Applying and using fiducial markings on agricultural apparatuses

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11510405-B2
Application number	US-201916543111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2019
Priority date	Aug 16, 2019
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

Implementations set forth herein relate to using fiducial markings on one or more localized portions of an agricultural apparatus in order to generate local and regional data that can be correlated for planning and executing agricultural maintenance. An array of fiducial markings can be disposed onto plastic mulch that surrounds individual crops, in order that each fiducial marking of the array can operate as a signature for each individual crop. Crop data, such as health and yield, corresponding to a particular crop can then be stored in association with a corresponding fiducial marking, thereby allowing the certain data for the particular crop to be tracked and analyzed. Furthermore, autonomous agricultural devices can rely on the crop data, over other sources of data, such as GPS satellites, thereby allowing the autonomous agricultural devices to be more reliable.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising:
disposing a synthetic mulch over an agricultural area that includes a plurality of plants,
where each plant of the plurality of plants extends through an aperture in the synthetic mulch, and
wherein the synthetic mulch includes fiducial markings that are detectable by a robot;

causing, subsequent to disposing the synthetic mulch over the agricultural area, one or more robots to identify each fiducial marking in the agricultural area and generate correspondence data that correlates each plant of the plurality of plants to one or more fiducial markings;
subsequent to causing the one or more robots to identify each fiducial marking:
causing one or more of the robots to navigate through the agricultural area in furtherance of locating a particular plant of the plurality of plants using the correspondence data, and
when the one or more robots have located the particular plant:
causing the one or more robots to perform an operation in furtherance of affecting a physical condition of the plant.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
subsequent to causing the one or more robots to identify each fiducial marking:
determining that the particular plant is exhibiting a condition that can be remedied by the operation,
wherein causing the one or more robots to navigate through the agricultural area and perform the operation is performed subsequent to determining that the particular plant is exhibiting the particular condition.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining that the particular plant is exhibiting the condition is based on information received from a separate entity that received produce from the agricultural area and determined that the condition was being exhibited by the received produce.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the operation includes adding, or removing, a material or an organism to, or from, an area having a boundary defined by an outer edge of the particular plant.

5. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more robots include autonomous agricultural devices that each include one or more sensors that are used to identify each fiducial marking located in the agricultural area, and
wherein each fiducial marking is located adjacent to a respective plant within the agricultural area.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the fiducial marking is a visible marking or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

7. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising:
navigating, by a robot, through a route that includes an agricultural area,
wherein the robot includes one or more sensors that detect properties of a plurality of plants located in the agricultural area;

identifying, when the robot is located in the agricultural area, a fiducial marking that is located on synthetic mulch and is located near a plant of the plurality of plants in the agricultural area,
wherein the fiducial marking is associated with agricultural data that is accessible to the robot and provides a correlation between the fiducial marking and the plant;

determining, based on the agricultural data that is associated with the fiducial marking, whether the plant has exhibited a condition that can be remedied via the robot or a separate computing device;
when the plant is determined to have exhibited the condition that can be remedied by the robot or the separate computing device:
causing the robot or the separate computing device to initialize performance of an operation in furtherance of remedying the condition exhibited by the plant; and

when the plant is determined to not have exhibited the condition that can be remedied by the robot or the separate computing device:
bypassing causing the robot or the separate computing device to initialize performance of the operation, and
causing the robot to maneuver through the route toward another fiducial marking corresponding to another plant located in the agricultural area.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the agricultural data is generated based on information received from a separate entity that received produce from the agricultural area and determined that the condition was being exhibited by the received produce.

9. The method of claim 8 ,
wherein the information characterizes a physical feature of the produce that results from the condition, and
wherein the operation includes adding, or removing, a material or an organism to, or from, an area having a boundary defined by an outer edge of the plant.

10. The method of claim 7 ,
wherein the robot is an autonomous agricultural device that includes one or more sensors that are used to identify each fiducial marking of a plurality of fiducial markings located in the agricultural area, and
wherein each fiducial marking of the plurality of fiducial markings is located adjacent to a respective plant of the plurality of plants within the agricultural area.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining whether the plant has exhibited the condition that can be remedied via the robot or the separate computing device includes:
determining whether the condition has been exhibited and remedied by another computing device located in a separate agricultural area that includes different fiducial markings for other plants that are located in the separate agricultural area.

12. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising:
determining, by a robot that traverses an agricultural area, that an environmental change is affecting an environment of a particular plant,
wherein the particular plant is located in the agricultural area, which includes a plurality of plants surrounded by synthetic mulch, and
wherein the environmental change is determined using one or more sensors of the robot;

identifying, before, during, or after determining that the environmental change is affecting the particular plant, a fiducial marking that is disposed over a portion of the synthetic mulch that is proximate to the particular plant,
wherein each plant of the plurality of plants corresponds to a unique fiducial marking of a plurality of fiducial markings that are also disposed over the synthetic mulch;

generating, based on identifying the fiducial marking and the environmental change, agricultural data that characterizes the environmental change; and
storing the agricultural data in association with the particular plant.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
subsequent to generating the agricultural data:
identifying, during a separate instance when the robot or a different robot is traversing the agricultural area, the fiducial marking that is disposed over the portion of the synthetic mulch that is proximate the particular plant,
determining, based on identifying the fiducial marking, a plant property exhibited by the particular plant subsequent to the environmental change affecting the particular plant, and
generating, based on the plant property exhibited by the particular plant, additional agricultural data that characterizes the plant property and is stored in association with the fiducial marking and the particular plant.

14. The method of claim 12 ,
wherein determining that the environmental change is affecting the environment of the particular plant includes identifying, using one or more sensors that are connected to the robot, an organism that is affecting the particular plant, and
wherein the additional agricultural data characterizes an identity of the organism or an extent to which the organism affected the particular plant since the organism was identified.

Assignees

• X Dev Llc

Inventors

• Grant Elliott

Classifications

• A01B79/005 Primary

  Precision agriculture · CPC title

• G06K7/10297 Primary

  arrangements for handling protocols designed for non-contact record carriers such as RFIDs NFCs, e.g. ISO/IEC 14443 and 18092 (cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; network security protocols H04L63/00; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; network protocols for data switching network services H04L67/00) · CPC title

• A01M7/0089 Primary

  Regulating or controlling systems (the delivery being related to the movement of a vehicle B05B9/06) · CPC title

• A01M21/043

  by chemicals · CPC title

• A01M7/0042

  Field sprayers, e.g. self-propelled, drawn or tractor-mounted · CPC title