Drones-Agronomists. Scientists Create a Device for Assessing Soil Conditions

< strong>MOSCOW, July 30A device for assessing the condition of the soil and monitoring the growth and development of plants has been developed by scientists from the North Caucasus Federal University (NCFU). The development allows for increasing the efficiency of precision farming and, as a result, the productivity of crops, the university's press service reported.
The task of precision farming is to manage the quality of seed germination and increase crop yields in each individual section of the field using the latest technologies. The university explained that today, farmers use unmanned aerial vehicles and spacecraft to optimize crop production.

However, according to scientists, space technical devices do not allow determining the physicochemical parameters of the soil in the area of ​​the plant root system. In addition, their use leads to significant economic costs.
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"Agricultural technologies have long since moved to the digital level, which provides new potential for optimizing processes in agriculture. For SKFU, this area is strategically important," – the words of SKFU Rector Dmitry Bespalov are quoted in the message.

A group of SKFU scientists has developed a method for point analysis of the physical and chemical properties of soil in the area of ​​the plant root system (0.3 — 0.6 m). For its practical implementation, the authors proposed using a radar system that irradiates the Earth's surface at an angle in order to increase the proportion of the reflected radio signal (the Brewster effect).

«Our patented method and device for analyzing subsurface soil horizons using the Brewster effect and Fresnel equations are based on the creation of a radar system consisting of two unmanned aerial vehicles, providing oblique irradiation of the earth's surface. The adequacy of the method was not only experimentally proven, but also tested at several large agricultural enterprises in our region,» the press service quotes one of the authors of the development, Gennady Linets.

He noted that using the Fresnel equations, researchers can determine the electrical conductivity and moisture content of the soil with less economic and time costs (the higher the soil moisture, the higher the electrical conductivity).
Since the distribution of moisture can vary significantly within a single field, the data obtained by the new method will allow timely implementation of the required agrotechnical measures to prevent the degradation of agricultural lands, which is especially important in arid and swampy areas, as well as to calculate the amount of fertilizers needed by the soil.

The study was carried out within the framework of the Priority-2030 program with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.