NZ762834B2

NZ762834B2 - System and method for irrigation management

Info

Publication number: NZ762834B2
Application number: NZ762834A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: Jacob L Larue
Original assignee: Valmont Industries Inc
Filing date: 2018-10-25
Publication date: 2026-02-03

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method which includes a crop/soil analysis module which analyzes data collected and feeds the machine learning module, from one or more sources including imaging data from UAVs, satellites, span mounted crop sensors, in situ field and weather sensors. According to a further preferred embodiment, aerial data is combined and overlaid with span mounted sensor data in near real-time to generate irrigation management recommendations. According to a further preferred embodiment, the span mounted sensors may preferably provide field specific data of current field conditions and may preferably use the system's analytics to calculate crop water use and crop water stress index. According to a further preferred embodiment, vegetation indexes may preferably be calculated as checks against the values calculated from the aerial data and to provide information if cloud cover or other atmospheric interference is present. According to a further preferred embodiment, the crop/soil analysis module may further interface with the drive control and applicant pressure controls to autonomously create and execute an irrigation plan which includes custom drive instructions and applicant dispersal rates for a given field.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A system for use with a mechanized irrigation system having at least one span and a drive system for moving the span and a control device to control one or more operational aspects of the irrigation system and including a processor and a memory, wherein the system comprises: a plurality of span mounted sensors, wherein at least one span mounted sensor comprises at least one sensor configured to allow for the detection of crop data, wherein the crop data is selected from the group of crop data comprising: crop type, stage of grown, health, presence of disease, and rate of growth; a plurality of in situ sensors, wherein the plurality of in-situ sensors is comprised of at least one in situ soil sensor and one in situ crop sensor, a weather station including a plurality of weather sensors, wherein at least one weather sensor is configured to detect weather data; wherein the weather data is selected from the group of weather data comprising humidity, pressure, precipitation and temperature; at least one remote sensing element, wherein the at least one remote sensing element comprises a sensor located on an unmanned aerial vehicle, a manned aerial vehicle or a satellite; further wherein the at least one remote sensing element transmits aerial data; a crop/ soil analysis module in data communication with the at least one span mounted sensor, at least one remote sensing element, at least one in situ sensor and at least one weather sensor and the control device, and wherein the processor is connected and configured to process and analyse data collected data from some at least one or the span mounted sensors, in situ sensors, weather sensors and remote sensing elements and to generate irrigation management recommendations; further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to receive data from one of the span mounted sensors and to use the system’s analytics calculate crop water use, a crop water stress index and a plant production ratio based at least in part on data from the span mounted sensors; further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to determine the crop health of a given field based on one or more vegetation indexes, further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to compare a vegetation index against a vegetation index value calculated from the aerial data; further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is further configured to interface with the control device to control one or more operational aspects of the irrigation system, the operational aspects including a drive control system and a water pressure system; further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is further configured to autonomously create and execute an irrigation plan which comprises custom drive instructions and applicant dispersal rates for a given field.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a plurality of transducers which are configured to monitor the water pressures within the system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the system further comprises a flow meter for monitoring water flow in the system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system further comprises at least one crop sensor from the mounted sensors, the in situ sensor or the aerial sensors, wherein the crop sensor is configured to indirectly determine the crop health in an area of the field.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein at least one weather sensor is configured to detect the intensity of solar radiation.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the system further comprises an aerial image sensor to receive aerial data from a satellite, UAV or MAV.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is comprised of server-side software which may be remotely accessed.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to process aerial data of a resolution of 1 .0 to 3m together with span mounted sensor data and in situ crop data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to process the aerial data to provide a full view of a given field and to combine the aerial data with span mounted sensor data in near real-time.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to use in-situ field data to compare against the aerial data received from the at least one aerial sensor.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the span mounted sensors are configured to provide field specific data of current crop and field conditions; further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to calibrate at least one span mounted sensor using data produced by the crop/soil analysis module, further wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to calibrate at least one span mounted sensor based on a data selected from the group of data comprising: crop water use, crop water stress index, and plant production ratio.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to interface with the drive control and applicant pressure controls to autonomously create and execute an irrigation plan comprising drive instructions and applicant dispersal rates for a given field based on data processed from at least one re-calibrated sensors.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is configured to compare a vegetation index determined from data from the mounted sensors, the in situ sensors and/or the weather sensors against a crop index value calculated from the aerial data from the aerial sensors.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the crop/soil analysis module is further configured to send the irrigation plan to an operator via computer, smart phone or tablet for approval before executing the instructions.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the system further comprises at least one indirect crop sensor taken from the mounted sensors or the in situ sensors, wherein the indirect crop sensor is configured to indirectly determine moisture levels in an area of the field.