Determine The Passability of Skid Trails Using Sensors

The passability of the skid trail determines whether and how well a harvester or forwarder can move there. If the machine has struggled, you will notice unsightly ruts that are related with soil compaction. The forester is rarely pleased about this. The culprit is quickly identified as too much moisture in the soil. Vehicles should therefore not be allowed to work on excessively damp ground. But how can this be achieved?

The operations planner usually has several areas that could be considered for the next location. He is interested in selecting the area with suitable soil conditions. He must therefore obtain knowledge of the moisture in the soil in all relevant areas and keep this knowledge up to date. The current procedure involves regularly visiting the areas in person and subjectively assessing their suitability. This process is very time-consuming and is to be improved/simplified/supported by the use of sensors.

The precise determination of soil moisture content is still problematic, even for high-quality/high-priced sensor technology, as soil properties involve a large number of parameters. This precision is not absolutely necessary for assessing the passability of skid trails. A rough measuring scale may be sufficient. With precise knowledge of the requirements of the sensors, material costs can be reduced to a minimum and their use can be more worthwhile overall.

In order to get the measured value from the sensors to the deployment planner, common wireless technology from the IoT area is used (LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, etc.) This may require the establishment of a local wireless network. The following points will be discussed in this presentation: • Listing of common sensory measurement parameters in the context of soil moisture and their physical measurement principles. Discussion of their suitability for the intended application • Pointing out of the possibilities for the constructive implementation of different sensor units. • Discussion of technologies for large-scale application (beating, drilling, shooting, robots, ...)