Method and Apparatus for Automated Plant Necrosis
AssigneeBlue River Technology Inc.
InventorLee Kamp Redden
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of real-time plant selection and removal from a plant field including capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field, segmenting the first image into regions indicative of individual plants within the first section, selecting the optimal plants for retention from the first image based on the first image and the previously thinned plant field sections, sending instructions to the plant removal mechanism for removal of the plants corresponding to the unselected regions of the first image from the second section before the machine passes the unselected regions, and repeating the aforementioned steps for a second section of the plant field adjacent the first section in the direction of machine travel.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- accessing an image of a field comprising a plurality of plants, the image comprising a plurality of pixels and captured by a farming machine moving through the field;
- segmenting the image into a plurality of regions, each region comprising pixels representing a plant of the plurality of plants;
- classifying, by a computer, pixels in a first region of the plurality of regions as a first plant of the plurality of plants by identifying plant features in the pixels;
- generating treatment instructions for the first plant of the plurality of plants based on identified features of the first plant, the treatment instructions indicating a directional energy treatment configured to remove the first plant from the field;
- generating, using the treatment instructions, the directional energy treatment with an elimination mechanism of the farming machine to eliminate the first plant from the field as the farming machine moves through the field.
A farming machine comprising:
- a camera system configured to capture an image of a field of plant as the farming machine travels through the field of plants;
- an elimination mechanism configured to generate directional energy treatments to eliminate plants in the field;
- one or more processors physically attached to the farming machine;
- a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- access, from the camera system, an image of a field, the image comprising a plurality of pixels representing a plurality of plants in the field;
- segment the image into a plurality of regions, each region comprising pixels representing a plant of the plurality of plants;
- classify, by a computer, pixels in a first region of the plurality of regions as a first plant of the plurality of plants by identifying plant features in the pixels;
- generate treatment instructions for the first plant of the plurality of plants based on identified features of the first plant, the treatment instructions indicating a directional energy treatment configured to remove the first plant from the field;
- generate, using the treatment instructions and the elimination mechanism, the directional energy treatment to eliminate the first plant from the field as the farming machine moves through the field.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.