LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska researcher says a high-tech, highly maneuverable tool developed to measure soil moisture in farm fields also can be deployed on battlefields.

Trenton Franz is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who also is affiliated with the University of Nebraska’s Water for Food Institute. Franz first developed the cosmic ray neutron rover to help farmers manage their water resources.

The device measures neutrons that escape from soil after cosmic rays reach the Earth’s surface. Some of the rays’ neutrons are absorbed, but the amount that escape depends largely on the soil’s hydrogen content, which is largely determined by the water moisture present.

Franz says his device could help the military make soil maps on the fly to better predict where heavy equipment could travel.