A device for measuring a moisture content in soil according to an aspect of the present invention comprises: a conductive wire structure which can be inserted into soil, includes a first and a second conductive wire, and is formed to have a predetermined structure, the first and the second conductive wire being insulatively coated and extending in parallel to and adjacent to each other; a capacitance measurement circuit for measuring the capacitance between the first and the second conductive wire by using an alternating current power source; and a moisture content calculation unit for calculating a moisture content of the soil by using the measured capacitance.

Disclosed are a plant growth management system and a control method thereof. A station device of the plant growth management system includes a flowerpot detector configured detect entry of a movable flowerpot device and to generate a detection signal according to whether entry of the movable flowerpot device is detected, a wireless charger configured to wirelessly supply power to the movable flowerpot device according to the detection signal, and a water supply device configured to supply water to a flowerpot included in the movable flowerpot device according to the detection signal, wherein the movable flowerpot device includes an obstacle detection sensor and a solar detection sensor, performs autonomous driving based on the obstacle detection sensor and the solar detection sensor, searches for a space, an illuminance value of which is equal to or greater than a preset illuminance value, through the autonomous driving, and performs rotational motion in the searched space.

Provided herein are various embodiments of determining a cation exchange capacity of a rock sample. One embodiment of a method of determining a cation exchange capacity of a rock sample comprises equilibrating the rock sample to a relative humidity, performing a dielectric permittivity measurement on the rock sample at the relative humidity, and determining a cation exchange capacity of the rock sample based on the dielectric permittivity measurement. One embodiment of a method of determining a cation exchange capacity of a rock sample comprises receiving a dielectric permittivity measurement on the rock sample, and determining a cation exchange capacity for the rock sample based on the dielectric permittivity measurement of the rock sample and a relationship between cation exchange capacity and dielectric permittivity measurements for mineral mixtures corresponding to a range of cation exchange capacity values.

A system for measuring moisture in soil below the ground surface comprises at least one passive microwave sensor device configured to measure natural thermal emissions from the soil and output a data signal and a processing circuit operably coupled to the at least one passive microwave sensor wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive the data signal and compile a soil moisture profile. The system further comprises a wide-band antenna wherein the at least one passive microwave sensor is located therein and an elongate horizontal mounting frame extending between first and second ends wherein the first end is securable to a mobile agricultural device and wherein the wide-band antenna is secured to the second end so as to position the wide-band antenna at a distance above the ground surface.

In the present application, a method for assessing water shortage risk, device, computer device and storage medium are provided, wherein the method for assessing water shortage risk comprises: acquiring a volume of blue water flowing into soil of a to-be-assessed-area within a target time period, and a volume of retention water flowing into and retained in the soil of the to-be-assessed-area within the target time period; and determining a water shortage risk indicator of the to-be-assessed-area indicating a degree of water shortage risk of the to-be-assessed-area, according to a ratio of the volume of blue water to the volume of retention water. A higher ratio of the volume of blue water to the volume of retention water indicates poor ability of the soil's water to meet the demand for use and greater degree of the water shortage risk of the soil.

A method of analyzing soil using a modular sensor device. The modular sensor device including a sensor bus head, a sensor bus terminus, and a sensor rod in a stacked arrangement. The sensor rod disposed between the sensor bus head and the sensor bus terminus. The method including setting on an output pin of the sensor bus. The method further including, subsequent to setting the output pin of the sensor bus, detecting a transition on an input pin of the sensor rod, the output pin of the sensor bus and the input pin of the sensor rod being part of a daisy chain. The method further including, in response to detecting the transition at the input pin of the sensor rod, enabling bidirectional communication between the sensor rod and the sensor bus head over a communication bus electrically coupling the sensor bus head to the sensor rod.

The present technology generally relates to a porous medium parameter measurement device comprising one or more component selected from: a porous conductive component; a porous non-conductive component; and a selective component. The one or more component is in operative communication with each one of the one or more component and with a porous medium through a plurality of pores allowing a porous medium solution to reach diffusion equilibrium between the porous medium and each of the one or more component. The one or more component allows direct measurement of a multiplicity of parameters of the porous medium solution.

Disclosed are methods and systems for accurate modeling of the soil-water retention curve (SWRC) for any soil texture class and with varying amounts of soil organic matter. The disclosed method leverages near-visible infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIRS) to obtain rapid measurements at low soil-water potential that are used to model soil-water retention functions.

An automatic detection and recovery device for residual agricultural mulch film, and a method of using said device, comprising a quadcopter, a wheeled robot (9), and a host computer (8); the quadcopter is provided with a controller (1), a near infrared water content analyzer, and a WiFi module that are used to measure water content in soil and communicate with the host computer; the wheeled robot (9) comprises a water sprinkling device (2), a soil grabbing device (3), a sifting device (4), a delivery device (5), a recognition device (6), and a sorting device (7).

Disclosed are various embodiments for reinforcement learning-based irrigation control to maintain or increase a crop yield or reduce water use. A computing device may be configured to determine an optimal irrigation schedule for a crop planted in a field by applying reinforcement learning (RL), where, for a given state of a total soil moisture, the computing device performs an action, the action comprising waiting or irrigating crop. An immediate reward may be assigned to a state-action pair, the state-action pair comprising the given state of the total soil moisture and the action performed. The computing device may instruct an irrigation system to apply irrigation to at least one crop in accordance with the optimal irrigation schedule determined, where the optimal irrigation schedule includes an amount of water to be applied at a predetermined time.