Machine-learning virtualization-enabled harvesting

An automatic harvesting system comprising:

• a harvesting program system comprising:
• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to perform operations:
• a) receiving current mushroom bed data corresponding to a mushroom bed including growing mushrooms at a current time;
• b) processing the current mushroom bed data using a mushroom bed model to generate a current virtual mushroom bed corresponding to a current state of the mushroom bed at the current time, wherein the mushroom bed model is trained:
• b.1) using labelled training mushroom bed data including known values of the mushroom bed;
• and
• b.2) using a previously-generated virtual mushroom bed corresponding to a predicted state of the mushroom bed at the current time;
• c) generating using the mushroom bed model a predicted virtual mushroom bed corresponding to a predicted state of the mushroom bed at a future time;
• d) generating a current harvesting program based on the predicted virtual mushroom bed, comprising:
• generating a plurality of proposed harvesting programs;
• for each of the proposed harvesting programs:
• using the mushroom bed model to generate a corresponding predicted virtual mushroom bed corresponding to the proposed harvesting program;
• and
• calculating a corresponding outcome based on the proposed harvesting program and the corresponding predicted virtual mushroom bed;
• and
• selecting as the current harvesting program the proposed harvesting program corresponding to the outcomes best matching predefined optimal outcome parameters;
• and
• e) transmitting the current harvesting program for automatic performance by harvesting equipment on the mushroom bed;
• harvesting equipment operable automatically to perform the current harvesting program on the mushroom bed and to collect the current mushroom bed data corresponding to the mushroom bed;
• and
• a harvesting equipment controller:
• connected to the harvesting equipment and operable automatically to cause the harvesting equipment to perform the current harvesting program on the mushroom bed and to collect the current mushroom bed data corresponding to the mushroom bed;
• and
• communicatively coupled to the harvesting program system to transmit automatically the current mushroom bed data to the harvesting program system and to receive automatically the current harvesting program;
• wherein:
• the harvesting equipment comprises:
• a harvesting device operable to perform the current harvesting program;
• and
• sensors operable to collect the current mushroom bed data;
• the current mushroom bed data comprises a stream of mushroom bed images;
• and
• the sensors comprise an optical imager operable to collect the stream of mushroom bed images;
• the mushroom bed data comprises respective collection locations of the mushroom bed images, wherein the collection locations designate corresponding locations on the mushroom bed of a field of view of the optical imager;
• the harvesting equipment controller is operable automatically to control the optical imager to collect the stream of mushroom bed images while moving the harvesting device along a path from a first location in the mushroom bed to a second location in the mushroom bed;
• the current mushroom bed data comprises images collected by the optical imager along the path between the first location and the second location;
• and
• the harvesting equipment controller is operable automatically to control the optical imager to collect the stream of mushroom bed images continuously while the harvesting device is in motion along the path from the first location in the mushroom bed to the second location in the mushroom bed.