{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T03:00:42Z","timestamp":1784689242203,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,21]],"date-time":"2018-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1526860800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2016YFD0300607"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016YFD0300607"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Three New Project of Agricultural Machinery in Jiangsu Province","award":["NJ2017-23"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NJ2017-23"]}]},{"name":"Independent Innovation of Agricultural Science and Technology in Jiangsu Province","award":["SCX(16)1006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SCX(16)1006"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012246","name":"Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PAPD"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PAPD"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012246","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013314","name":"111 Project","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["B16026"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["B16026"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013314","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>To meet the demand of intelligent irrigation for accurate moisture sensing in the soil vertical profile, a soil profile moisture sensor was designed based on the principle of high-frequency capacitance. The sensor consists of five groups of sensing probes, a data processor, and some accessory components. Low-resistivity copper rings were used as components of the sensing probes. Composable simulation of the sensor\u2019s sensing probes was carried out using a high-frequency structure simulator. According to the effective radiation range of electric field intensity, width and spacing of copper ring were set to 30 mm and 40 mm, respectively. A parallel resonance circuit of voltage-controlled oscillator and high-frequency inductance-capacitance (LC) was designed for signal frequency division and conditioning. A data processor was used to process moisture-related frequency signals for soil profile moisture sensing. The sensor was able to detect real-time soil moisture at the depths of 20, 30, and 50 cm and conduct online inversion of moisture in the soil layer between 0\u2013100 cm. According to the calibration results, the degree of fitting (R2) between the sensor\u2019s measuring frequency and the volumetric moisture content of soil sample was 0.99 and the relative error of the sensor consistency test was 0\u20131.17%. Field tests in different loam soils showed that measured soil moisture from our sensor reproduced the observed soil moisture dynamic well, with an R2 of 0.96 and a root mean square error of 0.04. In a sensor accuracy test, the R2 between the measured value of the proposed sensor and that of the Diviner2000 portable soil moisture monitoring system was higher than 0.85, with a relative error smaller than 5%. The R2 between measured values and inversed soil moisture values for other soil layers were consistently higher than 0.8. According to calibration test and field test, this sensor, which features low cost, good operability, and high integration, is qualified for precise agricultural irrigation with stable performance and high accuracy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18051648","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,22]],"date-time":"2018-05-22T04:34:03Z","timestamp":1526963643000},"page":"1648","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":46,"title":["Design and Test of a Soil Profile Moisture Sensor Based on Sensitive Soil Layers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6302-3638","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhenran","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1884-2404","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yan","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cheng","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongzhou","family":"Qian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Weixing","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jun","family":"Ni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for the Technology and Application of Internet of Things, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"541","article-title":"A wireless-sensor for soil water content powered by solar energy","volume":"30","author":"Li","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. 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