An agricultural machine system for performing agricultural tasks in a in a field on which plants are planted or will be planted in a pattern, the system comprising: a prime mover; a tool bar connected to the prime mover; a plurality of units attached to the tool bar, the units configured to perform at least one agricultural tasks and wherein at least two of the units are disposed in an offset relationship from each other with respect to a forward direction of travel of the agricultural machine about the tool bar; and a control unit in communication with the prime mover and the plurality of units, the control unit configured to determine a selective location corresponding to the pattern in which plants are planted or will be planted and activate the units at the selective location to perform the at least one agricultural task as the agricultural machine system travels along a plurality of rows.

A computer-implemented method of sensor input processing, implemented by an agricultural platform comprising a processor and a sensor, includes capturing, using the sensor, sensor images of a vicinity of a target object of a time interval during which a treatment is applied to the target object; processing the sensor images using one or more machine learning (ML) algorithms wherein at least one ML algorithm uses an ML model trained to detect a presence of a treatment action in the vicinity of the target object; and providing, selectively based on a result of detecting the presence of the treatment action in the vicinity of the target object, an outcome of the processing for further processing.

A method of real-time plant selection and removal from a plant field including capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field, segmenting the first image into regions indicative of individual plants within the first section, selecting the optimal plants for retention from the first image based on the first image and the previously thinned plant field sections, sending instructions to the plant removal mechanism for removal of the plants corresponding to the unselected regions of the first image from the second section before the machine passes the unselected regions, and repeating the aforementioned steps for a second section of the plant field adjacent the first section in the direction of machine travel.

A method of real-time plant selection and removal from a plant field including capturing a first image of a first section of the plant field, segmenting the first image into regions indicative of individual plants within the first section, selecting the optimal plants for retention from the first image based on the first image and the previously thinned plant field sections, sending instructions to the plant removal mechanism for removal of the plants corresponding to the unselected regions of the first image from the second section before the machine passes the unselected regions, and repeating the aforementioned steps for a second section of the plant field adjacent the first section in the direction of machine travel.

A method includes receiving, by the treatment system, during operation in an agricultural environment, one or more images comprising one or more agricultural objects in the agricultural environment, identifying, in real-time, one or more objects of interest from the one or more agricultural objects by analyzing the one or more images, wherein the analyzing results in a first object being identified as belonging to one or more target objects and a second object being identified as not belonging to the one or more target objects, logging one or more results of the identification of each of the one or more objects of interest and a corresponding treatment decision; and activating the treatment mechanism to treat the one or more target objects.

Described herein are high intensity illumination systems including lighting arrays of lights, such as light emitting diodes, configured to illuminate a surface. The lighting arrays are configured to illuminate the surface with illumination comparable to or multiple times brighter than the ambient illumination, such as sunlight. Also described herein are methods of using a high intensity illumination system to illuminate a surface for applications including imaging, object detection, and object localization. The systems and methods described herein may be applied to a range of industries including farming, agriculture, construction, and autonomous vehicles.

Techniques are described herein for using artificial intelligence to predict crop yields based on observational crop data. A method includes: obtaining a first digital image of at least one plant; segmenting the first digital image of the at least one plant to identify at least one seedpod in the first digital image; for each of the at least one seedpod in the first digital image: determining a color of the seedpod; determining a number of seeds in the seedpod; inferring, using one or more machine learning models, a moisture content of the seedpod based on the color of the seedpod; and estimating, based on the moisture content of the seedpod and the number of seeds in the seedpod, a weight of the seedpod; and predicting a crop yield based on the moisture content and the weight of each of the at least one seedpod.

Plant eradication and stressing of plants using illumination signaling where a short-time dual component, low energy, unnatural set of irradiances is applied, with no mutagenic or high radiative energy transfers in any wavelength for eradication by substantial high temperature thermally-induced leaf and plant component failure or incineration. An Indigo Region Illumination Distribution of wavelength 300 nm to 550 nm is directed to plant foliage and/or a plant root crown, while infrared radiation that is substantially Medium Wavelength Infrared radiation of 2-20 microns wavelength, 2.4-8.0 microns preferred, is directed to a plant root crown and/or soil immediately adjacent the root crown. The Indigo Region Illumination Distribution can pass through the MWIR emitter to form a compact illuminator that uses specific unnatural irradiances that provide unexpected plant control. The MWIR emitter can comprise borosilicate glass at 400° F. to 1000° F.

Plant eradication and stressing of plants using illumination signaling where a short-time dual component, low energy, unnatural set of irradiances is applied, with no mutagenic or high radiative energy transfers in any wavelength for eradication by substantial high temperature thermally-induced leaf and plant component failure or incineration. An Indigo Region Illumination Distribution of wavelength 300 nm to 550 nm is directed to plant foliage and/or a plant root crown, while infrared radiation that is substantially Medium Wavelength Infrared radiation of 2-20 microns wavelength, 2.4-8.0 microns preferred, is directed to a plant root crown and/or soil immediately adjacent the root crown. The Indigo Region Illumination Distribution can pass through the MWIR emitter to form a compact illuminator that uses specific unnatural irradiances that provide unexpected plant control. The MWIR emitter can comprise borosilicate glass at 400° F. to 1000° F.

The invention relates to a method for maintaining agricultural land (110), comprising: preparing, by means of a computing device (160) comprising a processor (161) and a computer memory (162), a map of the agricultural land from previously acquired images of the agricultural land, a plurality of growing areas (120), each comprising a plurality of parallel growing rows (130), being defined in the map prepared; assigning a list of growing areas to be treated to a stand-alone vehicle (140) depending on an initial position and a final position of the stand-alone vehicle and the position of the growing areas to be treated; determining a travel plan for the stand-alone vehicle from the list of growing areas assigned to the vehicle with due regard to the orientation of the rows in the growing areas to be treated; and moving the stand-alone vehicle according to the previously established travel plan.