Blue Lab Solutions
Projects
Internal Projects
Real-Time Agricultural Soil Nitrate Measurement Instrument
Development of a field in-situ instrument that will estimate the soil nitrate level in real-time without tedious upfront calibration and soil preparation. This will aid in the decision-making process for developing an effective crop growth strategy for optimizing crop yield and monitoring and protecting soil resources.
Providing real-time information will allow for field plans to be developed or adapted to conditions more quickly and easily by farmers and land managers. In addition, it will enable more localized testing of soil conditions with greater ease, thereby further reducing the negative economic and environmental effects of harmful and damaging over fertilization. It’s envisioned that the instrument will be easily portable by a single person, rugged, easy to use, and the electrodes will be designed for replacement if they become damaged in the field. Currently, no sensor or instrument exists in the market that can estimate the soil nitrate level in real-time without a lot of cumbersome upfront calibration and soil preparation.
Other Projects
Development of an approach to designing electromagnetic sensor systems such that there is a basis for designing sensors and electrodes without the need to adjust the property or characteristic algorithm(s). This approach will be helpful in expanding the usefulness and flexibility of specific algorithm(s) for unique applications and circumstances.
Consulting Projects
Our focus has been on the research and development of forward and inverse models for electromagnetic impedance sensors and instrumentation that are used in the determination of subsurface electromagnetic properties (i.e., permittivity). These sensors can either be in contact with the surface of an object or be used with a variable standoff (air gap) from the object's surface. These physical and characteristic properties can then be correlated to an engineering property (e.g., density), which can be easily used in the field for tracking real-time status and/or changes.
This same approach can be used in a wide array of applications on a number of materials.