System and method for retrieving bales from a field

A bale retrieval system comprising:

• an un-manned aerial vehicle operable to fly over a field;
• an camera mounted on the un-manned aerial vehicle and operable to capture an image of the field;
• a GPS receiver mounted on the un-manned aerial vehicle and operable to determine a position of the un-manned aerial vehicle over the field at the time the imaging device captures an image;
• a controller in communication with the camera and the GPS receiver, the controller including a processor and a memory having a bale mapping algorithm stored thereon, wherein the processor is operable to execute the bale mapping algorithm to:
• identify a bale included in an image captured by the camera;
• determine a location of the bale identified in the image with the GPS receiver;
• and
• communicate the location of the bale in the field to a bale retriever.

A method of retrieving formed bales of crop material from a field, the method comprising:

• providing an aerial vehicle having an imaging device, a bale identifier, and a position locator;
• flying the aerial vehicle over the field;
• capturing an image of the field, with the imaging device;
• identifying a bale in the captured image of the field, with the bale identifier;
• determining a location of the identified bale with the position locator;
• and
• communicating the location of the bale to a retriever.