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US 12,622,426 B2Granted
System and method for field treatment and monitoring
AssigneePrecision AI Inc.
InventorsDaniel McCann, Wessam Gad El-Rab, Mark Wileniec, Randy Mortensen, Anthony J Arkles
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods of using an unmanned aerial or land vehicle (e.g. drone) for agricultural and/or pest control applications, such as on farms, golf courses, parks, and/or along roadways, power lines, etc. The system may have a drone receiving a pesticide from a base station dispensing the pesticide and a holding tank supplying the base station with the pesticide.
Claims38
A field treatment system comprising:
- at least one autonomous drone receiving at least one pesticide;
- the at least one autonomous drone comprises a data collection system, a navigation system, a propulsion system, a targeting system, a treatment system, and a power source;
- the data collection system providing data and comprises:
- at least one positioning sensor, and at least one camera;
- the at least one positioning sensor is selected from at least one of:
- an altimeter, an ultrasonic sensor, a radar, a lidar, an accelerometer, a global positioning sensor, and the at least one camera;
- a base station dispensing the at least one pesticide;
- and
- at least one holding tank supplying the base station with the at least one pesticide,
- wherein the navigation system is operative to determine a travel path for the at least one autonomous drone, the travel path having the at least one autonomous drone passing over all of a field,
- wherein the propulsion systems is operative to propel the at least one autonomous drone along the travel path, while the at least one camera takes images of the field along the travel path and the images are processed to identify a weed in the field,
- and wherein, when the targeting system identifies the weed as a target along the travel path, a spray vector is calculated and the at least one autonomous drone is positioned in accordance with the spray vector to spray the weed with the at least one pesticide via the at least one spray nozzle.
9 more elements
A system for monitoring a field comprising:
- at least one autonomous drone having a data collection system, a navigation system, a propulsion system, a targeting system, at least one spray nozzle, and a power source;
- wherein the at least one autonomous drone passes over the field, along a travel path that passes over all of the field, collecting data;
- the data collection system collects the data from:
- at least one positioning sensor, and at least one camera;
- and the at least one positioning sensor is selected from at least one of:
- an altimeter, an ultrasonic sensor, a radar, a lidar, an accelerometer, a global positioning sensor, and the at least one camera,
- wherein the at least one camera takes images of the field along the travel path as the at least one autonomous drone passes along the travel path, and the images are processed to identify a weed in the field;
- wherein, when the targeting system identifies the weed as a target along the travel path, a spray vector is calculated and the at least one autonomous drone is positioned in accordance with the spray vector to spray the weed with the at least one pesticide via the at least one spray nozzle.
5 more elements
A method for field treatment comprises:
- collecting data with a data collection system comprising:
- at least one positioning sensor, and at least one camera;
- the at least one positioning sensor is selected from at least one of:
- an altimeter, an ultrasonic sensor, a radar, a lidar, an accelerometer, a global positioning sensor, and the at least one camera;
- processing the data by a navigation system to produce a travel path for at least one autonomous drone wherein the travel path passes over all of a field, wherein the at least one autonomous drone includes at least one spray nozzle;
- propelling the at least one autonomous drone by a propulsion system according to the travel path, while the at least one camera takes images of the field along the travel path and the images are processed to identify a weed in the field;
- and
- when the targeting system identifies the weed as a target along the travel path, a spray vector is calculated and the at least one autonomous drone is positioned in accordance with the spray vector to spray the weed with the at least one pesticide.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.