Proper soil compaction is critical to providing structural support in any geo-construction project, particularly road construction. Described herein are devices, methods, and systems for intelligent soil compaction. In some embodiments, these disclosed systems, methods, and devices can provide up to 100% coverage with mechanistic measurements through machine integrated devices. These novel in-situ material characterization devices and methodologies enable continuous, mechanistic monitoring of soil compaction for use with a variety of geo-construction devices, including static pad foot soil compactors. In one embodiment, a strain gage instrumented pad is integrated into a pad foot soil compactor, and contact force is measured instrumented pad that is sensitive to soil compaction. In other embodiments, the disclosed device may allow for mechanistic measurements that may use a simplified geometry, and numerical and analytical modeling. In some embodiments, an inverse model, based on finite element modeling, may be used to extract constitutive parameters from plate strains.