Abstract

Soil profiling, which involves the determination of soil properties at various layers, plays an important role in efficient agricultural management and environmental monitoring. In this study, the efficiency of an Autonomous Soil Profiling Robot (ASPR), a device aimed at simplifying and optimizing this process, was tested and compared to conventional soil sampling techniques. The performance of ASPR was tested in detection time, pH level measurement, and determination of moisture content in three types of soils: loam, sand, and clay. The results indicated that the detection time of ASPR differed minimally with different soil types, with loam having a slightly higher mean detection time (16.16 seconds) than sand (15.92 seconds) and clay (15.88 seconds). Substantial differences were found in mean pH values (loam: 6.80, sand: 5.13, clay: 5.63) and water content (loam: 10.28, sand: 6.85, clay: 18.03) between soil types, indicating inherent soil differences. It was identified that there was a statistically significant difference in speed between ASPR and conventional methods (U= 0.00, p <.001), where the ASPR had significantly faster operation (mean speed 16.0 seconds) than conventional methods (mean speed = 420 seconds). These results indicate that although the ASPR presents a substantial edge in speed of operations, it yields equivalent soil property measures across various soil types, emphasizing its value in simplifying and enhancing soil profiling procedures.