Crop monitoring system and method

A monitoring method to determine one or more parameters associated with harvested items, the method comprising:

• generating image data associated with the harvested items using a camera module having a field of view, the camera module being secured by a mounting bracket to a harvester such that a conveyor of the harvester is within the field of view of the camera module;
• determining and outputting location data representative of a geographical location of the harvester using a location sub-system;
• receiving the image data and the location data at a processing unit;
• determining one or more parameters associated with the harvested items at the processing unit based on the received image data;
• and
• recording, using the processing unit, the one or more parameters in association with the location data on a computer readable medium,
• wherein the camera module is configured to determine depth data for the harvested items, and wherein the method further comprises:
• depth filtering the image data, at the processing unit using the depth data, to exclude or delete parts of the image data which are more than a maximum distance away from the camera module, and wherein the maximum distance away from the camera module is determined in a calibration stage which comprises:
• determining around at least part of a perimeter of one of the harvested items, using the processing unit, the distance from the camera module to an outer part of the harvested item;
• determining, using the processing unit, the distance from the camera module to a central part of the harvested item;
• and
• approximating, using the processing unit, the distance to the conveyor as being the distance to the outer part plus the distance between the outer part and the central part.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processing unit, cause a method of determining one or more parameters associated with harvested items to be performed including:

• generating image data associated with the harvested items using a camera module having a field of view, the camera module being secured by a mounting bracket to a harvester such that a conveyor of the harvester is within the field of view of the camera module;
• determining and outputting location data representative of a geographical location of the harvester using a location sub-system;
• receiving the image data and the location data at a processing unit;
• determining one or more parameters associated with the harvested items at the processing unit based on the received image data;
• and
• recording, using the processing unit, the one or more parameters in association with the location data on a computer readable medium,
• wherein the camera module is configured to determine depth data for the harvested items, and the method includes:
• depth filtering the image data, at the processing unit using the depth data, to exclude or delete parts of the image data which are more than a maximum distance away from the camera module, and wherein the maximum distance away from the camera module is determined in a calibration stage which comprises:
• determining around at least part of a perimeter of one of the harvested items, using the processing unit, the distance from the camera module to an outer part of the harvested item;
• determining, using the processing unit, the distance from the camera module to a central part of the harvested item;
• and
• approximating, using the processing unit, the distance to the conveyor as being the distance to the outer part plus the difference in distance between the outer part and the central part.