Performance Evaluation of Bar Load Cell Sensing System for Soil Moisture Measurement

Abstract

The open-source microcontroller Arduino is simple to program, erase, and reprogram at any moment. It is an open-source computing platform for creating and programming electronic devices based on basic microcontroller boards. In agriculture, soil moisture content must be monitored soil monitoring continuously to understand the relationship between soil moisture content status and plant water use to minimize under and over-irrigation. Current methods have a short lifespan due to possible corrosion on the electrode. In this project, we introduce a new indirect method for monitoring soil moisture, especially for soil in the container or pot, based on a low-cost bar-based load-cell sensor with an acrylic plate. This study’s objectives were to compare the number of bar load cell sensors that affect the soil weight and to formulate a calibration model to predict soil moisture content using soil weight. A model design of 10kg and 5kg bar-based load cell sensors will be used to compare the number of bar load cell sensors affecting the soil weight. The measurement result of each method was very similar and constant for the various positions on the design. There is no significant difference in average soil weight for any technique, and there is no difference in average soil weight for each sample. R2 values and the calibration equation were tabulated in Table 2.