Design and Evaluation of a UGV-Based Robotic Platform for Precision Soil Moisture Remote Sensing

Abstract

This extended abstract presents the design and evaluation of AgriOne, an automated unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) platform for high precision sensing of soil moisture in large agricultural fields. The developed robotic system is equipped with a volumetric water content (VWC) sensor mounted on a robotic manipulator and utilizes a surface-aware data collection framework to ensure accurate measurements in heterogeneous terrains. The framework identifies and removes invalid data points where the sensor fails to penetrate the soil, ensuring data reliability. Multiple field experiments were conducted to validate the platform's performance, while the obtained results demonstrate the efficacy of the AgriOne robot in real-time data acquisition, reducing the need for permanent sensors and labor-intensive methods.