US 12,745,689 B2 · System and method for intelligent soil sampling

Abstract

A system and method for soil sampling utilizing a robotic system that determines sampling points through artificial intelligence algorithms. The robotic system comprises a platform with sampling modules that communicates with a server hosting a localization module. The localization module processes satellite imagery from multiple spectral channels and high-resolution drone images for a given parcel, generates sampling zones, and determines coordinates of optimal representative points for efficient land sampling. Intelligent sampling proceeds through several steps: sampling limits are defined and a mask is applied to the plot, a pixel matrix of vegetation indices is formed and normalized, and a K-means algorithm is applied across multiple spatial resolutions. The algorithm calculates the probability that each pixel belongs to one of the K zones, accounting for surrounding pixels across varying spatial resolutions. A consensus step determines final zones and estimates pixel affiliation probabilities based on local histograms of the matrix entities.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A robotic system (100) comprising:

a robotic platform (101) configured to obtain a soil sample using a soil sampling module (102), prepare the soil sample with a sample preparation module (105), and analyze the soil sample with a sensor analysis module (108);
and
a robot localization module (113) configured to:
(a) receive user input to define a parcel boundary (301);
(b) determine a region of interest (ROI) (302) within the parcel boundary (301);
(c) compute vegetation indices (304) for pixels of the ROI (302);
(d) construct and normalize a data matrix (305) having pixel rows and vegetation index columns, discarding non-vegetation pixels;
(e) apply a clustering algorithm (309) on a normalized data matrix (307) followed by iterative spatial filtration across multiple spatial resolutions beginning with a 1×1 resolution and continuing until a threshold resolution (314) is reached;
and
(f) generate a decision map (317) assigning pixels to sampling zones,
wherein the robotic platform (101) is further configured to position the soil sampling module (102) according to the sampling zones defined in the decision map (317).

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for intelligent soil sampling

Life of this patent

System and method for intelligent soil sampling

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14