System and method for measuring planting area in field

Abstract

To obtain a more accurate area survey result by using a satellite image picked up by an observation satellite and an image picked up by an unmanned aircraft in a planting area survey in a field.SOLUTION: A field planting position identifying unit that identifies a position of a planting region in a field from a satellite image captured by an observation satellite, a boundary detecting unit that detects a boundary between a planting region part in the field identified by the field planting position identifying unit and a part other than the planting region in the field, an unmanned aerial vehicle flight route creating unit that sets the boundary detected by the boundary detecting unit as a flight route, a polygon generating unit that generates a polygon of the planting region in the field from an image captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle flying along the flight route, and an area calculating unit that calculates an area of the planting region from the generated polygon; The planting area survey system according to claim 1.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a system and program for surveying the area of ​​cultivated land in a farm field. [Background technology]

[0002] In the agricultural sector, cultivated area surveys are conducted in fields to calculate advance estimates of harvest yields. The cultivated area in a field varies depending on how the crop is planted, so regular surveys are necessary. Specific methods for surveying cultivated area in a field include manually surveying the field using surveying equipment that combines the functions of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver and a data logger, using satellite images, and using drones.

[0003] A method for detecting the boundaries of crops on the ground using multiple aerial photographs has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Also, a method for correcting errors that occur when an aerial photograph of a cultivated area in a farm field is superimposed on a division polygon has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 7083910 [Patent Document 2] Patent No. 7470061 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, the technology described in Patent Document 1 requires multiple image sets, and therefore cannot be implemented unless multiple image sets are prepared. Furthermore, the technology described in Patent Document 2 requires a trained segmentation model when extracting a field area.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a system, method, and program for surveying cultivated areas in a field that enables easy surveying of cultivated areas in a field without requiring multiple image sets or a trained model. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] As one aspect for solving the above problem, there is provided a system for surveying cultivated areas in a field, comprising: a field cultivation position identification unit that identifies the position of the cultivated area in the field from satellite images taken by an observation satellite; a boundary detection unit that detects the boundary between the cultivated area portion in the field identified by the field cultivation position identification unit and the area other than the cultivated area portion in the field; an unmanned aerial vehicle flight route creation unit that uses the boundary detected by the boundary detection unit as a flight route; a polygon generation unit that generates a cultivated area polygon in the field from an image taken by the unmanned aerial vehicle flying along the flight route; and an area calculation unit that calculates the cultivated area from the generated polygon.

[0008] The flight route creation unit according to the present invention may create a flight route by recognizing a cultivated area in a farm field as a polygon.

[0009] The boundary detection unit according to the present invention may detect the boundary between the cultivated area portion of the field and the non-cultivated area portion of the field by using an edge detection method for an image.

[0010] The boundary detection unit of the present invention may detect the boundary between the cultivated area in a field and the area other than the cultivated area in the field using one of the image edge detection methods, namely the Canny method, the Sobel method, or the Gaussian Laplacian method.

[0011] The area calculation unit according to the present invention may calculate the area by the coordinate method.

