We designed, implemented, and tested a solution that uses a robotic arm control system capable of picking soil in an outdoor environment.
Abstract
To autonomously collect soil in uncultivated terrain, robotic arms must distinguish between different amorphous materials and submerge themselves into the correct material. We designed, implemented, and tested a solution that uses a robotic arm control system capable of picking soil in an outdoor environment with applications to robotic agriculture, surveying, and hazard detection. If mounted to a mobile robot, our prototype can be used to perform soil collection and analysis without human intervention. Unique among soil sampling robots, we use a general-purpose robotic arm rather than a soil core sampler.
Accepted for presentation at the 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots, July 2025.