WO2017034493A1

WO2017034493A1 - Soil texture analyzer

Info

Publication number: WO2017034493A1
Application number: PCT/TR2016/050296
Authority: WO
Inventors: Umut ORHAN
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-08-24
Filing date: 2016-08-19
Publication date: 2017-03-02
Anticipated expiration: 2018-02-24

Abstract

The invention is about soil texture analyzer which worked, after preparing a solution with soil and water, by a method based on determining the amount of lost signals in the solution via sending waveform signals through the solution and measuring them from just opposite side using sensors.

Description

DESCRIPTION

SOIL TEXTURE ANALYZER

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is about soil texture analyzer which works, after preparing a solution with soil and water, by a method based on determining the amount of lost signals in the solution via sending waveform signals through the solution and measuring them from just opposite side using sensors.

PREVIOUS TECHNIQUE

The soil considered as life source for all livings has an indispensable role for humanity in terms of meeting the requirements like plant growing, shelter construction, material production. Furthermore plantation is one of the most important features of soil because it emphasizes nutrition. Analysis of physical and chemical structure of soil is a very important step for growing plant. While the particles bigger than 2mm diameter are called the skeleton units of the soil, the particles smaller than 2mm diameter (sand, silt and clay) are described as essential soil. The proportional distribution of sand, silt and clay within a soil mass is defined as soil texture. Even though it seems as a primitive grouping method for modern agriculture, texture analysis is still highly utilized because of its efficiency and foreknowledge capability. Engineering fields like mining, geology and civil engineering also pay close attention to the physical structure of soil. For example, a comment can be made on probability of landslide by knowing the physical structure of soil of that particular region.

Each plant requires different ingredients of soil where it is growing, and it weakens the soil by absorbing these components. But to make these ingredients penetrate to the plant easily and fast, proper textured soil should be preferred or in other words, proper plants should be chosen according to the texture of soil. It is known that some plants can not grow on some kind of soil and this causes low harvest rates. So it can be said that soil texture analysis is also useful for increasing the yield of plant breeding. The soil texture can be roughly defined by the experts with feeling by hand; moreover, it is determined using methods like sieving and sedimentation in a lab environment. The state- of-art method for soil texture analysis is the Bouyoucos-hydrometer method. Although simple tools are used in this method, to forego a few hours is required. Long analysis process and depending on an expert can be considered as a serious labor loss. It reveals the excessive amount of labor loss when we consider that only four experiments can be made in an eight-hour workday with one hydrometer. On the other hands, because the equipments are not portable, the analysis highly depends on laboratory. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention completes the texture analysis within a few minutes and provides the process completely controlled with a computer by getting independent of expert. Therefore, more precise results are obtained, labor loss is significantly reduced, and the total analysis duration is considerably decreased. In literature, there are some inventions focusing on automated analysis of soil physical and chemical texture by combining traditional sieving and sedimentation methods with various cameras and sensors. But there is no completely computerized invention for estimating soil texture analysis that works with a few sensors by monitoring the settling of soil-water mixture as in Bouyoucos-hydrometer method. Here, there are some advantages of the proposed invention over other inventions and studies;

- Soil is analyzed in soil-water solution form instead of dry form. Some similar applications work only with dry soil.

- Waveform signals are sent through the soil-water solution and amount of signal loss is determined by measuring with sensors from just opposite side. Some studies execute similar procedures for estimating the chemical components of soil by measuring amount of reflected signal at the waveform sent point.

- During all settling process of soil-water solution, signal variations are captured from the sensors located in different heights instead of a single point. Similar studies work with short durations. MEANING OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 . A front view of Soil Texture Analyzer.

Figure 2. A detailed view of smart panel. The part numbers mentioned in the figures corresponds to,

1 . Shatterproof transparent beaker (bottle)

2. Belt

3. Smart panel

4. Sensors

5. Impermeable cap

6. LCD display

7. Start button

8. Thermometer DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is made up of shatterproof beaker (1 ), belt (2), smart panel (3), sensors (4), impermeable cap (5), LCD display (6), start button (7) and thermometer (8). Start button (7) also works as turn on button. Turning off is executed by the timer implemented in the software at smart panel (3).

