Dr James L Brighton

Senior Lecturer and Research Engineer
Location: Building 61, Cranfield campus
E: j.l.brighton@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1234 752910
Sustainable Systems

Current activities

Off road tyre performance - including off road tyre testing and force modelling
Off road vehicle performance - including vehicle performance benchmarking, objective testing and traction system development
Agricultural mechanisation - including the design of precision drills, tillage equipment, harvesting machines and crop processing methods
CAE methods including CAD and structural FEA
Engineering design and management.

Clients

Advanced Powertrains PTY
Airbus
BioRegional
Goodyear
Land Rover
Jaguar
Millbrook Proving Ground
MoD (UK)
PMC Harvesters
QinetiQ
Scania.

Background

Dr James Brighton studied Agricultural Engineering at Rycotewood College and followed this with a BEng from Silsoe College, during which he spent 12 months as a design engineer at Massey Ferguson. He then completed an EngD in Agricultural Mechanisation and Soil Dynamics from Cranfield University in 1997. He subsequently took up the role of lecturer at Cranfield University teaching a range of research and design related modules.

His research covers two predominant areas namely Agricultural Engineering and Mechanisation and Off Road Vehicle Dynamics. This includes the development of mechanisation systems for a wide variety of crops including Lavender, Hemp and Myrica Gale, Precision seeding and weeding systems, and off road vehicle dynamics investigating machines interaction with off road environments from aircraft to Range Rovers, tanks to pea harvesters.

In 2004 he was awarded £1.5 million to construct an Off-Road Dynamics Facility, which he project managed as well as conducting the conceptual design work. The equipment within this facility is globally unique and has attracted a further £1.5 million of investment in 2008. In 2007 the group won the Ford Motor Company European Technical Achievement Award.

He has supported OEM machinery and vehicle test teams in Australia, Arizona, California, Dubai, England, Scotland and Sweden and regularly consults on a range of TV productions including Top Gear, Fifth Gear, Scrapheap Challenge, The Garage and Smash Lab.

Selected publications

O’Dogherty, M.J., Godwin, R.J., Dedousis, A.P., Brighton, J.L., Tillett, N.D. A Mathematical Model of the Kinematics of a Rotating Disc for Inter- and Intra-row Hoeing. Biosystems Engineering, 96(2) 2007.doi10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2006. 10. 008.
Brighton J.L., Godwin R.J, Blackburn K., Richards T., New Off-Road Dynamics Facility at Cranfield University. Landwards, Vol. 61 No.2 2006.
Haag C, Brighton J.L. Central Tyre Inflation System (CTIS) Control Strategy for Agricultural Machinery. Tire Tech Expo 2006 Stuttgart. May 2006
A. P. Dedousis, R. J. Godwin, M. J. O’Dogherty, J. L. Brighton. An investigation into the design and performance of a novel mechanical system for inter and intra-row weed control. BCPC International Congress – Crop Science and Technology 2005.
Brighton J.L., Swatland, P. Sand Traction: surface characteristics for vehicle terrain recognition. Tire Technology Expo 2005, Cologne 2005.
Brighton J.L., Advances in the evaluation of tyre and traction system off-road performance. Tire Technology Annual Review 2004. UK International Press 2004.
Blackburn DWK, Brighton J.L., Hemp Textile production in the UK: Technical and Economic feasibility and evaluation of Fibrenova technology. Research Report for BioRegional, March 2004.
Brighton J.L., Blackburn DWK, James IT. Hemp Production in the UK, Feasibility and Fibrenova Technology. Research Report for BioRegional, September 2003.
Blackburn DWK, Brighton JL. Longbridge 4x4 Rig - Suitability for use in Off-Road Environment Simulation. Research Report for Land Rover 2003.
Brighton J.L., Soil Dynamics Laboratory Under Body Drag Test. Experiment Observations. Research Report for Land Rover November 2002.
Brighton J.L., Traction Surface Evaluation, Ansa Borrego Desert California. Research Report for Land Rover November 2002.
Brighton, J.L., Eatough, K. - The development of a sand displacement technique for the optimisation of 4x4 tyres. Tire Technology Expo 2002, Hamburg 2002.
Brighton, J.L. - Increased efficiency lavender harvesting for small to medium enterprises. SET for Britain 2001, House of Commons, London 2001.
Oliver, M., Brighton, J.L. - Replication of Off-road tyre testing. Tire Technology Expo 2001, Cannes 2001.
Brighton, J.L., Hann, M. J. - Land Packer Design. 25th International symposium on agricultural engineering, "Actual tasks on agricultural engineering", Opatija, Croatia, 1997.

Further publications