ROBOTIC PESTICIDE APPLICATION

• US 20120042563A1
• Filed: 08/20/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Anderson, Noel Wayne
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 43/132.1
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/06 Treatment of growing trees or plants, e.g. for preventing decay of wood, for tingeing flowers or wood, for prolonging the life of plants
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

The illustrative embodiments provide an apparatus for performing horticultural tasks comprising a processor unit, a first number of communication links from the processor unit to a plurality of databases stored on a number of data storage devices, and a second number of communication links from the processor unit to a diagnostic system. The processor unit is configured to execute the diagnostic system and access the plurality of databases on the number of data storage devices to identify a pest problem and generate a treatment plan to address the pest problem.

Claims

1. An apparatus for performing horticultural tasks, the apparatus comprising:

a processor unit;

a first number of communication links from the processor unit to a plurality of databases stored on a number of data storage devices; and

a second number of communication links from the processor unit to a diagnostic system, the processor unit configured to execute the diagnostic system and access the plurality of databases on the number of data storage devices to identify a pest problem and generate a treatment plan to address the pest problem.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of databases includes data about a number of pests, pest treatments, and information about a local area.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor unit is located remote from a mobile utility vehicle performing the treatment plan.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor unit is located on a mobile utility vehicle.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of data storage devices are distributed across a number of locations.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic system further comprises:

a mission planner configured to generate a number of mission types used to generate the treatment plan.

7. A vehicle comprising:

a machine controller;

a steering system;

a propulsion system;

a link for receiving input from a number of sensors and

a diagnostic system configured to identify pest problems and generate treatment plans to address the pest problems identified,

wherein the machine controller is connected to the diagnostic system and wherein the machine controller uses the diagnostic system to identify the pest problem for an area.

8. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the machine controller identifies the pest problem for the area using the diagnostic system and information obtained from the number of sensors on the vehicle.

9. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the diagnostic system further comprises a plurality of databases having data about a number of pests, pest treatments, and a local area.

10. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the machine controller receives data from a plurality of sensors for the vehicle to form received data and generates a treatment plan for the area using the received data and the diagnostic system.

11. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the diagnostic system identifies at least one of a pest variety and an environmental condition around an area.

12. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the number of sensors comprises at least one of a global positioning system, structured light sensor, infrared camera, visible light camera, soil moisture sensor, rain sensor, temperature gauge, wind sensor, ambient light sensor, microphone, and digital signal processor.

13. The vehicle of claim 7 further comprising:

a cartridge receptor configured to receive and secure a number of cartridges.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein a cartridge contents identifier is received from the number of cartridges and compared to a cartridge contents identifier provided by the diagnostic system.

15. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein a cartridge contents identifier is received from the number of cartridges and authenticated by an authenticator of the machine controller.

16. The vehicle of claim 13 further comprising:

a resource application system configured to apply a number of resources from the number of cartridges to a number of surfaces.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the resource application system does not apply the number of resources if at least one of a cartridge contents identifier received from the number of cartridges is not the same as a cartridge contents identifier provided by the diagnostic system, and the cartridge contents identifier received fails authentication by an authenticator of the machine controller.

18. A system for managing horticultural needs, the system comprising:

a mission planner configured to receive information and analyze the information to identify a number of pest problems and a number of treatment options;

a horticultural knowledge base having information about a number of pests;

a logistics database having information about a number of pest treatments; and

a home site database having information about a given area.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the mission planner processes the number of treatment options against the logistics database to generate a number of implementation options.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the mission planner processes the number of implementation options against the home site database to identify a subset of implementation options.

21. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

an authorizing agent, wherein the authorizing agent receives a subset of implementation options from the mission planner and uses the subset of implementation options to generate an treatment plan for treatment of the pest problems identified.