{"id":955,"date":"2026-11-10T09:06:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T09:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurageng.eu\/?p=955"},"modified":"2026-11-11T09:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T09:13:19","slug":"testing-the-forces-behind-more-responsive-tillage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurageng.eu\/?p=955","title":{"rendered":"Testing the forces behind more responsive tillage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Researchers at TU Dresden demonstrated how instrumented soil-testing equipment can measure implement forces, assess soil movement and support the development of sensor-controlled tillage systems. Secretary General Andy Newbold went along to find out more.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Agricultural engineers are increasingly looking at how implements can respond to changing soil conditions. A visit to the soil-testing facilities at the Technical University of Dresden (TU Dresden), during the VDI Land.Technik AgEng 2026 get-together on Monday, 9 November, demonstrated how researchers are investigating the forces involved and testing technologies that could make tillage more responsive.<\/p>\n<p>Led by Martin Hengst and Stefan Schwede, the visit included a demonstration of the university's renewed soil-testing carrier system. This draws instrumented implements through prepared soil, allowing researchers to measure forces acting on the tool while monitoring the resulting changes to the soil profile.<\/p>\n<p>During the demonstration, the equipment was operated at a working depth of approximately 15cm and a target forward speed of 8km\/h. Sensors measured vertical, horizontal and lateral forces, illustrating how implement loads change as soil conditions vary.<\/p>\n<p>In one test, lateral forces remained close to zero, while horizontal draft increased as the implement moved from softer, uncompacted soil into a more compacted section before stabilising. Such measurements provide a means of assessing how different tools perform under controlled conditions and how soil resistance influences power requirements.<\/p>\n<p>The facility also uses laser scanning to record the soil surface following a test. The resulting profiles can be analysed to establish working depth, profile height and the width of soil movement, linking the forces measured during operation with the physical effect of the implement on the soil.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside conventional implement testing, the facility supports the development and evaluation of sensors for automated tillage. Cameras, lidar and acceleration and force sensors can be assessed for their ability to identify blockages, excessive loads or collisions with stones.<\/p>\n<p>The longer-term objective is to use this information to enable implements to respond automatically to changing conditions. Depending on the application, this could involve adjusting working depth or forward speed to maintain performance while avoiding unnecessary soil disturbance or excessive loading.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers can also vary soil density and moisture content, as well as introduce simulated disturbances, to investigate how reliably sensing and control systems identify changing conditions and respond to them.<\/p>\n<p>By combining conventional implement testing with soil-profile analysis and sensor development, the TU Dresden facility provides a controlled environment in which to investigate the relationship between implement performance, soil conditions and automated control. It offers an important research platform for developing tillage systems capable of adapting more intelligently to the conditions encountered in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at TU Dresden demonstrated how instrumented soil-testing equipment can measure implement forces, assess soil movement and support the development of sensor-controlled tillage systems. Secretary General Andy Newbold went along to find out more. Agricultural engineers are increasingly looking at how implements can respond to changing soil conditions. A visit to the soil-testing facilities at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"common","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[96,95],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-news","tag-tu-dresden","tag-vdi-land-technik-ageng-2026"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Testing the forces behind more responsive tillage - EurAgEng<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eurageng.eu\/?p=955\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Testing the forces behind more responsive tillage - EurAgEng\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers at TU Dresden demonstrated how instrumented soil-testing equipment can measure implement forces, assess soil movement and support the development of sensor-controlled tillage systems. Secretary General Andy Newbold went along to find out more. Agricultural engineers are increasingly looking at how implements can respond to changing soil conditions. 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