Solar-Powered Soil Moisture Detection and Monitoring Using Capacitive Sensor Probe and Calibrated by Gravimetric Method

Abstract

The popularity of smart agriculture is growing as innovation, technology, and robotics become more prevalent. There is a growing need to reduce production costs and conserve water while maintaining ideal crop yields. To determine the volumetric water content of sample soils, a solar powered capacitive soil moisture sensor probe will be calibrated and tested in this study. There will be two types of soil tested: a loam soil that is often sold for potted plants and a soil sample taken from a test field. The jar method was used to investigate the type of soil and the gravimetric method was used to calibrate the sensors. In this method, the soil samples are completely dried in the sun, moisture is gradually added while the weight of the soil is recorded each time, and the sample is then sun-dried and measured once more to determine the volumetric water content of the soil. The results of the trials show that the field sample is sandy loam, while the marketed soil is loamy sand. Moreover, the linear regression resulted in a 7% and 9% standard error for the loam and field sample, respectively.