Systems and methods for monitoring agricultural products

• US 10,539,545 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2019
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AGERpoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AGERpoint, Inc.
• Inventors: McPeek, K. Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Ishizuka, Yoshihisa
• Application Number:
  US16/518,148
• Publication Number:
  US 20190339243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 183 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 5/0035 Measuring of dimensions of trees
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/1797 in landscape, e.g. crops
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/8466 Investigation of vegetal material, e.g. leaves, plants, fruits
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/251 Colorimeters; Construction thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0098 Plants or trees wood G01N33/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/025 Fruits or vegetables

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring agricultural products. In particular, the present invention relates to monitoring fruit production, plant growth, and plant vitality.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executed by a processor to perform operations comprising:

assembling point cloud data for a plant with a laser scanner in three dimensions to create a plurality of three dimensional vertices having three dimensional coordinates;

generating photographic data for the plant with a camera to create an image;

providing a location of a transport vehicle with a global positioning satellite (“

GPS”

) receiver;

geo-registering the assembled point cloud data such that each three dimensional vertex of the assembled point cloud data is associated with a GPS coordinate based on the location of the transport vehicle;

geo-registering the photographic data such that each three dimensional vertex of the assembled point cloud data is associated with a pixel of the photographic data;

providing a color of the plant based on the photographic data of the plant;

providing classification data of the plant comprising stem diameter, height, volume, and leaf density, wherein the classification data is determined using the GPS coordinates of the assembled point cloud data;

providing plant quality based on the color of the plant and one of the plant'"'"'s stem diameter, height, volume, and leaf density; and

providing instructions to control a fruit tree sprayer to spray the plant, wherein the instructions control when the fruit tree sprayer sprays, how long the fruit tree sprayer sprays, and what chemicals the fruit tree sprayer sprays on the plant based on the quality of the plant.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing thermal data from a thermal imaging camera and further determining plant quality based on the thermal data.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plant quality is based on a blossom count, wherein the blossom count is determined by the geo-registered vertices of the assembled point cloud data.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing the point cloud data on a user interface.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing plant health based on the geo-registered vertices of the assembled point cloud data.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising guiding the fruit tree sprayer.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing spectral data for the plant.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising providing species data of the plant.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising correlating spectral data of the plant with spectral signatures of plant diseases to provide plant disease data of the plant.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising identifying a unique radio frequency identifier (“

RFID”

) code associated with the plant.

11. A plant analyzer comprising:

a means for assembling point cloud data of a plant by creating a plurality of three dimensional vertices having three dimensional coordinates;

a means for collecting photographic data of the plant by taking an image of the plant;

a means for measuring a location of a transport vehicle;

a server configured to receive the assembled point cloud data, the photographic data, and the location of the transport vehicle; and

a processor configured to;

geo-register the assembled point cloud data by associating each three dimensional vertex of the assembled point cloud data with a GPS coordinate based on the location of the transport vehicle,

geo-register the photographic data by associating each three dimensional vertex of the assembled point cloud data with a pixel of the photographic data based on the location of the transport vehicle,

determine a color of the plant based on the photographic data of the plant,

provide classification data of the plant comprising stem diameter, height, volume, and leaf density using the GPS coordinates of the assembled point cloud data,

determine plant quality based on the color of the plant and one of the plant'"'"'s stem diameter, height, volume, and leaf density, and

provide instructions that control a fruit tree sprayer to spray the plant, wherein the instructions control when the fruit tree sprayer sprays, how long the fruit tree sprayer sprays, and what chemicals the fruit tree sprayer sprays on the plant based on the quality of the plant.

12. The plant analyzer of claim 11, further comprising a thermal video camera configured to collect thermal data and further wherein the quality of the plant is based on the thermal data.

13. The plant analyzer of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to receive data from a multispectral or hyperspectral sensor for gathering spectral data.

14. The plant analyzer of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to generate an annotated photograph of the plant.

15. The plant analyzer of claim 11, wherein the processor further comprises a user interface configured to display the point cloud data, the photographic data, and the quality of the plant.

16. The plant analyzer of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to predict fruit yield of the plant, the predicted fruit yield determined by identifying a number of fruits on the plant based on the assembled point cloud data and the plant color.