Apparatus and methods for in-field data collection and sampling

A method for performing in-field data acquisition regarding one or more characteristic of at least one of a plurality of plants within a field, said method comprising:

• mapping, in real-time, a geospatial location of at least one plant growing in a field, utilizing a global positioning system (GPS) of a mobile analytics system, as a mobile platform of the mobile analytics system traverses the field;
• acquiring, in real-time, various data associated with the at least one plant as the mobile platform traverses the field utilizing various devices of an analytics suite of the mobile analytics system, wherein the data comprises at least image data of the at least one plant acquired via at least one imaging device of the analytics suite, wherein acquiring, in real-time, various data for the at least one plant as the mobile platform traverses the field further comprises:
• collecting at least one of plant tissue samples from selected plants, air samples from at least one location within the field, and soil samples from at least one location within the field, and
• analyzing the acquired data to determine at least one environmental characteristic at at least one location in the field;
• associating and storing, in real-time, location data with at least one bit of data acquired, via a data processing system of the mobile analytics system;
• analyzing, in real-time, the acquired data, via the data processing system, to determine at least one of:
• at least one genotypic characteristic of the at least one plant,
• at least one phenotypic characteristic of the at least one plant;
• and
• at least one plant performance characteristic of the at least one plant;
• determining, in real-time, via the data processing system, whether a responsive course of action is needed to be implemented by the mobile analytics system based on the analyzed data;
• carrying out, in real-time, via the mobile analytics system, the determined responsive course of action when it is determined that a responsive course of action is needed to be implemented;
• recording and storing, via the data processing system, historical data each time the mobile analytics system operationally traverses the field, the historical data comprising:
• the image, phenotypic and genotypic data for each respective traversal of the field;
• data regarding the collected samples for each respective traversal of the field;
• the resulting data analysis for each respective traversal of the field;
• any course of action determined and taken for each respective traversal of the field;
• and
• the location data for each respective traversal of the field;
• and
• utilizing the historical data during subsequent real-time data analyzes by the data processing system during subsequent operational traverses of the field by the mobile analytics system.