Vibration-Based Monitoring Of The Quality Of Clutch Engagement In A Forklift Truck

Professional drivers of off-road vehicles are often exposed to high levels of vibrations. The continuous exposure to those vibrations can lead to discomfort and physical injuries. Clutch engagement is one of the sources of vibrations. Accelerometers are in general appropriate sensors to measure vibrations. However, due to the historical cost of these sensors, current strategies to control the clutch engagement do typically not take vibration data into account, they mostly rely on rotational shaft speed data. Nowadays, affordable accelerometers are available. Yet, little is known about the feasibility to include accelerometer data into the feedback loop of the clutch control strategy. The goal of this study was to assess the feasibility of quantifying the clutch engagement quality based on accelerometer data and based on a comfort metric resulting from frequency-weighted accelerometer data. It has been demonstrated that the quality of the clutch engagement can be monitored based on accelerometer data acquired at the transmission of the vehicle.