• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.355-361
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• 2008

As agricultural machinery has become larger and tillage practices have changed in recent decades, compaction as a result of wheel traffic and tillage has caused increasing concern. If strategies to manage compaction, such as deep tillage, could be applied only where needed, economic and environmental benefits would result. For such site-specific compaction management to occur, compacted areas within fields must be efficiently sensed and mapped. We previously developed an on-the-go soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) for this purpose. The SSPS measures within-field variability in soil strength at five soil depths up to 50 cm. Determining the variability structure of SSPS data is needed for site-specific field management since the variability structure determines the required intensity of data collection and is related to the delineation of compaction management zones. In this paper, soil bin data were analyzed by a spectral analysis technique to determine the variability structure of the SSPS data, and to investigate causes and implications of this variability. In the soil bin, we observed a repeating pattern due to soil fracture with an approximate 12- to 19-cm period, especially at the 10-cm depth, possibly due to cyclic development of soil fracture on this interval. These findings will facilitate interpretation of soil strength data and enhance application of the SSPS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.250-252
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• 2002

The goals of environmental monitoring are to locate and quantify the significant contamination, estimate the fate and transport, estimate the potential exposure and risks to humans and the environment, and track the performance of various remedial technologies. In this study, ceramic gas sensor system is proposed to enhance the effectiveness of soil vapor extraction (SVE) process by monitoring the effluent gas. SVE is a technique that is widely used to remediate unsaturated soils contaminated with volatile organic contaminants. The sensor response for benzene, toluene, and xylene, the representative effluent gas compositions of SVE process, was evaluated using the proposed sensor system. As a result, it was verified that the response of sensor was increased or decreased very sensitively according to the change of the effluent gas concentration. Besides, the sensor could detect the difference over a wide range of concentration and it was more sensitive in order of xylene, toluene, and benzene. It is expected that this VOC analysis method results in field monitoring costs saying and appropriate immediate action for process control. More detailed experiments are being conducted in our research group.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.9
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• pp.1007-1023
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• 2010

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an innovative TDR distributed moisture sensor. This sensor features advantages of being responsive to the spatial variations of the soil moisture content. The geometry design of the sensor makes it rugged for field installation. Good linear calibration is obtained between the sensor measured dielectric constant and soil physical properties. Simulations by the finite element method (FEM) are conducted to assist the design of this sensor and to determine the effective sampling range. Compared with conventional types of moisture sensor, which only makes point measurement, this sensor possesses distributed moisture sensing capability. This new sensor is not only easy to install, but also measures moisture distribution with much lower cost. This new sensor holds promise to significantly improve the current field instruments. It will be a useful tool to help study the influence of a variety of moisture-related phenomena on infrastructure performance.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.416-422
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• 2008

This study was performed to design and construct a digital soil shear stress sensor in order to replace the conventional devices for measuring soil shear property. The developed digital shear stress measuring device can store measured data with GPS position information as a vector format into a computer. Based on the experiments at various field conditions, the measuring characteristic of the device was quite similar to that of a conventional device, SR-2 that has been a major tool to measure the soil shear property. It was concluded that the digital shear stress measuring device was an effective and comprehensive sensor for measuring soil shear property.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2003

Achievements in the real-time soil spectro-photometer are: an improved soil penetrator to ensure a uniform soil surface under high speed conditions, real-time collecting of underground soil reflectance, getting underground soil color images, use of a RTK-GPS, and all units are arranged for compactness. With the soil spectrophotometer, field experiments were conducted in a 0.5 ha paddy field. With the original reflectance, averaging and multiple scatter correction, Kubelka-Munk (KM) transformation as soil absorption, its 1st and 2nd derivatives were calculated. When the spectra was highly correlated with the soil parameters, stepwise regression analysis was conducted. Results include the best prediction models for moisture, soil organic matter (SOM), nitrate nitrogen (NO$_3$-N), pH and electric conductivity (EC), and soil maps obtained by block kriging analysis.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.1 s.114
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• pp.24-32
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• 2006

Compaction is becoming a greater concern in crop production and the environment because it can have deleterious effects on growing conditions that are difficult to remediate. Because compaction can vary considerably from point to point within a field, and also from depth to depth within the soil profile, it is important to consider quantification and management of the spatial and vertical variability in soil compaction when developing an overall site-specific crop management plan. In this paper, the importance of soil compaction, techniques for quantification of its variability, and the concept of site-specific tillage are examined. Methods and systems to detect within-field variation in soil strength as a surrogate measure of soil compaction and related soil properties are also compared and discussed. Quantification of variability in soil compaction and site-specific compaction management was motivated recently, and sensors and control systems are still under development. Future study will need to address a number of issues related to understanding and applying the sensor measurements.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2008

