Normalizing counts of plant-parts-of-interest

A system comprising one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, in response to execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• obtain a plurality of digital images acquired by a range-capable vision sensor carried by a ground-based vehicle at a constant height over at least first and second plants, wherein differing heights of the first and second plants cause tops of the first and second plants to be first and second distances, respectively, from the range-capable vision sensor as it passes overhead at the constant height;
• process one or more of the digital images depicting the top of the first plant;
• based on the processing:
• estimate a distance of the range-capable vision sensor to the first plant,
• estimate a first height of the first plant, and
• determine a count of visible plant-parts-of-interest of the first plant that were captured within a field of view of the range-capable vision sensor;
• based on the estimated first distance, normalize the count of visible plant-parts-of-interest of the first plant with another count of visible plant-parts-of-interest determined from one or more of the digital images depicting the top of the second plant;
• and
• predict a crop yield using the normalized count of visible plant-parts-of-interest and the first height of the first plant.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution of the instructions by a processor, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

• obtaining a plurality of digital images acquired by a range-capable vision sensor carried by a ground-based vehicle at a constant height over at least first and second plants, wherein differing heights of the first and second plants cause tops of the first and second plants to be first and second distances, respectively, from the range-capable vision sensor as it passes overhead at the constant height;
• processing one or more of the digital images depicting the top of the first plant;
• based on the processing:
• estimating the first distance of the range-capable vision sensor to the first plant,
• estimating a first height of the first plant, and
• determining a count of visible plant-parts-of-interest of the first plant that were captured within a field of view of the range-capable vision sensor;
• based on the estimated first distance, normalizing the count of visible plant-parts-of-interest of the first plant with another count of visible plant-parts-of-interest determined from one or more of the digital images depicting the top of the second plant;
• and
• predicting a crop yield using the normalized count of visible plant-parts-of-interest and the first height of the first plant.