Abstract
One objective of precision agriculture is to provide accurate information about soil and crop properties to optimize the management of agricultural inputs to meet site-specific needs. This paper describes the development of a sensor equipped with RTK-GPS technology that continuously and efficiently measures soil cutting resistance at various depths while traversing the field. Laboratory and preliminary field tests verified the accuracy of this prototype soil strength sensor. The data obtained using a hand-operated soil cone penetrometer was used to evaluate this field soil compaction depth profile sensor. To date, this sensor has only been tested in one field under one gravimetric water content condition. This field test revealed that the relationships between the soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) cutting force and soil cone index values are assumed to be quadratic for the various depths considered: 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm (r2 = 0.58, 0.45 and 0.54, respectively). Soil resistance contour maps illustrated its practical value. The developed sensor provides accurate, timely and affordable information on soil properties to optimize resources and improve agricultural economy.
Highlights
Crop yield variability within a field depends on soil properties and environmental conditions.To optimize the management of agricultural inputs according to site-specific needs, geo-referenced information about the site is required [1]
Researchers and farmers must overcome several challenges, such as simplifying the complexities that delineate site-specific management zones based on a single factor, and determining the yield variation related to this factor [3]
An articulated parallel linkage system was used to transmit the cutting resistance from the blades to the load cell situated above-ground, which permitted a reduction in the width of the blade and associated energy requirements in soil cutting compared to previously reported research and makes it possible to use this sensor in non-till farms
Summary
Crop yield variability within a field depends on soil properties and environmental conditions.To optimize the management of agricultural inputs according to site-specific needs, geo-referenced information about the site is required [1]. Crop yield variability within a field depends on soil properties and environmental conditions. An important aspect of precision agriculture has been the use of sensor data to obtain accurate information that help minimize crop yield variation. This georeferenced data is incorporated with more broadly related information such as edaphic, meteorological, biological, anthropogenic and topographic factors. Site-specific management is extremely complicated because all of these factors must be considered. Researchers and farmers must overcome several challenges, such as simplifying the complexities that delineate site-specific management zones based on a single factor (for example, edaphic properties), and determining the yield variation related to this factor [3]. Mouazen and Ramon [4] investigated the use of an on-line measurement system of soil compaction, the bulk density model, in different soil textures (i.e., loamy sand, loam, silt loam and silt)
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