractor testing has become extremely relevant nowadays, representing one of the most effective solutions to validate machines, while assessing productivity forecasts and fuel saving estimations as required by market players. In addition, experimental activities have been recognized as a powerful tool to support the development of new promising platforms, including hybrid and electric ones. Starting from the state-of-art of agricultural machines power analysis, this article aims at providing the results of a comprehensive experimental campaign carried out on a specialized tractor operated in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Prosecco</i> vineyards, equipped with dedicated implements. The tractor, properly instrumented, is analyzed to understand its power distribution with different missions. The focus is then posed on the load applied by the implements at power take-off (PTO), to collect data supporting the preliminary design of a dedicated electric motor replacing the conventional mechanical architecture.