Development and Field Evaluation of Hydraulicdriven Real Time Sensor-based Integrated System for Measuring Soil Compaction and Electrical Conductivity of Soil

The tractor -mounted and hydraulically operated real-time sensor-based integrated system for measuring soil compaction and electrical conductivity of soil was successfully developed and evaluated in the field. The design parameters of the developed soil sensor were similar to ASAE Standard S313.3 with the incorporation of soil electrical conductivity measuring sensors at the tip of the cone of the cone penetrometer. The major components of the developed cone penetrometer were a frame, hydraulic cylinder, probe, ultrasonic depth sensor, global position system (GPS), control panel, and data acquisition system. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the critical parts as well as the whole assembly with different types of materials was done by using ANSYS software. Structural steel was selected for the construction of the frame of the soil sensor due to easy availability and cost efficiency. The En8 was selected for the fabrication of the probe of the assembly and low carbon -based steel (EN8 BS970 080M40) material was selected for the hydraulic cylinder. The developed soil sensor was evaluated in two different types of soil at two different locations after the harvesting of the wheat crop, where the paddy crop was the previous crop in rice-wheat rotation, and paddy residue was managed as per the treatments. The developed soil sensor showed a mean sensing accuracy of 95.4% for soil compaction measurement in comparison with manual cone-penetrometer and, 73.94% for soil electrical conductivity measurement in comparison with standard laboratory methods in both locations in both types of soil. The overall results of the developed soil sensor concluded that it was feasible to adopt the developed soil sensor to establish a reliable and faster soil compaction monitoring system with EC measurements.