Soil analysis with machine-learning-based processing of stepped-frequency GPR field measurements: Preliminary study

Abstract

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been widely studied as a tool for extracting soil parameters relevant to agriculture and horticulture. When combined with Machine Learning (ML) methods, air-coupled Stepped Frequency Continuous Wave Ground Penetrating Radar (SFCW GPR) measurements could offer a cost-effective way to obtain depth-resolved soil data. As a first step of our study in this direction, we conducted an extensive field survey using a tractor-mounted air-coupled SFCW GPR instrument. Leveraging ML-based data processing, we evaluate the GPR instrument's ability by predicting the apparent electrical conductivity (ECaR) measured by a co-recorded Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) instrument. The large-scale field measurement campaign with 3472 co-registered and geo-located GPR and EMI data samples distributed over approximately 6600 square meters was performed on a golf course. This terrain offers high surface homogeneity but also presents the challenge of subtle soil parameter variations. Based on the results, we discuss challenges in this multi-sensor regression setting and propose the use of the nugget-to-sill ratio as a performance metric for evaluating ML models in agricultural field survey applications.