# US 11,908,074 B2 · Method of identifying and displaying areas of lodged crops

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- Number: US 11,908,074 B2
- Document ID: US11908074B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/273,015
- Filed: 2019-09-03
- Published: 2021-10-21
- Granted: 2024-02-20
- Earliest claimed: 2018-09-04
- Applicants: Viliam Kiss
- Inventors: Viliam Kiss
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11908074B2

## CPC

- G06Q 50/00: Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism (healthcare informatics G16H)
- G06T 17/05: Geographic models
- G01C 11/025: {by scanning the object}
- G01S 17/894: Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar
- G06Q 50/02: Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining
- G06T 7/521: from laser ranging, e.g. using interferometry; from the projection of structured light
- G06V 20/188: {Vegetation}
- G06T 2207/10028: Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
- G06T 2207/10032: Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing
- G06T 2207/30188: Vegetation; Agriculture
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- G01C: MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY (measuring liquid level G01F; radio navigation, determining distance or velocity by use of propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effects, propagation time, of radio waves, analogous arrangements using other waves G01S)
- G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING

## Abstract

A three-dimensional surface of the upper cover of the crops is recognized and recorded by a contactless scanning from above the field; a referential height h of the crop's stem is determined and the three-dimensional surface of the field from which the crops grow is determined. A reached height x of the vegetation for the individual points is computed by comparison of the three-dimensional surface of the upper cover of the crops with the three-dimensional surface of the field, whereby in case the reached height x of the vegetation is smaller than the referential height h of the crop's stem this difference between the reached height x of the vegetation and the referential height h of the stem determines in a given point of the field the angle β of lodging pursuant to the goniometric function. A classification of the grains into classes depending on the angle α of the slope of the lodged grain in interval 0° to 90° is realized, whereby this results in computation of the heights (h) of the grain spikes pursuant to relation x(0 to n)=h·sin α(0 to n) for the creation of the digital vector map with the customizable levels of the lodging of the grains.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of identification and display of areas of a lodged crops field, the method comprising the steps of:
recognizing a three-dimensional surface of an upper cover of the crops;
recording by using a contactless scanning of the field from above;
determining a referential height h of the crop's stem;
determining a three-dimensional surface of the field from which the crops grow;
computing a reached height x of a vegetation for individual points of the field by a comparison of the three-dimensional surface of the upper cover of the crops with the three-dimensional surface of the field,
wherein in a case the reached height x of the vegetation is smaller than the referential height h of the crop's stem this difference between the reached height x of the vegetation and the referential height h of the stem determines in the give point of the field an angle β of lodging pursuant to goniometric function.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein the slope of deviation of the stem from a vertical position is computed as β=90−sin−1 (x/h).

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein the referential height h of the crop's stem is determined as a mean of multiple manual measurements of the stem's length, preferably the mean from at least 5 measurements, especially preferably the mean from at least 15 measurements.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to the claim 1, wherein the referential height h of the crop's stem is determined by the measurement of a height of a step between the three-dimensional surface of the upper cover of the crops and the three-dimensional surface of the field at an edge of the field.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein the referential height h of the crop's stem is determined by means of an altitude scanning of the surface of the field from above in places where this is visible from an above view between the stems of the crop and by means of the scanning of the upper cover of the crops in an adjacent place of the field, preferably the maximal differences between the measured heights are sought in this process.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 3, wherein a tolerance when comparing the reached height x of the vegetation with the referential height h of the crop's stem is identical or higher than a measurement error of the referential height h or a computational error of the referential height h.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein the three-dimensional surface of the field is scanned and its model is produced before a sprouting of the crops and this model is stored for purposes of later comparison with the three-dimensional model of the upper cover.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein groups of the points of the field of the crops for chosen intervals of the angles pursuant to the computed slope of the stem in the given point are created, whereby the intervals of the angles have a range at least 5 degrees, and subsequently a display for the respective groups of the angles is created.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein groups of the points of the field of the crops for chosen intervals of the angles pursuant to the computed slope of the stem in the given point are created, whereby the intervals of the angles have a range at least 5 degrees, and subsequently a surface for the respective groups of the angles is computed.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein:
a referential digital terrain model (DTM1) is produced by an air scanning of the surface of a geodetic locality before sowing of a grain, or a referential digital terrain model (DTM2) is produced by the air scanning or a laser scanning of the surface of the geodetic locality in an actual state or a corrected digital terrain model (OFFSET DTM2) which stems from the referential digital terrain model (DTM2) with a used parameter (m) of a depth of an offset is computed;
the air scanning or the laser scanning of an area of the surfaces of the grain in the geodetic locality in the actual state is realized, which results in a digital model of the grains surface (DSM2);
the air scanning or the laser scanning of the area of the surfaces of the grain in the geodetic locality is used to measure the standard height of grain spikes or the standard height of the grain spikes is measured manually;
hardware computational devices produce a data matrix (DSM) of the surfaces of the grains by means of a photogrammetric method and the hardware computational devices produce a referential data terrain matrix (DTM) from the referential digital terrain model (DTM1) or (DTM2) or from the corrected referential digital terrain model (OFFSET DTM2);
a classification of the grains into classes depending on an angle α of a slope of the lodged grains in an interval 0° to 90° is realized, whereby a result of this is a computation of the heights h of the grain spikes pursuant to relation x(0 to n)=h·sin α (0 to n) for purposes of a creation of a digital vector map with customizable levels of lodging of the grains.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 10, wherein a difference between the data matrix (DSM) of the surfaces of the grains and the referential data terrain matrix (DTM) is realized by a matrix method, whereby the result of this is a digital model of the areas of the lodged grains field for the levels of the lodging of the grains customizable from the interval of the classification classes x(0 to n).

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 1, wherein wherein the three-dimensional upper cover of the crops is scanned and recorded by an unmanned aerial vehicle.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 10, wherein the surface of the field and/or the surface of the upper cover of the crops is scanned photogrammetrically and/or by means of the laser scanning and/or by means of a lidar.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of identification and display of the areas of the lodged crops field according to claim 13, wherein the surfaces on which, according to geodetic information, there are objects making it impossible for the crops to grow, are excluded from the data scanned from above.