Method and system to map biological pests in agricultural fields using remotely-sensed data for field scouting and targeted chemical application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10842144-B2
Application number	US-201715701195-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2017
Priority date	May 13, 2011
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

A method for precisely applying chemicals targeted by digital maps developed from remotely sensed data, including: obtaining EOS data through a growing season of a crop growing in a field; processing the EOS data to reflectance values, removing error-inducing effects of atmospheric alteration from the processed EOS data; calculating from the processed EOS data a crop performance index that indicates one or more poor performing area of the field; generating one or more maps of the crop performance index to allow a user to determine whether each of the one or more poor performing areas of the field are due to biological pests instead of topographic or soil constraints in discrete locations of the field; guiding the user to the one or more poor performing areas of the field using the one or more maps to allow the user to scout the one or more poor performing areas of the field to confirm and identify the biological pests; and providing guidance for a chemical application at the one or more poor performing areas that were confirmed as having the biological pests. Other embodiments are provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for applying chemicals targeted by digital maps developed from remotely sensed data, the method comprising:
obtaining earth observation satellite (EOS) data through a growing season of a crop growing in a field, the EOS data comprising images generated by EOS sensors;
obtaining reflectance values from the EOS data for all visual and near infrared (VNIR) bands, each reflectance value indicating a ratio of outgoing light from incoming solar radiation;
computing a band-specific correction factor for each band of the VNIR bands from the EOS data and the reflectance values using machine learning techniques;
removing error-inducing effects of atmospheric alteration from the EOS data to obtain updated EOS data, comprising adjusting a value of each pixel of a plurality of pixels in the images of the EOS data using the band-specific correction factor for each band of the VNIR bands;
calculating from the updated EOS data a crop performance index that indicates one or more poor performing areas of the field;
generating and transmitting one or more maps of the crop performance index to a device;
receiving, in response to transmitting the one or more maps of the crop performance index, from the device, an identification of biological pests present at a poor performing area of the one or more poor performing areas.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
forecasting when the field will experience canopy closure, comprising:
processing the EOS data through at least a first third of the growing season to determine NDVI and NDVI*; and
performing a clocking function to forecast when to begin calculating the crop performance index.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more maps comprise at least one of crop performance index maps, crop performance index change detection maps, or cumulative crop performance index change detection maps.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
generating the one or more maps of the crop performance index further comprises generating the crop performance index change detection maps, comprising:
performing change detection on each update of the crop performance index maps by subtracting spatially discrete pixels of a first one of the crop performance index maps from a subsequent update of the crop performance index maps; and
guiding a user to the one or more poor performing areas of the field using the one or more maps, comprising: outputting at least one of the crop performance index change detection maps.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:
generating the one or more maps of the crop performance index further comprises generating the cumulative crop performance index change detection maps, comprising:
adding each update of the crop performance index map change detection maps to display a cumulative region affected by the biological pests;
guiding the user to the one or more poor performing areas of the field using the one or more maps further comprises:
outputting at least one of the cumulative crop performance index change detection maps.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein:
guiding the user to the one or more poor performing areas of the field using the one or more maps further comprises:
navigating to at least one of the one or more poor performing areas of the field using GPS functionality of a mobile device;
recording one or more observations regarding the crop at the at least one of the one or more poor performing areas of the field; and
outputting the one or more observations along with positioning information to allow the user to plan a chemical application treatment plan.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
developing a digital map using the one or more maps to guide a chemical application, comprising:
determining a number of days elapsed from a latest update of the one or more maps used to scout the one or more poor performing areas of the field until the chemical application is to be applied; and
buffering the digital map to increase a size of an area to be treated with the chemical application based on the number of days elapsed.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
developing the digital map to guide the chemical application further comprises, if the number of days elapsed is greater than a predetermined threshold:
obtaining new EOS data and updating the digital map using the new EOS data; wherein:
buffering the digital map to increase the size of the area to be treated with the chemical application comprises:
buffering the digital map to increase the size of the area to be treated with the chemical application based on an updated number of days elapsed from the update of the digital map using the new EOS data until the chemical application is to be applied.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining GPS-guided chemical spray equipment to be used for a chemical application; and
sending to the GPS-guided chemical spray equipment a digital map based at least in part on the one or more maps of the crop performance index to allow the GPS-guided chemical spray equipment to apply the chemical application at the one or more poor performing areas that were confirmed.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
generating the one or more maps of the crop performance index further comprises:
providing the one or more maps with color coding overlain on a high-resolution air photograph to enable a user to determine a discrete locations having topographic or soil constraints.

11. A system for applying chemicals targeted by digital maps developed from remotely sensed data, the system comprising:
one or more processing modules; and
one or more non-transitory memory storage modules storing computing instructions configured to run on the one or more processing modules and perform:
obtaining earth observation satellite (EOS) data through a growing season of a crop growing in a field, the EOS data comprising images generated by EOS sensors;
obtaining reflectance values from the EOS data for all visual and near infrared (VNIR) bands, each reflectance value indicating a ratio of outgoing light from incoming solar radiation;
computing a band-specific correction factor for each band of the VNIR bands from the EOS data and the reflectance values using machine learning techniques;
removing error-inducing effects of atmospheric alteration from the EOS data to obtain updated EOS data, comprising adjusting a value of each pixel of a plurality of pixels in the images of the EOS data using the band-specific correction factor for each band of the VNIR bands;
calculating from the updated EOS data a crop performance index that indicates one or more poor performing areas of the field;
generating and transmitting one or more maps of the crop performance index to a device;
receiving, in response to transmitting the one or more maps of the crop performance index, from the device, an identification of biological pests present at a poor performing area of the one or more poor performing areas.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the computing instructions are further configured to perform the acts of:
forecasting when the field will experience canopy closure, comprising:
processing the EOS data through at least a first third of the growing season to determine NDVI and NDVI*; and
performing a clocking function to forecast when to begin calculating the crop performance index.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the one or more maps comprise at least one of crop performance index maps, crop performance index change detection maps, or cumulative crop performance index change detection maps.

14. The system of claim 13

Assignees

• Climate Corp

Inventors

• Groeneveld David P

Classifications

• G06T2207/20076

  Probabilistic image processing · CPC title

• G06T2207/10032

  Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing · CPC title

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title

• G06T7/0016

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title

• G06T2207/10048

  Infrared image · CPC title