[0012] Another aspect of the present invention is a program for surveying the area of ​​cultivated land in a field, which program identifies the position of a cultivated area in a field from a satellite image taken by an observation satellite, detects the boundary between the cultivated area portion of the identified field and the portion of the field other than the cultivated area, creates a flight route using the detected boundary as the flight route, instructs an unmanned aerial vehicle on the created flight route, acquires an image of the area near the boundary of the cultivated area in the field acquired by the unmanned aerial vehicle, generates a polygon of the cultivated area in the field from the acquired image, and calculates the area from the generated polygon. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] By using satellite images containing agricultural land plot information and images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles, this invention reduces the amount of image and other information that needs to be prepared in advance compared to conventional technology, making it possible to easily and accurately survey the cultivated area of ​​a field. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] 1 is a configuration example of a cultivated area surveying system for a farm field according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] 1 is a hardware functional block diagram of a system for surveying cultivated area in a farm field according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure according to an implementation example of an algorithm for calculating the cultivated area in a farm field. [Figure 4] 1 is a diagram illustrating the deviation between the contour line of a cultivated area in an actual farm field and the contour line obtained from a satellite image. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the flight route of an unmanned aerial vehicle when there are two cultivated areas in a farm field. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the flight route of an unmanned aerial vehicle when there are four cultivated areas in a farm field. [Figure 7] This is an example in which the cultivated areas of two fields are polygonized and the cultivated areas of the fields are recognized as polygons. [Figure 8] This is an example in which a cultivated area in a farm field is recognized as a polygon when the cultivated area in the farm field is a pentagon. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of hardware in a crop area surveying device system for a farm field according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0015] [1. First embodiment] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings regarding a system for measuring cultivated area in a farm field. FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a system for measuring cultivated area in a farm field according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. The system 1000 includes a network 100, an observation satellite 200, a positioning satellite 300, an unmanned aerial vehicle 400, a user terminal 500, and a server 600. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of hardware in the system for measuring cultivated area in a farm field according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, and also illustrates the hardware configuration of each functional block that is communicatively connected via the network 100.

[0016] (Observation Satellite 200) The observation satellite 200 is equipped with an imaging device 210 and is capable of capturing satellite images of the ground. The satellite images contain location information such as latitude and longitude as well as image data, and are stored in a storage device 620 of a terrestrial server 600 (described later). There are multiple observation satellites, and even when capturing satellite images of the same location on the ground, the images may be captured by different observation satellites.

[0017] (Positioning satellite 300) The positioning satellite 300 transmits a GNSS signal, which is a signal for estimating a position on the ground, etc. Examples include GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System).

[0018] (Unmanned aircraft 400) The unmanned aerial vehicle 400 is an unmanned flying aircraft such as a drone, and is equipped with a communication IF 410, an imaging device 420, and a position information acquisition device 430.

[0019] The unmanned aerial vehicle 400 automatically flies in the sky according to a flight route created by the crop cultivation area surveying system 1000 and can capture images of the ground using the imaging device 420.

[0020] The communication IF 410 is a communication module that communicates with the user terminal 500 or the server 600 via the network 100 .

[0021] The position information acquisition device 430 can determine its own position by receiving GNSS signals transmitted from the positioning satellites 300. Furthermore, by using RTK positioning using the GNSS, it is possible to determine the position with higher accuracy.

[0022] (User terminal 500) The user terminal 500 includes a communication IF 510, a storage device 520, and a processing device 530. The user terminal is, for example, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, or a smartphone.

[0023] Communication IF 510 is a communication module that communicates with unmanned aerial vehicle 400 or server 600 via network 100 .

[0024] The storage device 520 stores images of the ground captured by the imaging device 210 of the observation satellite 200 or the imaging device 410 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 400. For example, it is a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, or a semiconductor storage device.

[0025] The processing device 530 has functional blocks of an aerial image acquisition unit 531, a field crop position identification unit 532, a flight route creation unit 533, a flight route instruction unit 534, a boundary detection unit 535, and an area calculation unit 536. The processing device 530 includes a processor configured with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), etc., or a combination thereof, as well as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc.

[0026] (Server 600) The server 600 includes a communication IF 610 and a storage device 620. The server 600 is, for example, a computer installed at a location remote from the user terminal, such as a cloud server. In Fig. 2, the processing devices within the server 600 are not shown.

[0027] Communication IF 610 is a communication module that communicates with unmanned aerial vehicle 400 or user terminal 500 via network 100 .

[0028] The storage device 620 stores satellite images captured by the imaging device 210 of the observation satellite 200, etc.

[0029] Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure according to an implementation example of an algorithm for calculating the cultivated area in a farm field. The processing is performed by each functional block of the processing device 530 shown in Fig. 2. The processing procedure of the processing device 530 will be explained using Figs. 2 and 3. The processing device 530 sequentially performs the processes from S100 to S800 in Fig. 3.

