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US 10,244,675 B2Granted
Field robot
AssigneeVeritas FC LLC
InventorGavin LaRowe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Autonomous mobile field robots may be used to maintain fields. An autonomous mobile field robot may perform soil mechanics with environment sensors at a sub-region and store the soil mechanics. The robot may further determine soil temperature of the sub-region and store the soil temperature. The soil mechanics and the soil temperature are sent to a monitoring server via a radio access network for storage and analysis. The parameters for the soil of the sub-region may be adjusted based on the soil mechanics of the sub-region with the chemicals from chemical storage units. The robot may return to a home station to refill one or more of the water or chemicals.
Claims20
An autonomous mobile field robot configured to be used in a field having sub-regions, the field robot comprising:
- one or more environment sensors;
- a global positioning system (GPS) receiver;
- one or more collapsible set of wings having a first position to let light through to at least one of the sub-regions and a second position to block the light and to provide shade to the at least one sub-region;
- one or more chemical storage units for adjusting one or more parameters of a soil of the sub-regions;
- a processor;
- a network interface coupled to the processor configured to enable communications via a radio access network;
- a storage device for content and programming;
- a program stored in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the field robot to perform acts comprising:
- performing soil mechanics with the one or more environment sensors at each sub-region and storing the soil mechanics in the storage device;
- determining a soil temperature of each sub-region and storing the soil temperature in the storage device;
- sending the soil mechanics and the soil temperature for each sub-region to a monitoring server via the radio access network for storage and analysis;
- adjusting one or more parameters of the soil of a sub-region based on the soil mechanics of the corresponding sub-region with the chemicals from the one or more chemical storage units;
- determining whether to provide shade to the sub-region based on at least one of the soil mechanics and the soil temperature corresponding to the sub-region;
- and
- setting the one or more collapsible set of wings to the second position to provide the shade to the sub-region in response to determining to provide the shade.
12 more elements
An agricultural automation system comprising:
- a plurality of wirelessly interconnected field robots;
- a home station configured to refill at least one of (i) water and (ii) chemicals of at least some of the plurality of field robots;
- a remote monitoring server that is wirelessly interconnected to the field robots;
- wherein:
- a first field robot of the plurality of field robots is configured to:
- perform soil mechanics with one or more of its environmental sensors on each sub-region of a field;
- determine a soil temperature of each sub-region;
- and
- send the soil mechanics and soil temperature of each sub-region to the monitoring server over a radio access network;
- a second field robot of the plurality of field robots is configured to:
- receive instructions from the monitoring server based on the soil mechanics and the soil temperature of a sub-region of the agricultural from the first field robot;
- irrigate the sub-region of the field by releasing water carried on the second field robot, based on the received instructions from the monitoring server;
- expand one or more collapsible set of wings of the second field robot at the sub-region based on the instructions from the monitoring server;
- adjust one or more parameters of the soil of the sub-region based on the instructions from the monitoring server;
- and
- return to the home station to refill at least one of (i) the water, and (ii) the chemicals of the second field robot;
- and
- the monitoring server is configured to:
- determine whether to provide shade to the sub-region based on at least one of the soil mechanics and the soil temperature corresponding to the sub-region;
- and
- send the instructions to the second field robot to expand the one or more collapsible set of wings in response to determining to provide the shade.
18 more elements
A method of operating a field robot having one or more environmental sensors and one or more chemical storage units, the method comprising:
- performing soil mechanics with the one or more environment sensors on each sub-region;
- determining a soil temperature of each sub-region;
- sending the soil mechanics and the soil temperature for each sub-region to a monitoring server via a radio access network for storage and analysis;
- irrigating each sub-region of the field by releasing water carried on the field robot, based on the soil mechanics and the soil temperature of each sub-region, respectively;
- adjusting one or more parameters of the soil of a sub-region based on the soil mechanics of the corresponding sub-region with chemicals from one or more chemical storage units of the field robot;
- determining whether to provide shade to the sub-region based on the soil mechanics and soil temperature corresponding to the sub-region;
- changing a position of one or more collapsible set of wings included on the field robot from a vertical position that lets light to the sub-region to a horizontal position that blocks the light to provide shade to the sub-region, wherein the changing of the position is in response to determining to provide the shade to the sub-region;
- and
- returning to a home station to refill at least one of (i) the water and (ii) the chemicals.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.