Environmental monitoring

• US 10,271,117 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2014
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Earthtec Solutions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Earthtec Solutions, LLC
• Inventors: Lankford, David, Lichtner, Jr., Francis Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Gibson, Randy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kidanu, Gedeon M
• Application Number:
  US14/517,142
• Publication Number:
  US 20150061888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,649 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/007 Determining fertilization requirements
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/167 Control by humidity of the soil itself or of devices simulating soil or of the atmosphere; Soil humidity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/02 Automatically-operated arrangements

Abstract

Methods and system for multi-dimensional environmental monitoring, systematic dissection of interpretive relationships and extensive computational analysis, which can be displayed in a visual real-time data-rich web-based configuration called AdviroGuard™ interpretive analysis. By means of building data subsets and in harmonization with the laws of physics contained within a particular environmental medium, strict statistical analysis are applied to produce significant and pertinent information for key decision makers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

(a) receiving, at a computing device coupled to an irrigation system, a first plurality of soil moisture readings related to a resource availability in the soil from a first sensor at a first location in a field;

(b) determining, with the computing device, a first metric based at least on a difference between a first soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings and a second soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings, wherein the first metric comprises an intensity of a change in the resource availability;

(c) determining, with the computing device, and storing into a memory, at least one of a magnitude of a value of the first metric or a sign of the value of the first metric;

(d) repeating, with the computing device, steps b and c for a pre-determined number of soil moisture readings;

(e) determining, with the computing device, a first characteristic of the soil based on at least one of the stored magnitudes or the stored signs of the first metric;

(f) receiving, with the computing device, a second plurality of soil moisture readings related to the resource availability in the soil from a second sensor at a second location in the field;

(g) determining, with the computing device, a second metric based at least on a difference between a first soil moisture reading in the second plurality of soil moisture readings and a second soil moisture reading in the second plurality of soil moisture readings, wherein the second metric comprises an intensity of a change in the resource availability at the second location;

(h) determining, with the computing device, a magnitude of a value of the second metric and a sign of the value of the second metric;

(i) determining, with the computing device, a second characteristic of the soil comprising a cause of the change in the resource availability based on the magnitudes and the signs of the values of the second metric, wherein the magnitudes and the signs of the values of the second metric are monitored at the second sensor during and after an irrigation period or event; and

(j) optimizing with the computing device a duration of a subsequent irrigation period of the irrigation system based on one or more of the first characteristic of the soil or the second characteristic of the soil by either lengthening or shortening the duration of the subsequent irrigation period until predetermined magnitudes and signs of the values of one or more of the first metric or the second metric are achieved.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of soil moisture readings related to a resource availability in the soil is received from a plurality of sensors located in the field.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is moisture.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-determined number of soil moisture readings comprises all of the first plurality of soil moisture readings.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, with the computing device, the characteristic of the soil based on at least one of the stored magnitudes or the stored signs of the first metric comprises determining a maximum magnitude of negative metric magnitude values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the first characteristic of the soil or the second characteristic of the soil comprises one or more of field capacity, leaching factor, Gilbert Effect, optimum soil ratio of water and air, root management zone, root-derived Evaporation-Transpiration Coefficient (ETo), irrigation efficiency, plant ETo coefficient, drip irrigation management, stress days, plant water efficiency, ion distribution and drift, ion minimum and maximum, water and nutrient application ranking, total irrigation, or total rainfall.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(k) receiving, in real time, soil moisture readings related to resource availability in the soil from a plurality of soil moisture reading sites;

(l) formatting the soil moisture readings into a common data format; and

(m) supplying the formatted soil moisture readings to an analysis platform.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of soil moisture readings comprise time-stamped resource measurements from a plurality of soil depths.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining, with the computing device, a first metric based at least on a difference between a first soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings and a second soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings comprises subtracting a value of the first soil moisture reading from a value of the second-soil moisture reading, wherein the second soil moisture reading occurred later in time than the first soil moisture reading.

10. A system, comprising:

an irrigation system configured to supply water to a field;

a first sensor at a first location in the field;

a second sensor at a second location in the field;

a memory comprising a plurality of computer-executable instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to carry out the steps of;

(a) receiving a first plurality of soil moisture readings related to a resource availability in the soil from a first sensor;

(b) determining a first metric based at least on a difference between a first soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings and a second soil moisture reading in the first plurality of soil moisture readings, wherein the first metric comprises an intensity of a change in the resource availability;

(c) determining, and storing in the memory, at least one of a magnitude of a value of the first metric or a sign of the value of the first metric;

(d) repeating the steps (b) and (c) for a pre-determined number of soil moisture readings;

(e) determining a first characteristic of the soil based on at least one of the stored magnitudes or the stored signs of the first metric;

(f) receiving a second plurality of soil moisture readings related to the resource availability in the soil from the second sensor;

(g) determining a second metric based at least on a difference between a first soil moisture reading in the second plurality of soil moisture readings and a second soil moisture reading in the second plurality of soil moisture readings, wherein the second metric comprises an intensity of a change in the resource availability at the second location; and

(h) determining a magnitude of a value of the second metric and a sign of the value of the second metric;

(i) determining a characteristic of the medium comprising a cause of the change in the resource availability based on the magnitudes and the signs of the values of the second metric, wherein the magnitudes and the signs of the values of the second metric are monitored at the second sensor during and after an irrigation period or event; and

(j) optimizing a duration of a subsequent irrigation period based on one or more of the first characteristic of the soil or the second characteristic of the soil by either lengthening or shortening the duration of the subsequent irrigation period until predetermined magnitudes and signs of the values of one or more of the first metric or the second metric are achieved.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first plurality of soil moisture readings related to a resource availability in the soil is received from a plurality of sensors.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to carry out the steps of:

receiving, in real time, soil moisture readings related to resource availability in the soil from a plurality of soil moisture reading sites;

formatting the soil moisture readings into a common data format; and

supplying the formatted soil moisture readings to an analysis platform.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the resource is moisture.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of soil moisture readings comprise time-stamped resource measurements from a plurality of soil depths.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more of the first characteristic of the soil or the second characteristic of the soil comprises one or more of field capacity, leaching factor, Gilbert Effect, optimum soil ratio of water and air, root management zone, root-derived Evaporation-Transpiration Coefficient (ETo), irrigation efficiency, plant ETo coefficient, drip irrigation management, stress days, plant water efficiency, ion distribution and drift, ion minimum and maximum, water and nutrient application ranking, total irrigation, or total rainfall.