Systems and methods of seed production plant counting using aerial images

A system of hybrid corn seed production plant population counting in a hybrid corn seed production field that includes a plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants, comprising:

• an unmanned aerial vehicle having at least one camera to obtain aerial images of the hybrid corn seed production field;
• a tangible computer-accessible storage medium on the unmanned aerial vehicle that stores the aerial images of the hybrid corn seed production field obtained by the at least one camera;
• a processor to:
• a) use the aerial images to identify the plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants in the aerial images;
• b) for each one of the aerial images, analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants;
• c) for each one of the aerial images, classify each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants as either male or female based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants;
• and
• d) for each one of the aerial images, produce a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the male rows or produce a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the female rows.

A method of hybrid corn seed production plant population counting in a hybrid corn seed production field that includes a plurality of rows of male and female hybrid corn seed production plants, comprising:

• flying an unmanned aerial vehicle over the hybrid corn seed production field;
• capturing aerial images of the hybrid corn seed production field using a camera on the unmanned aerial vehicle as the unmanned aerial vehicle is flown over the hybrid corn seed production field and storing the aerial images;
• processing the aerial images using one or more computer processors to produce, for each one of the aerial images, a count of the number of male hybrid corn seed production plants or produce a count of the number of female hybrid corn seed production plants;
• storing the counts on a tangible computer-accessible storage medium;
• wherein processing the aerial images includes for each one of the aerial images:
• a) identifying the plurality of rows of male and female hybrid corn seed production plants;
• b) for each one of the aerial images, analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants;
• c) classifying each one of the identified rows as either male or female based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants;
• d) producing the count of the number of male hybrid corn seed production plants in the identified male rows or produce the count of the number of female hybrid corn seed production plants in the identified female rows.

A method of hybrid corn seed production plant population counting in a hybrid corn seed production field that includes a plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants, comprising:

• collecting a plurality of aerial images of the hybrid corn seed production field using a camera on an unmanned aerial vehicle that is flown over the hybrid corn seed production field;
• transferring the aerial images from the unmanned aerial vehicle to a ground control station;
• processing the aerial images in the ground control station using one or more computer processors of the ground control station, with the one or more computer processors:
• a) for each one of the aerial images, identifying the plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants;
• b) for each one of the aerial images, classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants as either male or female;
• and
• c) for each one of the aerial images, producing a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the male rows or producing a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the female rows;
• storing the counts produced in c) on a tangible computer-accessible storage medium of the ground control station;
• associating each one of the counts produced in c) with a corresponding geolocation;
• producing a spot map, a zone map, or a heat map using the geolocations;
• and
• displaying the spot map, the zone map or the heat map on a display of the ground control station;
• wherein prior to classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants, analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants;
• and
• classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants as either male or female based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants.