Method and apparatus for automated plant necrosis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11058042-B2
Application number	US-201916720021-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2019
Priority date	Mar 7, 2012
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

A method of real-time plant selection and removal from a plant field including capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field, segmenting the first image into regions indicative of individual plants within the first section, selecting the optimal plants for retention from the first image based on the first image and the previously thinned plant field sections, sending instructions to the plant removal mechanism for removal of the plants corresponding to the unselected regions of the first image from the second section before the machine passes the unselected regions, and repeating the aforementioned steps for a second section of the plant field adjacent the first section in the direction of machine travel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
accessing an image of a field of plants with a camera physically attached to a machine travelling in a direction through the field;
determining, from the image, a first plant to be retained in the field and a second plant to be removed from the field, wherein a first portion of the first plant overlaps with a second portion of the second plant;
determining an amount of overlap between the first portion and the second portion;
responsive to determining the amount of overlap exceeds a threshold, determining to remove the first plant from the field; and
activating a plant removal mechanism to remove the first plant as the plant removal mechanism passes by the first plant while moving through the field.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the first plant to be retained in the field and the second plant to be removed from the field comprises:
identifying one or more points of interest located in a region of the image;
classifying a subset of the identified one or more points of interest as plant centers;
segmenting the image into a plurality of sub-regions, wherein each sub-region of the plurality of sub-regions includes a point of interest classified as a plant center and a set of cultivation parameters;
for each sub-region, classifying each sub-region of the plurality of sub-regions as including a plant in a first plurality of plants to be retained in the field or as including a plant in a second plurality of plants to be removed from the field;
wherein the classification for each sub-region of the plurality of sub-regions improves the cultivation parameters for sub-regions in the first plurality of plants; and
wherein the first plurality of plants comprises the first plant to be retained in the field, and the second plurality of plants comprises the second plant to be removed from the field.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
segmenting the image into a plurality of sub-regions, wherein each sub-region of the plurality of sub-regions includes a set of cultivation parameters;
for each sub-region, classifying the sub-region as including a plant in a first group of plants to be retained in the field, or including a plant in a second group of plants to be removed from the field based on the set of cultivation parameters for that sub-region; and
determining a pattern of retained plants for a region of the field in the image based on the sub-regions of the plurality of sub-regions classified as including plants in the first group of plants.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the pattern of retained plants in the image comprises:
determining a plurality of candidate patterns for plants in the first and second groups of plants, each candidate pattern of the plurality of candidate patterns describing a unique combination of plants to be retained in the field and plants to be removed from the field;
determining, for each candidate pattern of the plurality of candidate patterns, a cost value for removing plants from the field; and
selecting a candidate pattern of the plurality of candidate patterns with a lowest cost value as the plant pattern.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plant pattern is determined based on one or more of the following:
a categorization of the candidate plant patterns; and
a classification of the candidate plant patterns.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the plant pattern for the region of the field comprises:
determining an additional plant pattern for a different region of the field, wherein:
the additional plant pattern includes plants to be retained and plants to be removed in the different region, and
the additional plant pattern includes at least a portion of the plant pattern; and

generating an aggregate plant pattern by combining the additional plant pattern and the plant pattern.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the amount of overlap further comprises:
determining a distance between a plant center of the first plant and a plant center of the second plant;
comparing the determined distance to a threshold distance; and
responsive to the determined distance being below the threshold distance, determining that the first plant and second plant overlap.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to determining the amount of overlap exceeds a threshold, determining to retain the second plant from the field; and
updating a plant pattern to include the second plant from the field to be retained.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant removal mechanism comprises a spray nozzle, the method further comprising:
determining that the activated plant removal mechanism cannot retain the first plant to be retained in the field due to the first plant being within a range of the spray nozzle;
generating an updated plant pattern comprising instructions to remove the first plant from the field;
determining a cost value for the updated plant pattern; and
responsive to determining the cost value to be below a threshold cost value, instructing the plant removal mechanism to remove the first plant from the field according to the updated plant pattern.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the activated plant removal mechanism cannot remove the second plant from the field;
generating an updated plant pattern comprising instructions to retain the second plant in the field;
determining a cost value for the updated plant pattern; and
responsive to determining the cost value to be below a threshold cost value, instructing the plant removal mechanism to retain the second plant in the field according to the updated plant pattern.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, the instructions when executed cause a processor physically attached to a machine travelling in a direction through a field of plants to:
access an image of a field of plants with a camera physically attached to a machine travelling in a direction through the field;
determine, from the image, a first plant to be retained in the field and a second plant to be removed from the field, wherein a first portion of the first plant overlaps with a second portion of the second plant;
determine an amount of overlap between the first portion and the second portion;
responsive to determining the amount of overlap exceeds a threshold, determine to remove the first plant from the field; and
activate a plant removal mechanism to remove the first plant as the plant removal mechanism passes by the first plant while moving through the field.

12. A system comprising:
a camera physically attached to a machine traveling in a direction through a field, the camera configured to capture an image of a field of plants;
a plant removal mechanism attached to the machine; and
a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processor physically attached to the machine to:
access an image of a field of plants with a camera physically attached to a machine travelling in a direction through the field;
determine, from the image, a first plant to be retained in the field and a second plant to be removed from the field, wherein a first portion of the first plant overlaps with a second portion of the second plant;
determine an amount of overlap between the first portion and the second portion;
responsive to determining the amount of overlap exceeds a threshold, determine to remove the first plant from the field; and
activate a plant removal mechanism to remove the first plant as the plant removal mechanism passes by the first plant while moving through the fiel

Assignees

• Blue River Tech Inc

Inventors

• Redden Lee Kamp

Classifications

• A01B41/06 Primary

  with electric, e.g. photo-electric control of thinning operations · CPC title

• G06V10/255 Primary

  Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes · CPC title

• G06V10/145

  Illumination specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. using gratings · CPC title

• G06V20/68

  Food, e.g. fruit or vegetables · CPC title

• G06V20/188

  Vegetation · CPC title