Accurate Sensing Model Simulation for Porang-Tuber Detection

In this study, we present two scanning signals of GPRMax model simulation to sense Porang (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) tuber underground. The need to detect tubers underground is emerged due to dormant period experienced by Porang plants in their third year which in turn caused difficulty to harvest the tubers. Measurement of tubers' water content is also presented. The higher the percentage of water content in tuber, the higher the dielectric constant of tuber. The model simulation tests were performed by varying the tubers diameter, the depths, and number of the tubers underground. Range frequencies used for estimating the depth of tubers were between 1 up to 2.3 GHz. At 1.1 GHz an error estimation of Porang underground was less than 1% at 10 cm in depth. However, at 1.7 GHz the smallest error of only 0.55% was achieved for 6 cm tuber depth detection. In these tests, using of high frequencies was very effective for detecting tubers at shallow depths.