US 11,805,740 B2
Systems and methods for monitoring and controlling crop irrigation schedules
Yann Periard Larrivee, Saint-Luc-de-Bellechasse (CA); and Vincent Pelletier, Sainte-Henedine (CA)
Assigned to HORTAU INC., Levis (CA)
Appl. No. 17/762,605
Filed by HORTAU INC., Levis (CA)
PCT Filed Sep. 25, 2020, PCT No. PCT/CA2020/051283
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 22, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/056114, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 1, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/906,871, filed on Sep. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0394943 A1, Dec. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. A01G 25/16 (2006.01); G05B 19/042 (2006.01)
CPC A01G 25/165 (2013.01) [A01G 25/167 (2013.01); G05B 19/042 (2013.01); G05B 2219/2625 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for regulating plant irrigation at a crop field, the system being communicatively couplable to:
one or more monitoring sensors for monitoring hydrodynamic conditions at the given crop field, and
one or more controllable devices that are operable to irrigate the given crop field; the system comprising:
at least one processor, and
memory storing a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
retrieve soil water tension (SWT) data and/or soil water content (SWC) data, corresponding to the crop field, recorded by the one or more monitoring sensors;
segment the SWT data and/or SWC data in three segments;
determine, for each of the three segments, a respective line of best fit;
determine a first intercept between the line of best fit for the first segment and the line of best fit for the second segment;
determine a second intercept between the line of best fit for the second segment and the line of best fit for the third segment;
store the first intercept as an irrigation stop threshold representative of a desired irrigation end point;
store the second intercept as an irrigation start threshold representative of a desired irrigation commencement point; and
monitor SWT data and/or SWC data received from the one or more monitoring sensors, and:
in response to a determination that the SWT and/or SWC has reached the irrigation start threshold, cause the one or more controllable devices to commence or increase irrigation of the crop field; and
in response to a determination that the SWT and/or SWC has reached the irrigation stop threshold, cause the one or more controllable devices to stop or reduce irrigation of the crop field.