Agricultural support system and unmanned aerial vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12420960-B2
Application number	US-202318208534-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2023
Priority date	Dec 29, 2020
Publication date	Sep 23, 2025
Grant date	Sep 23, 2025

Abstract

An agricultural support system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle including a sensor, and an agricultural machine to travel in an agricultural field. When an abnormality occurs in the unmanned aerial vehicle while the agricultural machine performs work in the agricultural field in cooperation with the unmanned aerial vehicle, the unmanned aerial vehicle or the agricultural machine performs an operation different from an operation during the work.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agricultural support system comprising:
an unmanned aerial vehicle including a sensor; and
an agricultural machine to travel in an agricultural field and to attach a working implement thereto such that the working implement is allowed to be raised and lowered;
wherein
the unmanned aerial vehicle is operable to:
fly in a surrounding area of the working implement when the working implement is raised or lowered; and
when the working implement is being lowered from a raised position, set a flight position of the unmanned aerial vehicle to a position lower than the working implement to allow the sensor to perform sensing; and

the agricultural machine is operable to perform work with the working implement based on a state of the agricultural field obtained when the unmanned aerial vehicle senses the agricultural field.

2. The agricultural support system according to claim 1 , wherein the agricultural machine is operable to configure the working implement upon acquiring the state of the agricultural field obtained before the work is performed, and perform the work based on the state of the agricultural field upon acquiring the state of the agricultural field obtained while the work is being performed or after the work is performed.

3. The agricultural support system according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a work determiner to determine whether the work with the working implement is appropriate based on the state of the agricultural field obtained while the work is performed or after the work is completed; wherein
the agricultural machine is operable to, when the work determiner determines that the work is not appropriate, return to a position at which the work was determined to be not appropriate and perform the work again with the working implement.

4. The agricultural support system according to claim 3 , wherein
the agricultural machine includes:
a traveling controller to control automatic traveling; and
a selector to select whether to perform the work again after the automatic traveling is completed or to perform the work again during the automatic traveling.

5. The agricultural support system according to claim 1 , wherein the agricultural machine includes a cable to supply electric power to the unmanned aerial vehicle flying in the agricultural field.

6. The agricultural support system according to claim 1 , wherein
the agricultural machine includes a takeoff/landing station where the unmanned aerial vehicle takes off or lands; and
the unmanned aerial vehicle is operable to take off from the takeoff/landing station at at least one of before the work is performed, while the work is being performed, or after the work is performed, and to sense the state of the agricultural field while the work is being performed and after the work is performed with the sensor.

Assignees

• Kubota Kk

Inventors

• Kinoshita Tomohiro
• Morimoto Takanori
• Umemoto Susumu
• Ishikawa shinnosuke

Classifications

• G05D1/686

  Maintaining a relative position with respect to moving targets, e.g. following animals or humans (for pointing payloads towards targets G05D1/689; involving controlling the position or course of two or more vehicles G05D1/69) · CPC title

• B64U30/20

  Rotors; Rotor supports · CPC title

• B64U10/16

  with five or more distinct rotor axes, e.g. octocopters · CPC title

• A01B69/00

  Steering of agricultural machines or implements; Guiding agricultural machines or implements on a desired track · CPC title

• B64U2101/40

  for agriculture or forestry operations · CPC title