In the area of the civil construction industry, there are no currently available testing methods or equipment to rapidly evaluate soil strength or density. Manual cone penetrometers (and other available stiffness measuring instruments) have operational issues besides inability to make adjustments for moisture variations. Besides, some tests are very operator dependent. The only established alternatives are nuclear gauges, which have environmental and security issues due to use of radioactive isotopes. Current methods are subject to many limitations, including incomplete soil assessment, inaccuracy, operator dependency, and potential for injury.

The objective of the overall program is to design and build a system to characterize in-situ soil properties including soil strength, moisture content, and classification to a depth of 36 inches. These measurements will be used for the following applications: (1) selecting optimal locations for vehicle crossings of soil surfaced-terrain obstacles, (2) prediction of soil deformation under vehicular traffic, and (3) site selection for contingency infrastructure facilities.

Extension of proven cone penetrometer technology that brings together measurement of soil strength, moisture content, and classification is being developed. The new technology will, for the first time, develop a man-portable instrument that provides a comprehensive field assessment of soil characteristics important for mobility operations. Such an instrument result will also reduce errors in true stiffness estimates that are known to be dependent on moisture and soil type. This will provide a significant advantage as a QC/QA tool in road, runway, retaining wall, building foundation and other construction applications.