Sistemi per la valutazione del compattamento dei terreni agrari

The traffic of agricultural machines can cause soil compaction, reducing, above all, its porosity. The measurement of soil cone penetrometer resistance is the easiest and quickest method for monitoring and assessing soil compaction.The aim of this research is to test two mechanised systems for the geo-referenced measurement and, therefore, producing maps of soil cone penetrometer resistance.The first system was developed mounting an electronic penetrometer and a DGPS mobile receiver on a tracked minitransporter.The second system was built mounting, on a frame fixed to the front part of a tractor: four load cells; a system for signal conditioning and data acquisition; four rods and penetration cones, for measuring, at the same time, the soil cone penetration resistance in four field points; a DGPS mobile receiver.During the tests, carried out in some Sicilian soils, the cone penetrometer resistance values resulted variable from 0.08 to 1.43 MPa on undisturbed soil, from 0.20 to 1.47 MPa.L’ingegneria agraria per lo sviluppo sostenibile dell’area mediterraneaafter one pass of a tractor and from 0.22 to 1.51 MPa after four passes of the tractor itself.Both the systems resulted enough accurate and user-friendly. In fact, with respect to manual penetrometers, they allowed to: highly reduce the measurement time; keep a constant penetration speed; apply a force normal to the field plane.