Sistema de muestreo agrícola y métodos relacionados

Un método para preparar una mezcla de lodo en un dispositivo microfluídico con una primera microbomba (MP1), una segunda microbomba (MP2) acoplada fluidamente a la primera microbomba (MP1) mediante un primer microcanal que comprende una microválvula (7654), y una tercera microbomba (MP3) acoplada fluidamente a la segunda microbomba (MP2) mediante un segundo microcanal. Cada una de las microbombas (MP1, MP2, MP3) tiene una cámara (5765) con un diafragma deformable neumáticamente (5763) que puede cambiarse entre una posición cerrada para descargar o bombear un fluido y una posición abierta para recibir el fluido. (Traducción automática con Google Translate, sin valor legal) An automated computer-controlled sampling system and related methods for collecting, processing, and analyzing agricultural samples for various chemical properties such as plant available nutrients. The sampling system allows multiple samples to be processed and analyzed for different analytes or chemical properties in a simultaneous concurrent or semi-concurrent manner. Advantageously, the system can process soil samples in the "as collected" condition without drying or grinding. The system generally includes a sample preparation sub-system which receives soil samples collected by a probe collection sub-system and produces a slurry (i.e. mixture of soil, vegetation, and/or manure and water), and a chemical analysis sub-system which processes the prepared slurry samples for quantifying multiple analytes and/or chemical properties of the sample. The sample preparation and chemical analysis sub-systems can be used to analyze soil, vegetation, and/or manure samples. A soil collection system is disclosed which captures and directs samples to the sampling system for processing.