Image-Guided Rock Picking Along a Planned Field Path
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for clearing rocks from agricultural fields are inefficient, often requiring manual operation and multiple passes, leading to high labor costs and safety hazards due to the failure of existing implements to effectively remove rocks, which interfere with equipment and pose safety risks.
Innovation Solution
An object-collection system that uses image analysis to identify and locate rocks, guiding a collection system to autonomously pick up objects by determining their location and instructing a picker assembly to remove them, thereby improving efficiency and reducing manual labor.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual implements (rakes, windrowers, sieves) are used to clear rocks, then some rock removal is achieved, but the failure rate is high requiring multiple passes and human intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by using imaging devices to detect and map rock locations before the collection implement passes. This allows the system to identify all rocks in advance and guide the collection mechanism to precisely target them, ensuring complete removal in a single pass rather than requiring multiple attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously capturing images, identifying rock positions, and adjusting the collection implement's operation in real-time based on detected rock locations. This closed-loop control ensures that all rocks are reliably removed while optimizing the collection process.
2Productivity
If manual operation and human picking intervention are used, then rocks can be removed, but labor costs increase and work becomes slow and unpleasant
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies self-service by enabling the collection implement to autonomously navigate to detected rock locations and perform collection without human intervention. The imaging devices, processing system, and collection mechanism work together automatically, eliminating the need for manual picking and significantly reducing labor requirements while maintaining high removal speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual mechanical picking with an automated system combining imaging technology, computer processing, and mechanical collection. This substitution eliminates tedious manual labor while maintaining efficient rock removal capability.
3Ease of operation
If traditional implements are used without precise guidance, then operation is simple, but rocks are missed requiring multiple passes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection and mapping of all rock locations before collection begins. This advance identification allows the implement to follow an optimized path that ensures all rocks are collected in a single pass, eliminating the time loss from multiple repetitions.
4Productivity
If rocks are left in the field, then equipment can operate without modification, but rocks foul up and interfere with automated agricultural equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts rocks from the field by detecting their precise locations using imaging devices and guiding the collection implement to remove them before automated agricultural equipment operates. This extraction eliminates the harmful interference rocks would cause to expensive machinery while maintaining efficient field preparation.
Data Source
AI summary
An object identification and collection method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a pick-up path that identifies a route in which to guide an object-collection system over a target geographical area to pick up objects, determining a current location of the object-collection system relative to the pick-up path, and guiding the object-collection system along the pick-up path over the target geographical area based on the current location. The method further includes capturing images in a direction of movement of the object-collection system along the pick-up path, identifying a target object in the images; tracking movement of the target object through the images, determining that the target object is within range of an object picker assembly on the object-collection system based on the tracked movement of the target object, and instructing the object picker assembly to pick up the target object.