Online Rapid Detection Method of Fertilizer Solution Information Based on Characteristic Frequency Response Features

Online rapid detection of a fertilizer solution’s type and concentration is crucial for intelligent water and fertilizer machines to realize intellectual precision variable fertilization. In this paper, a cylindrical capacitance sensor was designed based on the dielectric properties of the fertilizer solution, and an online rapid detection method of fertilizer type and concentration was proposed based on the characteristic frequency response mode. Three fertilizer solutions, potassium chloride, calcium superphosphate, and urea, were used as test objects. Ten concentrations of each fertilizer solution in the 10~100 g/L range were taken as the test fertilizer solution. Then, under the action of a series of sine wave excitation signals from 1 kHz to 10 MHz, the sensor’s amplitude-frequency/phase-frequency response data were obtained. The detection strategy of ‘first type, then concentration’ was adopted to realize rapid online detection of fertilizer type and concentration. Experimental results indicated that the maximum relative error of the sensor stability test was 0.72%, and the maximum error of concentration detection was 7.26%. Thus, the intelligent water and fertilizer machine can give feedback on the information of a fertilizer solution in real-time during the process of precise variable fertilization, thus improving the intelligence of water and fertilizer machines.