Abstract
Soil and plant sensing can be separated into remote sensing which is discussed in Chapter 8 and proximal sens-ing, where an instrument is placed within 2 m of the target (Viscarra Rossel et al., 2011). These sensors are used for a variety of purposes including quantifying spatial and temporal changes in plant and soil health (Gebbers and Adamchuk, 2010). As a result of rapid developments in electronics, a wide array of measurement principles and deployment approaches can be used to obtain rapid and reliable signals that can be used to create site-speci c recommendations. To better characterize the way each of the sensors is used, this chapter will focus on the mobility, energy, interaction with the target and measurement inference of sensor systems. This chapter also refers to examples of commercial proximal sensing systems as well as highlights new concepts currently being developed.