For measurement, water and dry soil is put into the shatterproof beaker

(1 ) at the ratio of 20:1 . Beaker (1 ) is shaken after closing the impermeable cap (5). After at least 10 sec. slowly shake, beaker (1 ) is placed onto a flat surface to stay rest of the analysis and the start button (7) on the smart panel (3) is pressed. Even if the device is turned off, it starts to analyze after pressing the start button (7). If the start button (7) is pressed while the device is running, it restarts the analysis.

In the system shown in Figure 1 , the beaker (1 ) has sensors (4) and signal sources where each one is located to the opposite side and vertically aligned to a sensor. Which signal source running together which sensor starts is set by embedded software in smart panel (3). Smart panel (3) analyzes the data coming from the sensors (4) to check shaking by testing soil water solution in beaker (1 ) whether it is homogenous. To indicate that shaking is enough, as a positive signal, "OK" message is displayed on LCD display (6). If the homogenous of solution is unsatisfactory, as a negative signal, "FAULT" message appears on LCD display (6) and a "beep" sound is played. This sound indicates that shaking is not adequate, so the beaker (1 ) have to be shaken and the start button (7) must be pressed again.

There are at least two sensors (4) placed onto the beaker (1 ). Increasing the number of sensors provide more precise results. The height of the beaker (1 ) should be at least 20cm, diameter of the impermeable cap should be at least 5 cm. The distance between the bottommost sensor (4) and the bottom of the beaker (1 ) should be identical with the distance between the upmost sensor (4) and the impermeable cap (5) and at least 5mm. By considering the number of sensors (4), each sensor is located equal distance to followed one. According to the number and the positions of the elements, smart panel (3) should be calibrated during the production.

During analysis process which starts with the "OK" message on the LCD display (6), the beaker (1 ) should stay stationary. In this time interval, all sensors (4) and the thermometer (8) produce many time series. These signals are then processed with a software running on embedded circuit in the smart panel which is trained by artificial intelligence methods (using statistical features of the signals coming from the sensors on at least one variation of machine learning methods like regression or neural network) and the amounts of sand, silt and clay are printed on the LCD display (6) in order. "A, B, C" message (each capital represents a number) seen on the display indicate that the tested soil includes A% sand, B% silt and C% clay. With this message, a "beep" sound is played from the smart panel (3) as a finish signal. By the invention, analysis of soils with high sand ratio completes in a shorter time while it takes longer for the soils not having sand particles.

Claims

1. Soil texture analyzer is a device characterized by having shatterproof beaker (1 ), belt (2), smart panel (3), et least two sensors (4), impermeable cap (5), LCD display (6), start button (7), thermometer (8), signal source components and software.

2. It is the beaker (1 ) mentioned in Claim 1 , characterized by being transparent, shatterproof and at least 20 cm tall.

3. It is the beaker (1 ) mentioned in Claim 2, characterized by having exactly the same amount of signal source with the sensors (4).

4. It is the sensor (4) mentioned in Claim 3 and characterized that the distance between the bottommost sensor's (4) distance from the bottom and the upmost sensor's (4) distance from the cap (5) are identical and at least 5mm.

5. It is the impermeable cap (5) mentioned in Claim 4, characterized by having at least 5 cm diameter.

6. It is the signal source mentioned in Claim 3, characterized in a way that each of them is located to the exact opposite side to the beaker (1 ) facing to the sensor (4) across it.

7. It is the software mentioned in Claim 1 and characterized as a unit that controls which signal source is synchronized with which sensor (4).

8. It is the software mentioned in Claim 7 and characterized with capability of testing whether the soil-water solution is dispersed homogenously in the beaker (1 ) or not by analyzing the data coming from the sensors (4).

9. It is the software mentioned in Claim 8 and characterized with capability of sending a positive message to the LCD display (6) that indicates that the soil-water solution is dispersed homogenously in the beaker (1 ).

10. It is the software mentioned in Claim 8 and characterized with capability of sending a negative message to the LCD display (6) that indicates that the soil-water solution is not dispersed homogenously in the beaker (1 ).

11. It is the software mentioned in Claim 8 and characterized with capability of analyzing the data coming from the sensors (4) and thermometer (8) using at least one of the variations of linear regression and neural network methods.

12. It is the software mentioned in Claim 1 1 and characterized with capability of sending the proportional amounts of sand, silt and clay particles inferred from the analyzed data to the LCD display (6).