• Derek Houtz
  • 15. Juni 2022
  • 3 Min. Lesezeit

TerraRad’s PoLRa sensor was recently integrated on a utility vehicle to measure soil moisture in Southern California orchards.

The PoLRa mounted on a POLARIS Ranger 6x6 utility vehicle (left) and a test soil moisture data from a citrus orchard in Riverside, California (right).
The PoLRa mounted on a POLARIS Ranger 6x6 utility vehicle (left) and a test soil moisture data from a citrus orchard in Riverside, California (right).

In May, TerraRad’s newest customer, the University of California Riverside, received hand delivery and installation of a new vehicle-mounted sensor. Prof. Elia Scudiera organized a demo day at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Salinity Lab where CEO Dr. Derek Houtz demonstrated how to use the PoLRa for orchard applications. The PoLRa will be used for research projects on citrus fruits, almonds, pecans, and pistachios.

Professor of robotics Dr. Karydis will collaborate with Prof. Scudiera to integrate the passive microwave sensor on autonomous agricultural robots. Potential outputs of the research will include validation for monitoring efficiency and flow for drip and micro-sprinkler irrigated orchards. They will also investigate if it’s possible to predict the yield from each tree using the PoLRa’s vegetation sensing capabilities.

In simple terms, the vehicle based sensor will save growers significant time by allowing them to drive quickly through their orchard and validate that all of their sprinklers or drip nozzles are outputting the desired amount of water and that they are not clogged or broken. The PoLRa can even see through hanging tree canopy to the trunk that you could not see with our eyes. The use of TerraRad’s PoLRa in regions where water is scarce will help to save water and increase efficiency and productivity for food production.