Digital modeling and tracking of agricultural fields for implementing agricultural field trials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11145007-B2
Application number	US-201816108002-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 21, 2018
Priority date	Aug 21, 2017
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

A system for implementing a trial in one or more fields is provided. In an embodiment, a system receives field data for a plurality of agricultural fields, identifies one or more target agricultural fields, and sends, to a field manager computing device associated with the one or more target agricultural fields, a trial participation request. The server receives data indicating acceptance of the trial participation request from the field manager computing device. The server determines one or more locations on the one or more target agricultural fields for implementing a trial and sends data identifying the one or more locations to the field manager computing device. When the system receives application data, the system determines whether the one or more target agricultural fields are in compliance with the trial. The system receives result data for the trial and computes a benefit value for the trial.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at an agricultural intelligence computing system, field data for a plurality of agricultural fields;
based, at least in part, on the field data for the plurality of agricultural fields, identifying one or more target agricultural fields;
sending, to a field manager computing device associated with the one or more target agricultural fields, a trial participation request;
receiving, from the field manager computing device, data indicating acceptance of the trial participation request;
determining one or more locations on the one or more target agricultural fields for implementing a trial;
sending data identifying the one or more locations and one or more implementation instructions;
receiving application data for the one or more target agricultural fields while an agricultural implement is performing an agricultural activity on the one or more target agricultural fields, wherein a subset of the application data comprises data corresponding to the agricultural activity received from one or more field sensors or one or more sensors integrated with the agricultural implement;
based on the application data, determining whether the one or more target agricultural fields are in compliance with the trial;
determining that the one or more target agricultural fields are not in compliance with the trial while the agricultural implement is performing the agricultural activity on the one or more target agricultural fields and, in response thereto, identifying one or more additional locations on the one or more target agricultural fields for implementing the trial and causing displaying, through a graphical user interface executing on the field manager computing device, a warning indicating that the one or more target agricultural fields are not in compliance with the trial and identifying the one or more additional locations which would allow the one or more target agricultural fields to be in compliance with the trial;
receiving result data for the trial;
based on the result data, computing a benefit value for the trial.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
computing, for each of the plurality of agricultural fields, a risk tolerance value;
determining, for the one or more target agricultural fields, that the risk tolerance value is greater than a threshold value and, in response, performing the identifying of the one or more target agricultural fields.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
computing, for each of the plurality of agricultural fields, a benefit value indicating a benefit of performing the trial on the agricultural fields;
determining that the benefit value for the one or more target agricultural fields is greater than a threshold value and, in response, performing the identifying of the one or more target agricultural fields.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
using one or more agronomic models, computing, for each of the plurality of agricultural fields, a likelihood value of detecting a benefit of performing the trial on the agricultural fields;
determining that the likelihood value of detecting a benefit for the one or more target agricultural fields is greater than a threshold value and, in response, performing the identifying of the one or more target agricultural fields.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving input identifying a percent of the agricultural field for implementing the trial;
based, at least in part, on observed variability in the agricultural field and field manager field equipment limitations, identifying a size for testing locations;
computing a number of locations for implementing the trial as a function of the percent of the agricultural field, the size for the testing locations; and a size of the agricultural field;
determining the one or more locations to include the computed number of locations.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the field manager computing device, input identifying a first percent of the agricultural field for implementing the trial;
based, at least in part, on observed variability in the agricultural field, the size of the agricultural field, field manager farm equipment constraints, the expected benefit value, and the first percent of the agricultural field for implementing the trial, computing a likelihood of detecting a benefit of performing the trial in the allowable area;
determining, if the likelihood value is below a threshold value, a second percent of the agricultural field required to achieve the threshold value, and requesting this change via the field manager computing device, wherein the second percent is greater than the first percent.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, based on the application data, that one or more parameters of an application to the agricultural field differ from one or more parameters of the trial;
updating one or more predictions of a result of the trial on the agricultural field based, at least in part, on the one or more parameters of the application.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the benefit value for the trial comprises one or more of computing a difference between an average yield at the one or more locations and an average yield for a remainder of the agricultural field, computing a difference between an average yield at the one or more locations and an average yield at the one or more control locations, computing a difference between an average profit at the one or more locations and an average profit for a remainder of the agricultural field, or computing a difference between an average profit at the one or more locations and an average profit at the one or more control locations.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based on the benefit value, computing one or more result values;
storing data associating the one or more result values with the trial.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein computing the one or more result values further includes:
computing a difference between an estimated benefit value and the computed benefit value;
determining that the computed benefit value is lower than the estimated benefit value; and
sending data identifying the one or more result values.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein computing the one or more result values further comprises computing one or more of a percentage increase in profits, a percentage increase in yield, an absolute increase in profit, or an absolute increase in yield for the one or more locations.

12. A system comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance:
receiving, at an agricultural intelligence computing system, field data for a plurality of agricultural fields;
based, at least in part, on the field data for the plurality of agricultural fields, identifying one or more target agricultural fields;
sending, to a field manager computing device associated with the one or more target agricultural fields, a trial participation request;
receiving, from the field manager computing device, data indicating acceptance of the trial participation request;
determining one or more locations on the one or more target agricultural fields for implementing a trial, wherein a subset of the application data comprises data received from one or more field sensors or one or more sensors integrated with an agricultural implement that executed the one or more implementation instructions at the one or more locations;
sending data identifying the one or more locations and one or more implementation instructions;
receiving application

Assignees

• Climate Corp

Inventors

• Ruff Thomas Gene
• Bull Jason Kendrick
• Cizek Nicholas Charles
• Rinkenberger Brandon
• Sauder Doug

Classifications

• G06N7/01

  Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks · CPC title

• Y02A40/10

  in agriculture · CPC title

• G01N33/24

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

• G01C11/025

  by scanning the object · CPC title

• A01B79/005

  Precision agriculture · CPC title