Granted Patent B2

US 12,201,044 · App. 17/079,251 · Granted Jan 21, 2025

Inventors: Thomas Palomares (San Francisco, CA); Sébastien Boyer (San Francisco, CA); Arthur Flajolet (San Francisco, CA); Eric Stahl-David (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: FarmWise Labs, Inc.

A01B39/18G05D1/0246

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. A method for executing agricultural actions on an agricultural field comprising:

determining a nominal blade separation distance for a weeding module of an autonomous agricultural system;

at the autonomous agricultural system, while traversing the agricultural field:

detecting a first target plant aligned with the weeding module;

autonomously controlling a first weeding action based on a location of the first target plant, comprising:

in response to the first target plant approaching the weeding module, autonomously triggering the weeding module to open a set of weeding blades to the nominal blade separation distance; and

in response to the first target plant passing the weeding module, triggering the weeding module to close the set of weeding blades; and

based on sensor feedback, characterizing a motion for the first weeding action;

detecting disruption of the first target plant;

responsive to detecting disruption of the first target plant, selectively requesting remote assistance at a remote computing system;

providing feedback to the remote computing system comprising: the motion for the first weeding action and at least one image of the first target plant;

responsive to the feedback, adjusting the nominal blade separation distance for the weeding module; and

at the autonomous agriculture system, controlling a second weeding action based on the adjusted nominal blade separation distance.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor feedback comprises a sequence of images captured during the first weeding action, wherein the motion comprises a centroid motion of the first target across the sequence of images.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising: determining terminal weeding associated with the first target plant based on satisfaction of a motion threshold.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein providing feedback to the remote computing system occurs responsive to the determination of terminal weeding associated with the first target plant.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing feedback to the remote computing system further comprises: streaming video along with a current blade separation distance.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to the second weeding action: resetting the weeding module from the remote computing system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the nominal blade separation distance comprises:

at the autonomous agriculture vehicle, automatically calculating the adjusted nominal blade separation distance based on the sensor feedback; and

prompting verification by a remote human operator via the remote computing system.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein prompting verification occurs responsive to satisfaction of a threshold deviation a nominal parameter value.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feedback comprises: the location of the first target plant, a plant type of the first target plant, a plant size of the first target plant, and a set of weeding metrics.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of weeding metrics comprises a terminal ratio.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of weeding metrics comprises a count of weeding actions.

12. A method comprising:

at an autonomous agriculture system which is traversing in an agricultural field:

detecting a first target plant aligned with an actuator;

autonomously controlling the actuator based on a location of the first target plant and a set of control parameters; and

based on sensor feedback, characterizing a motion of the actuator;

detecting disruption of the first target plant;

responsive to detecting disruption of the first target plant, providing, to a remote computing system comprising, feedback with a request for remote assistance, the feedback comprising: the motion and at least one image of the first target plant;

responsive to the feedback, adjusting the set of control parameters for the actuator; and

at the autonomous agriculture system, controlling the actuator based on the adjusted set of control parameters.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sensor feedback comprises a sequence of images captured during the autonomously controlled actuation of the actuator, wherein the motion comprises a centroid motion of the first target across the sequence of images.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising: determining termination of the first target plant based on satisfaction of a motion threshold.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the feedback provision to the remote computing system occurs responsive to termination of the first target plant.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the feedback comprises: the location of the first target plant, a plant type of the first plant, a plant size of the first plant, and a set of actuation metrics.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein adjusting the set of control parameters comprises:

at the autonomous agriculture vehicle, automatically calculating an actuation distance based on the sensor feedback; and

prompting verification by a remote human operator via the remote computing system.

18. A method for executing agricultural actions on an agricultural field comprising:

determining a nominal blade separation distance for a weeding module of an autonomous agricultural system;

at the autonomous agricultural system, while traversing the agricultural field:

detecting a first target plant aligned with the weeding module;

autonomously controlling a first weeding action based on a location of the first target plant, comprising:

in response to the first target plant approaching the weeding module, autonomously triggering the weeding module to open a set of weeding blades to the nominal blade separation distance; and

in response to the first target plant passing the weeding module, triggering the weeding module to close the set of weeding blades; and

based on sensor feedback, characterizing a motion for the first weeding action;

providing feedback to the remote computing system comprising: the motion for the first weeding action, at least one image of the first target plant, the location of the first target plant, a plant type of the first target plant, a plant size of the first target plant, and a set of weeding metrics comprising a terminal ratio;

responsive to the feedback, adjusting the nominal blade separation distance for the weeding module; and

at the autonomous agriculture system, controlling a second weeding action based on the adjusted nominal blade separation distance.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (5)

References Cited (284)

Cited By (2)

US 12,496,971 US 12,677,822