Drone Crop Imaging System for Adaptive Resolution and Flight Time
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques for detecting crop growth conditions using aerial imagery from drones face a trade-off between flight time and accuracy, where increasing the shooting range shortens flight time but decreases the accuracy of indices like NDVI.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus that acquires images of crop regions, calculates growth condition indices, and instructs the drone to adjust its shooting resolution and altitude based on calculated indices, ensuring higher accuracy while minimizing flight time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the shooting range is increased to shorten flight time, then the flight time is reduced, but the accuracy of the obtained index decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The crop region is divided into multiple sections based on the initial index map. Instead of uniformly shooting the entire region at high resolution, the system segments the area and identifies specific sections that require detailed inspection, thereby reducing the overall shooting time while maintaining accuracy where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different shooting resolutions to different regions of the crop field. High-resolution shooting is performed only in sections where the index value indicates potential issues, while other areas are captured at lower resolution or skipped entirely, optimizing the balance between accuracy and flight time.
2Measurement precision
If the shooting resolution is increased to improve index accuracy, then the measurement precision is improved, but the flight time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs high-resolution shooting only partially, specifically in sections where the initial index calculation suggests potential problems. This partial action approach avoids the excessive time cost of uniformly high-resolution shooting across the entire crop region while still achieving the necessary measurement precision for decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The system first performs a preliminary low-resolution survey to generate an initial index map. Based on this preliminary information, it then determines which specific sections require detailed high-resolution shooting, thereby avoiding unnecessary high-resolution capture in areas that do not need detailed inspection.
3Manufacturing precision
If the shooting range is narrowed to improve resolution, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The crop region is segmented into multiple sections, and the aircraft performs focused narrow-range shooting only in specific sections that require detailed inspection. This segmentation allows the system to maintain high resolution where needed while improving overall productivity by not wasting time on areas that do not require detailed capture.
Solution Approach 2:
The shooting range and resolution are dynamically adjusted based on the index values calculated from preliminary imaging. The system transitions from a wide-range low-resolution survey to targeted narrow-range high-resolution shooting in specific areas, optimizing the balance between image quality and coverage efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
The accuracy of an index indicating growth conditions of a crop obtained from a shot image is improved, while reducing the flight time of an aircraft shooting the crop. Crop image acquisition unit acquires an image of a crop region shot by drone. Index calculation unit calculates an index indicating growth conditions of a crop shot in the image based on the acquired image of the crop region. Flight instruction unit instructs, if a portion (low index region) regarding which the calculated index is less than a predetermined index threshold is present in the crop region, drone to shoot the low index region while increasing the resolution of the image. Specifically, flight instruction unit makes an instruction to shoot the portion while performing a low-altitude flight at an altitude lower than that when the image regarding which the index of the low index region has been calculated has been shot.