Sugar cane harvesting mechanization seems to be the solution for the problems related to the environment impact of sugar cane burning and to facilitate manual harvesting, which also is a extremely hard task. By the other way, full harvest mechanization would lead to a massive unemployment. To minimize environment impact and keep some of the harvesting jobs, Unicamp and Agricef are designing and building a harvesting machine that represents an alternative concept due to it partial harvesting mechanization. The main objective of this research is the design of the cab for this machine and the positioning of its controls and panels, based on the anthropometric characteristics of the brazilian operators. It was used a design methodology with ergonomic emphasis. The alternatives concepts generated by the morphologic boards allowed the dimensioning of the cab and the positioning of panel and controls in order to safely hold the operator. Through the simulation of the operator visual field it was concluded that a movable cab in relation to the machine would be a feasible solution in terms of comfort and drivability.
harvester; sugar cane harvest; ergonomics
