Method for determining field readiness using soil moisture modeling

• US 7,313,478 B1
• Filed: 06/08/2006
• Issued: 12/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Anderson, Noel Wayne, Stelford, Mark William, Faivre, Stephen Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): McElheny, Jr., Donald E
• Application Number:
  US11/449,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: 702/2, 702/5, 702/3, 701/50, 701/208, 701/209, 701/211, 701/212
• US Class Current: 702/2
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture

Abstract

A method for determining field readiness using moisture modeling of a plurality of fields in a region of interest includes (a) generating a detailed set of moisture factors covering a plurality of scenarios for each field element of the plurality of field elements for a particular field; (b) repeating act (a) for each field of the region of interest; (c) generating a general set of moisture factors for a particular field of the plurality of fields to be applied to each field element of the plurality of field elements in the particular field; (d) repeating act (c) for each field of the plurality of fields in the region of interest; and (e) estimating soil moisture for each field element in the region of interest based on the detailed set of moisture factors and the general set of moisture factors.

Claims

1. A method for determining field readiness using moisture modeling of a plurality of fields in a region of interest, each field of said plurality of fields being divided into a plurality of field elements, comprising:

(a) generating a detailed set of moisture factors covering a plurality of scenarios for each field element of said plurality of field elements for a particular field;

(b) repeating act (a) for each field of said region of interest;

(c) generating a general set of moisture factors for a particular field of said plurality of fields to be applied to each field element of said plurality of field elements in said particular field;

(d) repeating act (c) for each field of said plurality of fields in said region of interest; and

(e) estimating soil moisture for each field element in said region of interest based on said detailed set of moisture factors and said general set of moisture factors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein acts (a) and (b) are performed only once for each field element.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing a soil moisture map based on a result of said estimating soil moisture.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising processing said soil moisture map and a soil type map to generate at least one of a scouting mission plan and a soil trafficability index.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said soil trafficability index is used to form a soil trafficability map.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

executing said scouting mission plan to generate ground truthing information representing a physical sampling of field elements in said region of interest;

comparing said ground truthing information with said soil trafficability index to determine the accuracy of said soil trafficability index.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating an application mission plan if said soil trafficability index is accurate.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said executing said scouting mission plan is performed by a physical inspection of at least one field element in a subset of said plurality of fields in said region of interest.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said ground truthing information includes human observations and sensor data.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising performing a learning operation to modify said soil trafficability index if said soil trafficability index is not accurate.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one field of said plurality of fields is less than one square kilometer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said detailed set of moisture factors includes a set of soil element inflow factors and a set of soil element outflow factors.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said general set of moisture factors includes a pre-event soil moisture factor based on at least one of historical weather, forecasted weather, and a regional soils model.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said general set of moisture factors includes at least one of a current ground cover factor and a current crop factor.

15. A method for generating a scouting mission plan, comprising:

(a) dividing each field of a plurality of fields into a plurality of field elements;

(b) generating a detailed set of moisture factors covering a plurality of scenarios for each field element of said plurality of field elements for a particular field;

(c) repeating act (b) for each field of said region of interest;

(d) generating a general set of moisture factors for a particular field of said plurality of fields to be applied to each field element of said plurality of field elements in said particular field;

(e) repeating act (d) for each field of said plurality of fields in said region of interest;

(f) estimating soil moisture for each field element in said region of interest based on said detailed set of moisture factors and said general set of moisture factors;

(g) constructing a soil moisture map based on a result of said estimating soil moisture; and

(h) processing said soil moisture map and a soil type map to generate said scouting mission plan.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said scouting mission plan provides to a user a prioritized list of fields in the region of interest in order of field readiness.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said detailed set of moisture factors includes a set of soil element inflow factors and a set of soil element outflow factors.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein said general set of moisture factors includes a pre-event soil moisture factor based on at least one of historical weather, forecasted weather, and a regional soils model.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein said general set of moisture factors includes at least one of a current ground cover factor and a current crop factor.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein at least one field of said plurality of fields is less than one square kilometer.