Integrated multi-sensor hardware system for soil information measurement

Soil plays an important role in crop growth and soil information is necessary for making crop management decisions. Traditional soil sampling techniques are time-consuming and costly, especially for large survey areas and laboratory analysis. Currently a variety of on-the-go soil sensor techniques are available that can provide high-resolution digital soil maps but these commercial sensors are generally used individually. This paper presented an integrated hardware system by multi soil sensors, including Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Geonics EM38, Geonics EM31, Veris 3100 and Veris pH, which could measure different soil parameters simultaneously and avoided the vehicle numerous trips into the field and minimize soil compaction. The complementary data for the soil sensors could further enhance data-based decision-making and potentially offer new possibilities for precision agriculture. Issues with the system that need further research in the future were also discussed in the paper. The system is appropriate for the measurements of soil parameters at a fine spatial scale for large areas.