[0030] The processing device 530 is configured to execute the steps of: identifying the cultivated area to be surveyed (S100); acquiring the position information of the cultivated area in the identified field (S200); detecting the contour line of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection (1) (S300); generating a route for the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the contour line of the cultivated area in the field (S400); capturing an image of the cultivated area in the field with the unmanned aerial vehicle (S500); detecting the contour line of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection (2) (S600); generating a polygon from the contour line of the cultivated area in the field (S700); and measuring the cultivated area (S800).

[0031] In the step (S100) of identifying the cropped area to be surveyed, the aerial image acquisition unit 531 acquires satellite images recorded in the storage device 620 of the server 600 via the network 100, and uses the satellite images to identify the cropped area for which the user of this system wishes to conduct a cropped area survey. Multiple cropped areas may be identified.

[0032] In the step (S200) of acquiring the crop position information in the specified field, the crop position identifying unit 532 acquires the position information of the crop area for which the crop area survey is to be performed. Specifically, since the crop area for which area surveying is to be performed identified in the step (S100) of identifying the crop area for which the crop area surveying is to be performed is a satellite image including position information of latitude and longitude, the position information of latitude and longitude is acquired from the satellite image.

[0033] In addition, for location data of cultivated areas, it is also possible to use publicly available data, such as "brush polygons," which are agricultural land division information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries using satellite images. Brush polygons are displayed by overlaying field division information on satellite images.

[0034] In step (1) (S300) of detecting the contour of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection, the boundary detection unit 535 detects the contour of the cultivated area in the field (the boundary between the cultivated area in the field and the part of the field other than the cultivated area) based on the position information of the cultivated area for which the cultivated area survey is desired, identified in S100 and S200. The contour can be detected using, for example, known image edge detection methods such as the Canny method, the Sobel method, or the Gaussian Laplacian method. However, as shown in Figure 4, the contour of the cultivated area in the field at the S300 stage may be displayed with a deviation depending on the positional relationship between the actual position of the cultivated area and the observation satellite, etc.

[0035] Furthermore, when the "brush polygon" is used, it is possible to obtain information such as the position of the cultivated area in the field while the contour line is displayed.

[0036] In the step (S400) of generating a route for the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the contour lines of the cultivated area in the field, the flight route creation unit 533 creates a flight route for the unmanned aerial vehicle 400. The flight route is created so as to pass through all of the contour lines of the cultivated area in the field.

[0037] Specifically, points that the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 will pass through are set at regular intervals on the contour line. If the contour line is polygonal, it is preferable to set each vertex as a point that the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 will pass through. The points that the unmanned aerial vehicle will pass through are called "waypoints." Figure 5 shows an example of a flight route when it is desired to obtain the cultivated area of ​​two fields.

[0038] If multiple cultivated areas for which a crop area survey is desired are specified, the contour lines of the cultivated areas in the field will be multiple closed areas. When the contour lines of the cultivated areas in the field are multiple closed areas, for example, by setting the two closest points on the contour lines of two adjacent closed areas as waypoints, it is possible to realize a flight route that passes through all the contour lines of the cultivated areas in multiple fields on a single flight route.

[0039] The contour line of the cultivated area in the field obtained from the satellite image may deviate from the contour line of the cultivated area in the actual field, and therefore the flight route may also deviate from the contour line of the cultivated area in the actual field. Even if the flight route deviates from the contour line of the cultivated area in the actual field, it is sufficient that the contour line of the cultivated area in the actual field is included within the imaging range of the imaging device 420 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 400. The same flight route may also be flown multiple times. Figure 6 shows an example of a flight route when it is desired to obtain the cultivated area in four fields.

[0040] The step (S500) of capturing images of the cultivation area with the unmanned aerial vehicle is a step in which the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 captures images of the ground with the imaging device 420 while flying. The flight route instruction unit 534 transmits flight route instructions to the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 via the network 100, based on the flight route created by the flight route creation unit 533. The unmanned aerial vehicle 400 flies according to the instructed flight route. The unmanned aerial vehicle 400 captures images of the ground with the imaging device 420 while flying, and transmits the captured images to the user terminal 500 via the network 100. The captured images are stored in the storage device 520.

