Commodity RF Sensing of Belowground Tuber Growth

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Mengning, Fei, Teng, Wang, Wenye
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Li, Mengning
Fei, Teng
Wang, Wenye
author_facet Li, Mengning
Fei, Teng
Wang, Wenye
contents Belowground yield-forming organs of root and tuber crops are difficult to measure during growth, and management therefore relies on aboveground proxies and destructive sampling. Aboveground wireless links could provide a low-cost, non-invasive alternative, but strong attenuation and soil-dependent variability make repeatable subsurface sensing challenging. In a controlled greenhouse pot study of sweet potato, we deploy aboveground antennas in a line-of-sight-suppressed geometry and collect daily swept-frequency channel spectra together with standardized cellular link indicators, revealing consistent frequency-dependent attenuation and rippling as tubers develop. Here, we show that swept-frequency measurements in the 2.0-3.5 gigahertz band yield four interpretable spectral features that classify day-indexed growth stages with up to 87.5% accuracy across two soil recipes and two moisture regimes, and that fusing cellular link-quality indicators enables 5-centimeter-grid tuber localization with up to 95.0% accuracy, providing a proof-of-concept for subsurface crop monitoring without buried sensors, and motivating validation across cultivars and larger soil volumes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_00418
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Commodity RF Sensing of Belowground Tuber Growth
Li, Mengning
Fei, Teng
Wang, Wenye
Other Computer Science
Belowground yield-forming organs of root and tuber crops are difficult to measure during growth, and management therefore relies on aboveground proxies and destructive sampling. Aboveground wireless links could provide a low-cost, non-invasive alternative, but strong attenuation and soil-dependent variability make repeatable subsurface sensing challenging. In a controlled greenhouse pot study of sweet potato, we deploy aboveground antennas in a line-of-sight-suppressed geometry and collect daily swept-frequency channel spectra together with standardized cellular link indicators, revealing consistent frequency-dependent attenuation and rippling as tubers develop. Here, we show that swept-frequency measurements in the 2.0-3.5 gigahertz band yield four interpretable spectral features that classify day-indexed growth stages with up to 87.5% accuracy across two soil recipes and two moisture regimes, and that fusing cellular link-quality indicators enables 5-centimeter-grid tuber localization with up to 95.0% accuracy, providing a proof-of-concept for subsurface crop monitoring without buried sensors, and motivating validation across cultivars and larger soil volumes.
title Commodity RF Sensing of Belowground Tuber Growth
topic Other Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00418