About

The Autonomous Soil Analyzer

The Autonomous Soil Analyzer will serve as a contribution to the field of precision agriculture, which aims to maximize food production yield while maintaining the environment and food quality. The ASA will combine the use of on-the-go sensors to measure soil properties with a fully autonomous, robust body that charges at a solar charging hub station.

In addition, the ASA will communicate the results of its measurements to the user through wireless communication via a user-friendly graphic interface.

The ASA will be developed through four main phases:

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• Terrain Mapping, which involves autonomous generation of a mesh of the input map and traversing the land to perform the measurements through sensor probes. This phase will rely heavily on a global positioning system (GPS).

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• Soil Analysis, in which the ASA will use a combination of electric conductivity, optical reflectance and pH level sensors. These sensors will be inserted into the soil and will take subsurface measurements at about 30 cm, every 1 m. The team at Qatar has the responsibility of designing these probes.

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• Docking and Charging , where a solar huib station will be placed outside. To ensure maximum efficiency, the docking station should include solar panels to recharge the robot. It will also represent the position of information transmission through wireless channels.

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• Wireless Communication is when all the gathered data must be read by the user. Hence, the docking station must include a wireless communication device that would be able to send the information straight towards the user. This will be designed effectively for a simple and manageable user interface, taking into consideration the fact that it might be used by farmers who might have limited computer experience. As a result, the information will be displayed using visually aiding graphics and maps. The ultimate deliverable is a fully analyzed map of the plot of land.