Potential Use of the UCDavis Soil Compaction Profile Sensor (UCD-SCPS) for Site-Specific Tillage Applications

The UC Davis Soil compaction sensor (UCD-SCPS) is designed to quantify soil mechanical strength in a continuous way. This sensor consists of an instrumented shank, a data acquisition system and a DGPS receiver. The UCD-SCPS sensor is attached to a frame that is mounted on the 3-point hitch of a farm tractor and pulled through the field engaging the soil in a way similar to a commercial ripper shank. This sensor can provide data related to the soil profile up to a depth of 460 mm using a set of five force transducers. The instrumented blade has a thickness of 29 mm.