RoboSoil: An Agrobot for Microbial Detection and Yield Enhancement

Abstract

The growing need for sustainable agriculture demands intelligent, field-deployable systems capable of rapid, on-site soil diagnostics. RoboSoil is an IoT-based automated soil collection and analysis system integrating multi-sensor data acquisition, embedded computation, and wireless reporting for real-time soil health monitoring. Powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, it coordinates servo-driven sampling and analysis while acquiring data from SCD30 (CO₂, temperature, humidity), MQ135 (VOC detection), and capacitive moisture sensors. CO₂ flux measurements are used to compute soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) using a calibrated empirical relation, enabling biological fertility assessment under open-field conditions. Results are transmitted to a Blynk IoT dashboard and an onboard web server, generating an instant soil health report with crop and fertilizer recommendations. Experimental outcomes confirm that RoboSoil bridges laboratory-grade soil microbial analysis with on-field automation, establishing a low-cost framework for precision soil management and sustainable farming.