Workspace Study of Floating-Base Ground Mobile Manipulator for Soil Moisture Monitoring in NM-Type Green Chile Pepper Farming

This paper presents the feasibility study of using a sensor-equipped manipulator, integrated into a mobile robot, for performing autonomous soil moisture data collection in the chile pepper farms. Data-driven field management decisions will allow for increased water use efficiency, irrigation water savings, and higher yielding plants. Motion planning and operation algorithms were developed for manipulation of the sensing probe using a 4 DoF robotic arm in the bench-top laboratory testing. MATLAB simulations were carried out to investigate the soil insertion in various base configurations. The operation and capabilities of the robot-assisted soil measurement were examined in a series of laboratory testing for both dry and wet soils. The obtained results show the feasibility of using the robotic system for soil moisture measurement and consistent data collection.