Farmers, engineers and soil labs have been trying to take the drudgery out of soil sampling for decades. A new machine might be just what they’ve been looking for.
Introduced this winter by the AgRobotics company in Arkansas, AutoProbe is an automated robotic soil sampling machine that penetrates six inches into the soil to pull cores for the soil test lab.
The device runs on a 15 foot rubber track pulled by a utility vehicle. Once every rotation, the synchronized probe is triggered to plunge through the one hole in the track to snatch a core.
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At a ground speed of 11 km-h, one core is lifted every 1.5 seconds.
The rapid-fire probe and core gathering equipment are pneumatically driven to achieve the instant response required to push the probe into the soil and pull it out again as the machine maintains its ground speed.
AutoProbe is capable of continuous operation and doesn’t need to stop until the utility vehicle needs gas or the driver needs a coffee break.
The machine gathers 19 or 20 cores every 100 metres, totalling approximately 0.45 kilograms of soil. The soil is then pneumatically transferred to the utility vehicle, bagged as a single sample and labelled.
A 100 metre run is used because grid system sampling is commonly performed on a 2.5 acre grid, measuring 100 by 100 metres.
With this calibration, the GPS controlled AutoProbe can automatically sample a grid. Depending on the accuracy of the GPS, an operator may be able to pull cores from exactly the same spots in the field year after year.
Operators can use GPS guided auto-steer on the utility vehicle to keep their hands free to apply a label to each sample. Labels include field co-ordinates and other relevant data needed by the soil lab.
AgRobotics chief executive officer Jeff Burton said the AutoProbe never becomes confused, despite multi-tasking at a high ground speed.
“The machine’s just fine at that speed,” he said.
“But the operator might get confused with all that stuff happening at the same time.”
He said AutoProbe is more accurate than previous sampling methods.
“The typical method has always been to go out to the middle of the grid and pull a core. With this system, you get a uniform representation because you have 19 or 20 cores from one side to the other.”
The idea for AutoProbe originated with Jeff’s father, Jim Burton, who farms with his son near Tupelo, Ark.
The elder Burton said that in his 35 years of farming, soil sampling was the most mundane chore he had to endure.
“It’s just no fun. It’s backbreaking, tedious and hot. But there’s no doubt that farmers are more successful when they have their nutrients right.”
He said even though farmers know soil testing is critical to profitable farming, the average producer might only sample a field once every three years.
Jim started farming after graduating as an agricultural engineer in 1965. When GPS became available in the early 1990s, he envisioned it as a key to simplifying the task of soil sampling. The challenge would be to marry GPS to an automated robot that could collect cores at precise locations.
It wasn’t until 2002 that his first AutoProbe prototype finally went into the field. Although there are other mechanized soil samplers, Jim said their machine is the only one that has fully automated, programmable GPS steering and that can pull cores on-the-go.
Added Jeff: “Everything is mapped out for each individual farm. More accurate historical records can be kept almost down to the exact centimetre of farmland. That ends up saving on chemical and treatment costs.”
He said the initial target markets are soil sampling services, ag retailers, agronomy consultants, fertilizer co-ops and farmers with large acreages or high value crops.
The Burtons had originally planned to sell the AutoProbe for about $25,000 each, but decided instead to put the first batch into the hands of clients who they think will make the most use of them.
For 2008, they will have six machines in the field on a contract basis with high-use customers. Jeff said the charge of $2.50 per acre for sample collection is similar to industry rates.
“For this year, all the AutoProbes will be in the lower 48 states. But we’ve already had inquiries from your neck of the woods (Canadian Prairies) so we’ll be heading there eventually.
“Also, we anticipate developing a probe that will pull a 12 inch (deep) core.”
On Feb. 14, the AutoProbe was named one of the Top 10 new products at the 2008 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California.
For more information, phone Jeff Burton at 501-551-7999 or visit www.AgRobotics.com.
