Design and development of on-the-go SoilpH mapping system for precision agriculture

The objective of this study work is to develop an on-the-go soil pH mapping system prototype for precision agriculture. The proposed system comprises of a soil pH measuring unit, hydraulic soil sampler and a platform. The measuring unit includes obtained pH electrode, pH probe interface, microcontroller and Laptop as a primal unit. A secondary commercial soil pH sensor was obtained and used as reference. The proposed system has been successfully designed and developed. Laboratory calibration and in situ testing were carried for the developed system. The pH results were quite good enough to differentiate between the two sensors, with an error rate not exceeding ±0.3 of pH units under laboratory controlled conditions, and ±0.5 of pH units under semi controlled conditions. The developed system showed high reliability with acceptable error ranges, because of the low and simple system components.