In-soil data monitoring system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10697951-B2
Application number	US-201414569829-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2014
Priority date	Dec 15, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

An in soil data collection and analysis system and process is disclosed where the data from a plurality of in soil sensors is combined with other data that is acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to create a fused data set that can be used to determine an appropriate corrective action or response to the fused data.

First claim

I claim:

1. An in-soil data monitoring system comprising:
a soil sensor disposed adjacent soil, wherein said soil sensor is configured to measure soil sensor data associated with a condition of the soil, and to transmit said soil sensor data; and
an unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle is configured to passively interrogate said soil sensor in order to read said soil sensor data, and to determine relative location data pertaining to a relative location of said soil sensor to said unmanned aerial vehicle,
wherein said soil sensor employs passive radio frequency identification (RFID) to wirelessly transmit said soil sensor data,
wherein the system further comprises (i) a first RFID interrogator array disposed on a first wing of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and (ii) a second RFID interrogator array disposed on a second wing of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the first wing and the second wing extending in opposite directions, the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array being separated by a predefined distance, the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array being configured to wirelessly interrogate said soil sensor, and, having interrogated said soil sensor, to determine the relative location of said soil sensor to said unmanned aerial vehicle, and
wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured:
to perform a data fusion process on at least the relative location data and said soil sensor data to create a fused data set;
to perform an analysis of the fused data set; and
to determine an appropriate action to take relative to the condition of the soil based on the analysis of the fused data set.

2. The in-soil data monitoring system of claim 1 , further comprising a GPS receiver disposed on said unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein said GPS receiver is configured to provide location information of said unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. The in-soil data monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to record geodetic high resolution imagery.

4. The in-soil monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein said soil sensor data is associated with the condition of the soil in relation to growing crops.

5. The in-soil monitoring system of claim 4 , wherein said soil sensor data is associated with the condition of the soil in relation to a chemical spill.

6. A method for improving the health of a crop comprising the steps of:
dispersing a plurality of in-soil sensors adjacent the crop, said sensors being configured to measure soil sensor data concerning the soil;
flying an unmanned aerial vehicle adjacent the crop, said unmanned aerial vehicle being configured to communicate with said plurality of in-soil sensors;
reading the soil sensor data from said plurality of in-soil sensors;
determining a location of an in-soil sensor of said plurality of in-soil sensors;
applying a corrective action to the crop based on the soil sensor data and the location of said in-soil sensor,
wherein the determining of the location of said in-soil sensor includes:
affixing a pair of radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogators to said unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein affixing said pair of RFID interrogators to said unmanned aerial vehicle includes (i) disposing a first RFID interrogator array on a first wing of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and (ii) disposing a second RFID interrogator array on a second wing of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the first wing and the second wing extending in opposite directions, and the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array being disposed from each other by a predefined distance;
wirelessly interrogating, by each of the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array, said in-soil sensor to obtain the soil sensor data; and
having interrogated said in-soil sensor, determining, by the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array, relative location data pertaining to a relative location of said in-soil sensor from said unmanned aerial vehicle based on a respective wireless signal received at each of the first RFID interrogator array and the second RFID interrogator array from said in-soil sensor; and

operating said unmanned aerial vehicle to perform a data fusion process on at least the relative location data and said soil sensor data to create a fused data set, to perform an analysis of the fused data set, and to determine the corrective action to apply based on the analysis of the fused data set.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the step of affixing a GPS receiver to said unmanned aerial vehicle to determine a location of said unmanned aerial vehicle.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising the steps of:
recording geodetic high resolution imagery of the crop from said unmanned aerial vehicle; and
correlating said geodetic high resolution imagery with the location of said in-soil sensor.

9. The in-soil data monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the RFID interrogators, when measuring the relative location of said soil sensor, are constructed and arranged:
to receive, at the first RFID interrogator array disposed on the first wing, a wireless signal at a first time;
to receive, at the second RFID interrogator array disposed on the second wing, the wireless signal at a second time; and
to determine the relative location of said soil sensor from the unmanned aerial vehicle based on a difference between the first time and the second time.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the relative location of said in-soil sensor from said unmanned aerial vehicle includes:
receiving, at the first RFID interrogator array disposed on the first wing, a wireless signal at a first signal arrival time,
receiving, at the second RFID interrogator array disposed on the second wing, the wireless signal at a second signal arrival time, and
performing a relative location determination operation which determines the relative location of said soil sensor from said unmanned aerial vehicle based on a difference between the first signal arrival time and the second signal arrival time.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein dispersing the plurality of in-soil sensors adjacent the crop includes:
mixing the plurality of in-soil sensors with crop seed to form a sensor and crop seed mixture prior to planting the crop.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein dispersing the plurality of in-soil sensors adjacent the crop further includes:
after mixing, loading the sensor and crop seed mixture into a crop seed dispenser.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein dispersing the plurality of in-soil sensors adjacent the crop further includes:
after loading the sensor and crop seed mixture into the crop seed dispenser, operating the crop seed dispenser over a planting field to plant the sensors and the crop seed forming the sensor and crop seed mixture in the planting field.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein operating the crop seed dispenser includes:
planting the sensors and the crop seed in rows within the planting field.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the sensors are fully biodegradable.

16. The in-soil data monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the pair of RFID interrogators disposed on said unmanned aerial vehicle outputs a wireless interrogation signal to the soil sensor to interrogate the soil sensor.

17. The in-soil data monitoring system of claim 16 , wherein the soil sensor includes a transmitter which is powered by radio-frequency energy of the wireless interroga

Assignees

• Aai Corp
• Textron Systems Corp

Inventors

• Baity Sean M

Classifications

• B64U2101/30

  for imaging, photography or videography · CPC title

• B64U2101/40

  for agriculture or forestry operations · CPC title

• G01N33/24 Primary

  Earth materials (G01N33/42 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N2033/245

  Physics · mapped topic

• B64C2201/123

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic