In 1930, the Kharkiv Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering Institute (now NTU “KhPI”) created the tractor faculty and the specialized department of tractor construction (Department of Car and Tractor Industry).
The founder of the automobile and tractor engineering department and its scientific school is an outstanding scientist, academician, doctor of technical sciences, professor Mykhailo Ivanovich Medvedev, who headed the department from 1930 to 1962. In the following years, the department was headed by: prof., Ph.D. . Shepelenko G.M. (from 1962 to 1974), professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences Kodenko M.M. (from 1974 to 1994), professor, Ph.D. Easter V.M. (from 1994 to 2001). Prof., Ph.D. Samorodov V.B. (from 2001 to 2021) From 2022 to the present, the department is managed by Prof., Doctor of Technical Sciences Rebrov O.Yu. At the same time Medvedev M.I. from 1934 to 1962, he was the dean of the Autotractor Faculty, and G.M. Shepelenko from 1962 to 1986 – Dean of the Faculty of “Transport Mechanical Engineering”.
The works of M. I. Medvedev, the founder of the department, on the theory of tracked machines and the theory of tractors are well known in our country and abroad. The name of Professor M.I. Medvedev is inextricably linked with the formation and development of such industrial giants of Ukraine as KhTZ and the plant named after Malysheva.
From the fundamental scientific works of M.I. Medvedev’s monograph “Track traction of tractors” (1935), devoted to the theory of the crawler drive, in which the author developed the kinematics of the crawler drive, established the dependence of its efficiency on the speed of the tractor, justified the location of the drive wheel (rear or front), proposed a profiling method caterpillar engagement, which ensures contact of the chain link with the drive wheel not along the line, but along the surface. In the pre-war period, the works “Construction of a tractor”, “Theory of tracked systems”, “Album on tracked systems” were published. E. Medvedev was the author of one of the first textbooks, “Tractor Theory”, where he summarized previously accumulated, but scattered developments on tractor theory, systematized them and presented them consistently.
Under the leadership of prof. E. Medvedev in the 1950s, his students worked fruitfully on the development of the theoretical foundations of the theory of the tracked tractor, who studied the parameters of the tractor’s tracked engagement and its running system; developed the theoretical foundations of the track engagement and substantiated the layout of the track drive; substantiated the parameters of the on-board transmission and the drive wheel of the crawler tractor, studied the kinematics and dynamics of the crawler tractor turn, substantiated the parameters of the tractor turn mechanism. The results of these studies were implemented in the design of the DT-54 tractor, which was produced at KhTZ for many years. The versatility of scientific talent and a wide range of scientific interests of M.I. Medvedev allowed to cover a wide range of scientific tasks, on which he fruitfully worked with the staff of the department, researched and improved hydraulic drives of tractor equipment, carried out work on improving the controllability and stability of the movement of crawler tractors.
To the Kharkiv School of Students and Followers of M.I. Medvedev – scientists-tractor builders can be attributed to A.V. Roslavtsev, H.M. Kutkov, H.M. Shepelenko, M.M. Kodenko, V.B. Samorodov, D.M. Mitropan, A.D. Artyushenko, M.E. Sergiyenko, V.R. Mandrika, V.I. Myronenko, O.Yu. Rebrov. In the works of these scientists, the theory of wheeled and crawler tractors received its further development to one degree or another using the results of scientific research by M.I. Medvedev.