US 11,696,542 B1
Systems and methods of seed production plant counting using aerial images
Andrew Muehlfeld, Minneapolis, MN (US); and Elliott Imhoff, Minneapolis, MN (US)
Assigned to Sentera, Inc., St. Paul, MN (US)
Filed by Sentera, Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US)
Filed on Apr. 28, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/860,174.
Int. Cl. A01H 6/00 (2018.01); A01H 6/46 (2018.01); A01B 79/00 (2006.01); A01B 76/00 (2006.01); A01H 1/02 (2006.01)
CPC A01H 6/4684 (2018.05) [A01B 76/00 (2013.01); A01B 79/005 (2013.01); A01H 1/02 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of hybrid corn seed production plant population counting in a hybrid corn seed production field that includes a plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants, comprising:
receiving a plurality of aerial images of the hybrid corn seed production field, the aerial images being obtained by a camera on an unmanned aerial vehicle that is flown over the hybrid corn seed production field;
processing the aerial images using one or more computer processors, with the one or more computer processors:
a) for each one of the aerial images, identifying the plurality of rows of hybrid corn seed production plants;
b) for each one of the aerial images, classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants as either male or female; and
c) for each one of the aerial images, producing a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the male rows or producing a count of the number of hybrid corn seed production plants in the female rows;
storing the counts produced in c) on a tangible computer-accessible storage medium;
wherein prior to classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants, analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or analyzing each one of the aerial images to identify one or more physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants; and
classifying each one of the identified rows of hybrid corn seed production plants as either male or female based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of the hybrid corn seed production plants in each row and/or based on the one or more identified physical characteristics of each row of the hybrid corn seed production plants.