Method for non-contact ground moisture level estimation at various depths using reflected energy at a work machine

A method for non-contact moisture estimation, comprising:

• in a model generation stage:
• receiving first input data representing actual soil properties comprising moisture values at a training ground surface and one or more corresponding ground depths of a respective ground portion;
• emitting radio signals associated with a first range of frequencies toward the training ground surface, and determining one or more characteristic values for the ground portion based on received reflections of the radio signals;
• receiving second input data representing temperature, a distance between the training ground surface and a source of the radio signals, and a vibration of the source of the radio signals;
• iteratively training a model in data storage comprising correlations between the first data, the one or more characteristic values at corresponding frequencies, and at least a subset of the second data;
• and
• in a real-time moisture estimation stage, executed during operation of a first work machine traversing a work area comprising a respective current ground surface for each of a plurality of current ground portions:
• receiving third input data representing temperature, a distance between the current ground surface and a source of radio signals, and a vibration of the source of the radio signals;
• identifying, via a vector network analyzer operatively linked to the source of the radio signals, a target range of frequencies as a subset of the first range of frequencies;
• emitting radio signals associated with the target range of frequencies toward the current ground portion, and determining one or more characteristic values for the current ground portion based on received reflections of the emitted radio signals;
• estimating, via the determined one or more characteristic values and further reference to the iteratively trained model, one or more moisture values for the current ground surface and/or one or more corresponding ground depths for the current ground portion;
• and
• generating an output signal, corresponding to the estimated one or more moisture values, to a computing device via a communications network, wherein a work plan is generated for the work area based at least in part on the estimated moisture values for each of the plurality of current ground portions;
• and
• providing the work plan for utilization by a second work machine associated with the work area.

A method for non-contact moisture estimation, comprising:

• in a model generation stage:
• receiving first input data representing actual soil properties comprising moisture values at a training ground surface and one or more corresponding ground depths of a respective ground portion;
• emitting radio signals associated with a first range of frequencies toward the training ground surface, and determining one or more characteristic values for the ground portion based on received reflections of the radio signals;
• receiving second input data representing temperature, a distance between the training ground surface and a source of the radio signals, and a vibration of the source of the radio signals;
• iteratively training a model in data storage comprising correlations between the first data, the one or more characteristic values at corresponding frequencies, and at least a subset of the second data;
• and
• in a real-time moisture estimation stage, executed during operation of a work machine traversing a work area comprising a respective current ground surface for each of a plurality of current ground portions:
• receiving third input data representing temperature, a distance between the current ground surface and a source of radio signals, and a vibration of the source of the radio signals;
• identifying, via a vector network analyzer operatively linked to the source of the radio signals, a target range of frequencies as a subset of the first range of frequencies;
• emitting radio signals associated with the target range of frequencies toward the current ground portion, and determining one or more characteristic values for the current ground portion based on received reflections of the emitted radio signals;
• estimating, via the determined one or more characteristic values and further reference to the iteratively trained model, one or more moisture values for the current ground surface and/or one or more corresponding ground depths for the current ground portion;
• and
• generating one or more output signals corresponding to the estimated one or more moisture values, wherein at least one of the one or more output signals is provided to a display unit, and a cross sectional view of at least part of the work area is graphically represented on the display unit with indicia representing the one or more moisture values at the respective ground surface and one or more depths, or an overhead view of at least part of the work area is graphically represented on the display unit with indicia corresponding to relative moisture values for the respective ground portions.