Methods and systems for maintenance and other processing of container-grown plants using autonomous mobile robots
a mobile robot and container-grown technology, applied in the field of plant nursery operations, can solve the problems of not being well-suited to indoor use, not being used generally, and not using automatic machinery and vision systems
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example 1
[0019]FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an automated plant maintenance or other processing operation in accordance with one or more embodiments. A growing field or bed 10 includes a plurality of plant-holding containers 12. One or more robots 14 (only one is shown in this example) pick up plant-holding containers (one or a small number at a time) in a pickup or source region (shown on the left side of the field in the figure) of the growing field 10. The robot 14 transports the plant-holding containers through a processing station 16, where one or more plant maintenance or other processes are carried out. After exiting the processing station, the robot 14 deposits the plant-holding containers in a destination region (shown on the right side of the field in figure) of the growing field 10. As discussed below, a boundary marker 18 detectable by the robot 14 can be used by the robot to locate the processing station 16 and, in some embodiments, to locate the source of destination locatio...
example 2
[0024]In this example illustrated in FIG. 2, a robot picks up a plant-holding container on the field and leaves the container at the processing station. Either the same or a different robot 14′ then retrieves the container from the processing station after some operation has been performed, and deposits the container on the field. This method is particularly suitable for operations that require robots picking up and depositing containers to be configured differently. It is also suitable for processing operations that are better performed without involvement of the robot.
[0025]For certain types of maintenance or other operations, it may be advantageous to use differently configured robots to carry containers to and from the processing station. For example, when plants need to be repotted, the plants will typically be in smaller containers when they arrive at the processing station and in larger containers when they leave. In this example, robot with a small gripper spacing can be use...
example 3
[0030]FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process used for grading and sorting plants in accordance with one or more embodiments. Plants with different characteristics (e.g., different height, different number of blossoms, etc.—identified in the figure by a, b, and c) are intermingled on the left side of the field. The robot carries the plants through the processing station, which identifies the grade of the plant. Once identified, the station communicates the grade of the plant to the robot. The robot then selectively deposits the plants on the field such that plants of the same grade are aggregated in one place.
[0031]State-of-the-art vision equipment typically requires a known, uniform background and controlled lighting in order to classify plants reliably. The contained environment of the maintenance station can provide these conditions in an outdoor field. This enables use of existing vision-based solutions in outdoor environments.
[0032]In all the examples described above, the pr...
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