The agricultural sector is recently witnessing a gradual replacement or integration of traditional mechanical or hydraulic systems for the transmission of engine power with electric motors, or the so-called by-wire systems.

By-wire tehcnology can eliminate or complement mechanical componet for the mechanical transmission between the command and the final actuator. An example is the component between steering wheel and the wheel: the nature of the command in this case is no more mechanical but electronic (see figure).

There are many advantages in such an approach:

• - the authonomy of the system from the type of actuator used for the physical actuation of the steering command. The steering command can be thus electis, electrohydraulic, etc. depending on the size of the vehicle to which is applied.
• - the improvement of the safety functions thanks to fault tolerant distributed elecotrnic systems;
• - More safe cabins and more flexibility (for example in passing from right side steering to left ofr viceversa).

For such kind of activities, RE:Lab cooperates with XBW s.r.l..