A Horizontal Sensor for Measuring Soil Mechanical Resistance On-the-Go During Tillage Operation

Site-specific tillage modifies soil physical properties by doing operation where is needed for crop growth. Soil mechanical resistance is one of the most important factors affecting soil compaction, root growth and crop yield. Hence, researcher's interest increased to investigate the detection of the compacted soil zones. Soil cone penetrometer is being used to measure soil strength as a common method. However, it is time-consuming, labor-intensive and not practical method to determine soil compaction in a large-scale field. Therefore, there is a need for continuous and time-cost efficient method to identify the compacted zone. Although researchers have developed some methods in this issue but none of them worked during tillage operation. Therefore, in this research a sensor developed to measure soil mechanical resistance under tillage depth during operation for saving time and energy. This could also reduce the traffic on the field. Experimental studies were conducted in the soil bin with non uniform soil which was more compacted in a 10 cm depth where the sensor operated. The developed sensor was compared to a vertical penetrometer. The operating speed and soil moisture content were constant. The results indicated some similarities between the penetrometer and the new developed sensor. Moreover, the sensor measurements were more closely correlated to bulk density. The sensor was also able to detect plow pan when it combined with tillage equipment.