Developing Low-Cost Sensors for Rapid Field Estimation of Soil Properties

There is an increasing demand for high resolution soil information to support precision agriculture. One of the tools that has been a focus of research to help meet this demand is the development of proximal soil sensing using reflectance spectroscopy. The advantage reflectance spectroscopy is that it is rapid, non-destructive, and can test for multiple parameters simultaneously. However, development of these systems for practical application has been limited by high hardware costs. There have been important recent developments for lower cost spectrometers, which has increased the feasibility of this technology. However, there are technical considerations that warrant a detailed investigation of the performance of these lower cost sensors. The first is the spectral range of the sensors. The more expensive established visible light near infrared (VIS-NIR) spectrometers typically collect electromagnetic spectrum data from 350 to 2500 nm. While many of the most important soil spectral features are in the shortwave infrared region after 1600 nm, useful spectral information is present in the near infrared and visible light regions. How well a system without those regions performs needs to be determined. The second consideration is the spectral resolution and bandwidth.

Faculty Supervisor:

Angela Bedard-Haughn

Student:

Partner:

Croptimistic Technology Inc

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Artificial Intelligence; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program: