Two types of computer-aided cone-penetrometers were newly developed. The first one carries out measurement of soil bearing capacity and data processing, i.e., mapping the distribution of soil bearing capacity, plotting the graph showing the relation between penetration depth and penetration resistance. It uses a hand-held computer for data acquisition. Although only one person is needed for its operation, two persons are enough for fast and efficient measurement, i.e., one for holding and pushing the cone-penetrometer and the other for operating the hand-held computer. The second type called the simple cone-penetrometer was developed mainly to improve the efficiency of measurement. A board computer was attached in a body of cone-penetrometer. It can carry out the measurement with one man operation, and it has the function of automatic printing of penetration depth and resistance.
The computer-aided cone-penetrometer system was applied to examine the distribution of widely different values of soil bearing capacity occurring in a field parcel in the Muda irrigation area of Malaysia.