Evaluation of soil EC mapping driven by manual and autopilot-automated steering systems of tractor on oil palm plantation terrain

Abstract

The autopilot-automated steering system is one of today’s modern technologies in a tractor’s driving system for conducting the operations in farmland. However, further study on the suitability of this steering technology on a particular geographic region is still a necessity. This study evaluated the precision of tractor operations with soil sensor implement using manual and autopilot-automated steering systems on oil palm plantation terrain in Malaysia. A New Holland TD5.75 tractor with 75 hp engine size equipped with a Trimble autopilot-automated steering system pulling a Veris 3100 soil electrical conductivity (EC) sensor was tested in this study. The findings showed that each steering system generated a little different pattern of spatial variability in interpolated soil EC maps. Apart from that, autopilot-automated steering system offered better performances by saving energy expenditure of operator and improving the field capacity of operation. Conclusively, tractor with autopilot-automated steering presented a great suitability for the use in agricultural operations in Malaysia.

Development of a soil electrical conductivity measurement system in paddy fields

“…Some studies have been carried out in rice fields during the post-harvest and pre-tillage stages [30], [31]. The Veris 3100 system [32], comprising six coulters, is used to map EC according to two coulter configurations. Its technical specifications are presented in Table 1.…”