Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 4 No. 2 Summer 2019 | Page 15

15
5
Microscope
(goes here)
4
Pipettes
Step 1
3
Centrifuge
1-2
Robot Arm
Mesh tubes
tube that is then moved to the
centrifuge that spins at 1,000 rpm.
A drill moves into the ground to
extract a soil sample. The device
can be calibrated to retrieve samples Step 5
The arm takes a pipette and
at a consistent depth.
collects a sample from the top of
the centrifuge tube and deposits it
Step 2
on an automated microscope (not
The soil sample is removed from
shown).
the drill.
Step 3
The sample is run through a
filtration system that can rotate 95
degrees for backwashing.
Step 4
A robotic arm with six degrees of
freedom collects sample in a mesh
The process includes RFID
tagging that stores GPS and time of
collection information for future
reference.
The system provides on-site anal-
ysis when paired with an automated
microscope.
Soil sample after centrifuge.