[0041] The image of the cultivated area in the field captured by the imaging device 420 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 is a high-resolution, clear image of the cultivated area in the field, unlike the satellite image captured by the imaging device 210 of the observation satellite 200. By performing the processing of S600 to S800, which will be described later, using the image of the cultivated area in the field, which has a higher resolution and is clearer than the satellite image, it is possible to perform a more accurate area survey than by using a satellite image.

[0042] In step (2) (S600) of detecting the contour of the cultivated area in the farm field by edge detection, the boundary detection unit 535 detects the contour of the cultivated area in the farm field (the boundary line between the cultivated area in the farm field and the portion of the farm field other than the cultivated area) from the ground image captured by the imaging device 420 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 400 and stored in the storage device 520. For the area calculation described below, the cultivated area in the farm field is recognized as a polygon from the detected contour of the cultivated area in the farm field. To detect the contour, as in step S300, the contour of the cultivated area in the farm field can be detected using, for example, known image edge detection methods such as the Canny algorithm, the Sobel algorithm, or the Gaussian Laplacian algorithm.

[0043] The contour line of the cultivated area in a field using satellite images may be displayed with a deviation due to the relative position of the observation satellite and the actual position of the cultivated area in the field, as shown in Figure 4. However, the contour line of the cultivated area in the field detected by step (2) (S600), which detects the contour line of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection, is a more accurate contour line.

[0044] In the step of generating a polygon from the contour of the cultivated area in the field (S700), the area calculation unit 536 polygonizes the cultivated area in the field from the contour of the cultivated area in the field calculated in S600. Polygonization is a preparatory step for the area calculation unit to calculate the cultivated area, and the cultivated area in the field is recognized as a polygon. Figure 7 shows an example in which the cultivated areas in two fields are polygonized and the cultivated area in the field is recognized as a polygon. The polygonization does not have to be rectangular, as long as it is polygonal. Figure 8 shows an example in which the cultivated area in the field is pentagonal.

[0045] In the step of measuring the cultivated area (S800), the area calculation unit 536 recognizes the cultivated area in the field as a polygon and calculates the area. For calculating the area, the cultivated area in the field can be obtained using, for example, the coordinate method, which is a known area calculation method.

[0046] [2. Second Embodiment] A system for measuring the area of ​​cultivated land in a farm field according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 9 shows an example of the configuration of a system for measuring the area of ​​cultivated land in a farm field according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure. The difference from the first embodiment of Fig. 2 is the user terminal 500 and the server 600.

[0047] Specifically, the processing procedure of FIG. 3, which was performed by the processing device 530 of the user terminal 500 in the first embodiment of FIG. 2, is performed by the processing device 630 of the server 600 in the second embodiment of FIG.

[0048] (User terminal 500) User terminal 500 includes a communication IF 510 and a storage device 520. The user terminal is, for example, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, or a smartphone. In FIG. 9, the processing device of user terminal 500 is not shown.

[0049] (Server 600) The server 600 includes a communication IF 610, a storage device 620, and a processing device 630. The server 600 is, for example, a computer such as a cloud server that is installed at a location remote from the user terminal.

[0050] The processing device 630 has functional blocks of an aerial image acquisition unit 631, a field crop position identification unit 632, a flight route creation unit 633, a flight route instruction unit 634, a boundary detection unit 635, and an area calculation unit 636. The processing device 630 includes a processor configured with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), etc., or a combination thereof, as well as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc.

[0051] The functional blocks of the processing device 630 execute a processing procedure according to an implementation example of an algorithm for calculating the cultivated area in a farm field in Fig. 3. The processing device 630 sequentially executes the processes from S100 to S800 in Fig. 3. Below, differences between the processing procedure of the processing device 630 and the first embodiment in Fig. 2 will be described.

