Autonomous scouting using unmanned aerial vehicle
US12169413B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 9, 2022 |
| Grant date | Dec 17, 2024 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 27, 2043 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
- CPC primaryB64U2201/10
- WIPO fieldTransport
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
Implementations are described for improving accuracy and efficiency in anomaly detection during autonomous scouting of crop fields. A method is provided and includes: operating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to fly along an initial flight path above a field, where the UAV collect images for the field and an edge-computing device disposed on (or included in) the UAV processes the images using a coarse-grained machine learning (ML) model to determine whether target region(s) are detected within the field. A reversed flight path can be determined based on the detected target region(s), and the UAV can fly along the reversed flight path from a point corresponding to an ending point of the initial flight path, to collect target images particularly for the detected target region(s). The collected target images can be processed using a fine-grained ML model, to more fully characterize the detected target region(s).
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.