This study was conducted to design an impedance sensor that can measure soil water content of soils. Partial least square regression (PLSR) was applied to soil impedance data preprocessed with a smoothing method. An optimal sub-spectrum size and wavelength range were determined by comparing the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the PLSR models obtained using soil impedance data. various PLS analysis. Based on the PLSR analysis, it would be concluded that the optimal spectrum measurement range was $32.0{\sim}50.0\;MHz$ with the optimal sub-spectrum size of about 18.5 MHz.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.407-412
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• 2012

Soil texture has an important influence on agriculture such as crop selection, movement of nutrient and water, soil electrical conductivity, and crop growth. Conventionally, soil texture has been determined in the laboratory using pipette and hydrometer methods requiring significant amount of time, labor, and cost. Recently, in-situ soil texture classification systems using optical diffuse reflectometry or mechanical resistance have been reported, especially for precision agriculture that needs more data than conventional agriculture. This paper is a part of overall research to develop an in-situ soil texture classification system using image processing. Issues investigated in this study were effects of sensor travel speed and light source and intensity on image quality. When travel speed of image sensor increased from 0 to 10 mm/s, travel distance and number of pixel were increased to 3.30 mm and 9.4, respectively. This travel distances were not negligible even at a speed of 2 mm/s (i.e., 0.66 mm and 1.4), and image degradation was significant. Tests for effects of illumination intensity showed that 7 to 11 Lux seemed a good condition minimizing shade and reflection. When soil water content increased, illumination intensity should be greater to compensate decrease in brightness. Results of the paper would be useful for construction, test, and application of the sensor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2051-2059
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• 2016

To date, there has been no employment of a magnetoelastic (ME) biosensor method to detect Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in soil. The ME biosensor method needs to be investigated and modified for its successful performance. The filtration method, cation-exchange resin method, and combinations of both methods were employed for the extraction of S. Typhimurium from soil. The number of S. Typhimurium and the resonant frequency shift of the ME sensor were then compared using a brilliant green sulfa agar plate and an HP 8751A network analyzer. A blocking study was performed using bovine serum albumin (BSA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and casein powder suspension. Finally, the modified ME biosensor method was performed to detect S. Typhimurium in soil. The number of S. Typhimurium was significantly decreased from 7.10 log CFU/soil to 4.45-4.72 log CFU/soil after introduction of the cation-exchange resin method. The greatest resonant frequency shift of the measurement sensor was found when employing centrifugation and filtration procedures. The resonant frequency shift of the PEG-blocked measurement sensor was $3,219{\pm}755Hz$, which was significantly greater than those of the BSA- and casein-blocked ME sensor. The optimum concentration of PEG was determined to be 1.0 mg/ml after considering the resonant shift and economic issue. Finally, the modified ME biosensor method was able to detect S. Typhimurium in soil in a dose-response manner. Although these modifications of the ME biosensor method sacrificed some advantages, such as cost, time effectiveness, and operator friendliness, this study demonstrated a novel approach of the ME biosensor method to detect S. Typhimurium in soil.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to develop an environment field monitoring system to measure crop growth. The environment field monitoring system consisted of sensors, a data acquisition system, and GPS. The sensors used in the environment field monitoring system consisted of an ambient sensor, a soil sensor, and an intensity sensor. The temperature and humidity of the atmosphere were measured with the ambient sensor. The temperature, humidity, and EC of the soil were measured with the soil sensor. The data acquisition system was developed using the Arduino controller. The field monitoring data were collected before a rainy day, on a rainy day, and after the rainy day. The measured data using the environment field monitoring system were compared with the Daejeon regional meteorological office data. The correlation between the data from the environment field monitoring system and the data from the Daejeon regional meteorological office was analyzed for performance evaluation. The correlation of the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere was analyzed because the Daejeon regional meteorological office only provided data for the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere. The correlation coefficients were 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. The result showed a good correlation between the data from the environment field monitoring system and the data from the Daejeon regional meteorological office. Therefore, the developed system could be applied to monitoring the field environment of agricultural crops.