An Early Warning Device for Identification of Tractor Accidents, Rapid Alert and Assistance

Although today’s tractors are safer then before, they are still involved in many farm accidents. Statistics show that most machinery-related accidents occur due to human negligence, due to errors involving improper or lack of machinery maintenance, taking shortcuts to save time, failure to follow safety rules, failure to read the operator’s manual or ignoring machine’s warnings. While a lot of effort in researches has been devoted to the optimization of protective devices (ROPS-Roll Over Protection Structures), little attention has been devoted to post-accident medical assistance. In particular, statistically, in fatalities or in serious injuries accidents is frequently found a condition in which the driver is prevented in making requests for immediate help, being immobilized as a consequence of rollover crushing or due to the impact of the tractor with trees or with the ground. In these cases time in alerting a rescue team is a key factor in saving operator’s life. In this work a combined rapid alert device is presented, developed integrating a GPS-GSM chip with a MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) tilt sensor, including miniaturized accelerometers and inclinometers in order to detect rollovers and collisions in real time.