OPTIMIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR CAB SUSPENSION USING THE EVOLUTION METHOD

The use of cab suspensions on agricultural tractors increases the possibilities to reduce the vibration load on the driver within the limits imposed by the major constraint, i.e. the available travel space. This paper describes a model for optimization of parameters describing the characteristics of a passive nonlinear cab suspension. The optimization method is based on an evolution algorithm. The objective has been to minimize the total vibration load on the driver. The studies performed show that the method is a very useful tool for optimization of cab suspension characteristics. The absolute optima were not always found but the differences in the values of the objective function were small.