DETERMINATION OF SOIL-PH USING A CARTESIAN COORDINATE LABORATORY ROBOT AND ELECTRONIC SWITCHBOX

A commercially available Cartesian coordinate (gantry style) robot has been programmed to sequentially determine soil/water pH (pH(W)) using a desk-top computer, electronic switchbox, pH meter and a bank of fiv e combination electrodes. All movements of the robot together with pH( W) data acquisition are orchestrated by the computer. Once the pH(W) d ata has been acquired, it is stored in an array for subsequent transfe r to a Laboratory Information Management System.