Development of on-line measurement system of bulk density based on on-line measured draught, depth and soil moisture content

On-line measurement of soil compaction is needed for site specific tillage management. The soil bulk density (rho) indicating soil compaction was measured on-line by means of a developed compaction sensor system that comprised several sensors for on-line measurement of the draught (D) of a soil cutting tool (subsoiler), the soil cutting depth (d) and the soil moisture content (w). The subsoiler D was measured with a single shear beam load cell, whereas d was measured with a wheel gauge that consisted of a swinging arm metal wheel and a linear variable differential transducer (LVDT). The soil w was measured with a near infrared fibre-type spectrophotometer sensor. These on-line three measured parameters were used to calculate p, by utilising a hybrid numerical-statistical mathematical model developed in a previous study. Punctual kriging was performed using the variogram estimation and spatial prediction with error (VESPER) 1.6 software to develop the field maps of rho, soil w, subsoiler d and D, based on 10 m x 10 m grid. To verify the on-line measured rho map, this map was compared with the map measured by the conventional core sampling method. The spherical semivariogram models, providing the best fit for all properties was used for kriging of different maps. Maps developed showed that no clear correlation could be detected between different parameters measured and subsoiler D. However, the D value was smaller at shallow penetration d, whereas large D coincided with large rho values at few positions in the field. Maps of rho measured with the core sampling and on-line methods were similar, with correlation coefficient (r) and the standard error values of 0.75 and 0.054 Mg m(-3), respectively. On-line measured rho exhibited larger errors at very dry zones. The normal distribution of the rho error between the two different measurement methods showed that about 72% of the errors were less than 0.05 Mg m(-3) in absolute values. However, the overall mean error of on-line measured rho was of a small value of 2.3%, which ensures the method accuracy for on-line measurement of p. Measurement under very dry conditions should be minimised, because it can lead to a relatively large error, and hence, compacted zones at dry zones cannot be detected correctly. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.