[0052] The processing device 630 is configured to execute the steps of: identifying the cultivated area to be surveyed (S100); acquiring the position information of the cultivated area in the identified field (S200); detecting the contour line of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection (1) (S300); generating a route for the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the contour line of the cultivated area in the field (S400); capturing an image of the cultivated area in the field with the unmanned aerial vehicle (S500); detecting the contour line of the cultivated area in the field by edge detection (2) (S600); generating a polygon from the contour line of the cultivated area in the field (S700); and measuring the cultivated area (S800).

[0053] In the second embodiment of Fig. 9, in the step (S100) of identifying a cultivated area in a field to be subjected to area survey, the aerial image acquisition unit 631 identifies the cultivated area in the field to be surveyed using satellite images recorded in the storage device 620 of the server 600 in response to an instruction from the user terminal 500. There may be multiple cultivated areas in the identified field.

[0054] The processing of S200 to S800 is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment shown in Fig. 2. The functional blocks of an aerial image acquisition unit 531, a field crop position identification unit 532, a flight route creation unit 533, a flight route instruction unit 534, a boundary detection unit 535, and an area calculation unit 536 in the first embodiment correspond to the functional blocks of an aerial image acquisition unit 631, a field crop position identification unit 632, a flight route creation unit 633, a flight route instruction unit 634, a boundary detection unit 635, and an area calculation unit 636 in the second embodiment shown in Fig. 9, and have similar functions.

[0055] Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes designs within the scope of the gist of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0056] 1000...farm crop area surveying system, 100...network, 200...observation satellite, 210...imaging device, 300...positioning satellite, 400...unmanned aerial vehicle, 410...communication IF, 420...imaging device, 430...position information acquisition device, 500...user terminal, 510...communication IF, 520...storage device, 530...processing device, 531...aerial image acquisition unit, 532...farm crop area position identification unit, 533...flight route creation unit, 534...flight route instruction unit, 535...boundary detection unit, 536...area calculation unit, 600...server, 610...communication IF, 620...storage device, 630...processing device, 631...aerial image acquisition unit, 632...farm crop area position identification unit, 633...flight route creation unit, 634...flight route instruction unit, 635...boundary detection unit, 636...area calculation unit

Claims

1. A system for measuring cultivated area in a field, which is composed of an observation satellite, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a user terminal, and a server, a field crop position specifying unit that specifies the position of a crop area in a field from a satellite image captured by an observation satellite; a boundary detection unit that detects a boundary between a cultivated area portion in the field identified by the field cultivated position identification unit and a portion other than the cultivated area in the field; an unmanned aircraft flight route creation unit that sets the boundary detected by the boundary detection unit as a flight route; a polygon generation unit that generates a polygon of a planted area in a farm field from an image captured by the unmanned aerial vehicle flying along the flight route; an area calculation unit that calculates the cultivated area from the generated polygon; A system for measuring cultivated area in a field, comprising:

2. 2. The system for surveying a cultivated area in a farm field according to claim 1, wherein the flight route creation unit creates a flight route by recognizing a cultivated area in the farm field as a polygon.

3. 2. The system for measuring the cultivated area in a farm field according to claim 1, wherein the boundary detection unit detects the boundary between the cultivated area portion in the farm field and the portion other than the cultivated area in the farm field by an edge detection method of an image.

4. The system for surveying cultivated areas in a farm field according to claim 1, characterized in that the boundary detection unit detects the boundary between the cultivated area in the farm field and the area other than the cultivated area in the farm field using one of the image edge detection methods, namely the Canny method, the Sobel method, or the Gaussian Laplacian method.

5. 2. The system for measuring cultivated area in a farm field according to claim 1, wherein the area calculation unit calculates the area by the coordinate method.

6. Identifying the location of the planted area in the field from satellite images taken by the observation satellite, Detecting a boundary between a cultivated area portion in the identified farm field and a non-cultivated area portion in the farm field; creating a flight route that uses the detected boundary as a flight route; Instructing the unmanned aerial vehicle to follow the created flight route; Acquiring an image of the vicinity of a boundary of a cultivated area in a farm field captured by the unmanned aerial vehicle; generating a polygon of a planted area in the field from the acquired image; Calculating the area from the generated polygon; A program for surveying cultivated area in a field, characterized by:

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