A dual sensor combining dielectric and mechanic principles wasdeveloped. The geometric structure of this sensor has been designedaccording to the ASAE-standard for penetrometer cones, and the sensorcan provide a pair of output signals when inserted into soil. By analyzingboth signals, one can determine the correlation among cone index, soilbulk density, and moisture content. Some preliminary experiments wereperformed in a laboratory environment, and the sensor will be ready foruse in the field in the near future.

A combined penetrometer is an appropriate tool to measure the soil cone resistance and the water-content profile. As arelatively new technique, acombined capacitance-penetrometer for the simultaneous measurement of cone index and soil water content was developed at the Department of Agricultural Engineering of Bonn University in 2002. The objective of this study was the evaluation of the effectiveness and applicability of the innovated penetrometer with a focus on three aspects: (1) A capacitance sensor with two electrode configurations was calibrated for silt loam, sandy loam, and sand. The calibration results show that both electrode configurations have sufficient water-content sensitivity, but soil-specific calibrations seem necessary.(2) Under laboratory conditions, the dynamic resolution and response of the capacitance-penetrometer were validated, and its radius of influence was determined.(3) The field measurement results demonstrate that this measurement technique can be used to improve the interpretation quality of soil cone index data.