Autonomous Soil Collection in Environments With Heterogeneous Terrain

Abstract: To autonomously collect soil in uncultivated terrain, robotic arms must distinguish between different amorphous materials and submerge themselves into the correct material. We develop a prototype that collects soil in heterogeneous terrain. If mounted to a mobile robot, it 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.