Original Article

Agricultural tractors magneto-rheological seat suspension design based on LADRC control strategy

¹ Fujian Key Laboratory of Big Data Application and Intellectualization for Tea Industry, Wuyi University, Nanping, Fujian 354300, PR China
² The Key Laboratory for Agricultural Machinery Intelligent Control and Manufacturing of Fujian Education Institutions, Wuyi University, Nanping, Fujian 354300, PR China
³ Fujian Provincial University Research Center for Digitalization and Intellectualization of the Bamboo Whole Industry Chain, Wuyi University, Nanping, Fujian 354300, PR China

^* e-mail: iamguobo@wuyiu.edu.cn

Received: 7 September 2024
Accepted: 10 July 2025

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel semi-active suspension control method for agricultural tractor seats based on Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control (LADRC). A two-degree-of-freedom magnetorheological (MR) seat suspension dynamic model was developed, and the Bouc-Wen model was adopted for nonlinear modeling and validation of the damper, based on experimental data of MR damper mechanical performance. The LADRC strategy was innovatively applied to the seat suspension system and validated through simulation in the MATLAB environment. The results indicate that the LADRC strategy significantly reduced vertical vibration acceleration. Compared to traditional PID control, under D-level random and impact road surface excitations, when the agricultural tractor speed is 1 m/s, the seat vertical acceleration decreased by 15.0% and 24.2%, respectively, and the root mean square (RMS) acceleration was controlled within 0.70. When the agricultural tractor speed increased to 2 m/s, the reductions reached 18.7% and 29.5%, respectively, and the RMS value was controlled within 0.75, significantly improving the operational comfort and vibration isolation performance of agricultural tractor.