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College students’ invention shows what might be possible.

December 12, 2019

3 Min Read
Virginia Tech University College of Engineering students display an autonomous soil sampler
SEE THE FUTURE: These Virginia Tech University engineering students display an autonomous soil sampler that someday might take samples and analyze them in the field. Jim Beatty

Autonomous soil samplers that pull samples for later testing have received press recently. One major seed company put one to work this fall pulling soil samples. What if the robotic sampler could also analyze soil in the field? What if it could catalog the results from those in-field samples and send the information to a database, all without human interaction?

Impossible? Alexander Leonessa and his students at Virginia Tech University don’t think so. In fact, the group built a prototype for the fourth annual AgBot competition held at the Purdue University Agronomy Center for Research and Education in May. The contest, which provides cash awards to the winners, was co-sponsored by Garrish Farms, Rockville, Ind., and the Purdue College of Agriculture. The Virginia Tech entry won the division for autonomous soil sampling machines.

More than that, it showed what might be possible. “I was impressed when I first saw it, and more impressed when it operated in the field,” says Jim Beatty, superintendent of ACRE. “Those students put a lot of effort into making all the pieces work together to test soil as the machine went through the field.”

Why this project?

The capstone project in the senior mechanical engineering pathway at Virginia Tech is developing an entry for the AgBot challenge, Leonessa says. “We use it to help students understand how to address any design problem,” he explains. “They identify a problem, evaluate case studies and then seek a solution.”

The problem studied for 2019 was how to sample and test soil in the field for various properties, from looking for insects and nematodes to assessing nutrients, Leonessa says. Once they developed a solution, they constructed the prototype themselves, using a Yamaha UTV to propel the unit and a trailer to mount soil sampling and testing equipment on.

“Students build as much as possible from scratch,” he says. “We don’t buy many premanufactured parts, if we can help it.”

The unit performed well in the field, Leonessa says. “You program in where to pull samples and turn it loose,” he says. “It pulls soil samples, washes them, puts soil through a centrifuge and then would analyze it, all while you get a cup of coffee!”

The only part the machine didn’t do in the contest was the final soil analysis, he says. “That’s because you need a powerful microscope, and purchasing one was beyond the budget for this project. It completed all the steps necessary for the analysis to be performed if the proper testing equipment was onboard.”

Future steps

Leonessa and this year’s students are hard at work on another project, solving another problem in preparation for the 2020 competition. Virginia Tech won its division in both 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, what about the future for the autonomous, on-the-go soil sampler? “It’s still here, and several of us are still working with it,” Leonessa says. “We’re collaborating with VTU’s Life Sciences College as well.”

The goal is to continue development and create a startup company to potentially market it someday, he says. What his students did this year was demonstrate that autonomous soil sampling and testing on the go, in the field, is possible.

Comments? Email [email protected].

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