Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Mobile Agricultural Robot for Soil Parameter Monitori

Agricultural productivity is strongly influenced by the physical and chemical condition of soil. Conventional soil assessment generally involves manual collection of samples followed by laboratory testing. Although laboratory analysis can provide reliable information, the procedure requires considerable time, human effort and transportation of samples. The present work proposes the design and development of a compact mobile agricultural robot capable of moving through agricultural fields and collecting soil-related information at different locations. The proposed system integrates a mechanically fabricated mobile chassis with soil sensors, a microcontroller-based data acquisition unit, motor-drive arrangement and wireless data transmission.
The robot is intended to monitor important soil parameters such as soil moisture, soil temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, where a suitable calibrated sensor is available, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) indicators. Soil pH and EC are particularly useful indicators because pH is associated with nutrient availability and soil chemical condition, while EC can provide information related to soluble salts and salinity.
The proposed robot uses a four-wheel differential-drive configuration to achieve simple mechanical construction, adequate ground clearance and manoeuvrability. A sensor mounting mechanism permits the sensing elements to be positioned close to or inside the soil at selected measurement points. Preliminary/sample data presented in this paper demonstrate the proposed method of recording spatially varying soil parameters and generating a soil-condition map. The proposed system can reduce repetitive manual sampling and provide a foundation for precision agriculture, targeted irrigation and site-specific soil management.

Agricultural Robot, Soil Monitoring, Soil Moisture, Soil pH, Electrical Conductivity, NPK, Mobile Robot, Precision Agriculture, Soil Sensing.

1. Q. Yang, X. Du, Z. Wang, Z. Meng, Z. Ma and Q. Zhang, “A review of core agricultural robot technologies for crop productions,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 206, 2023, Article 107701. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. D. Tiozzo Fasiolo, L. Scalera, E. Maset and A. Gasparetto, “Towards autonomous mapping in agriculture: A review of supportive technologies for ground robotics,” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 169, 2023, Article 104514. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. A. Thakur, S. Venu and M. Gurusamy, “An extensive review on agricultural robots with a focus on their perception systems,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 212, 2023, Article 108146. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. L. Liu, F. Yang, X. Liu, Y. Du, X. Li, G. Li, D. Chen, Z. Zhu and Z. Song, “A review of the current status and common key technologies for agricultural field robots,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 227, 2024, Article 109630. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. W. R. Whalley and W. R. Stafford, “Real-time sensing of soil water content from mobile machinery: Options for sensor design,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 269–284, 1992. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. “Agricultural robots for field operations: Concepts and components,” Biosystems Engineering, vol. 149, pp. 94–111, 2016. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Global Soil Health Indicators and Assessment,” FAO Soils Portal. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Soil Qualities for Crop Production,” FAO Soils Portal. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Soil data-driven activities: Selected soil parameters,” Global Soil Partnership. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Standard Operating Procedures,” Global Soil Partnership/GLOSOLAN. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Impacts on Soil Fertility Parameters,” including soil pH and electrical conductivity. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. M. Naim, D. Rizzo, L. Sauvée and M. Medici, “Advancing agroecology and sustainability with agricultural robots at field level: A scoping review,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 237, 2025, Article 110650. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. “Applications of robotics and extended reality in agriculture: A review,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2025. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• The Impact Of UI/UX Design on User Trust and Task Completion in Civic Tech Platforms
• Solar Cell Photovoltaic Model Shell Sp 75
• Development of an Intelligent Traffic Management System to Address Visibility Obstruction at Urban Intersections: A Case Study of Ibadan Metropolis
• Optimum Placement of Facts Devices on an Interconnected Power Systems Using Particle Swarm Optimisation Technique
• Assessing Construction Transformation and Implication on Future Production Flow System