WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University researchers are inventing new ways to assess, monitor and educate others about soil.
These inventions are available for licensing through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization.
1. Battery-less, wireless, chip-less sensors for subsoil moisture monitoring — Researchers at Purdue have developed new sensors for actively monitoring moisture in sublayers of soil in agricultural applications.
The new low-cost, noninvasive sensors allow for large-scale determination of soil quality by actively measuring volumetric water content.
The sensors have been validated by attaching them to two different types of tags and inserting them below ground into soil where they exhibited excellent durability, linear charge and range of VWC detection.
Advantages: Chip-less, wireless, battery-free, low-cost, noninvasive to soil,
Potential Applications: Crop management, botany, horticulture.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/5f3rem3k.
2. Educational tool for understanding soil properties — Purdue researchers developed an application that allows users to view highly detailed maps of soil properties on a tablet device.
The application is designed to support teaching and learning at the university level by allowing users to zoom in and see details or quickly zoom out to see map overviews.
By switching between the various maps and zoom levels, users gain a better understanding of the complex interactions between soil properties and the landscapes where they occur.
Advantages: Easy to use, intuitive, multiple applications.
Potential Applications: Education, textbook supplement.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/mr3spa4h.
3. Non-destructive robotic root imaging system for plant health — Researchers have created a low-cost robotic arm with a camera extension that images entire areas around soil.
The system identifies roots, saves them computationally by location and reconstructs size, shape and depth in 3D. This method is non-destructive and quickly assists in recognizing plant conditions, as well as growth patterns.
Advantages: Low cost, non-destructive, efficient.
Potential Applications: Plant breeding, agronomical research, agricultural and biological engineering.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/mr3cjpu9.
4. Noninvasive assessment of soil microbial activity — Purdue researchers developed a new method to quantify activity and amounts of soil bacteria.
This technique is more accurate and sensitive than traditional bacterial population sensing methods.
Advantages: Non-invasive, real-time.
Applications: Soil monitoring.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/3d594k5e.