Patent ID: 11957096
Assignee: ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  B  G  H | IPC A  B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A system to pollinate plants, comprising:
a storage device associated with an autonomous aircraft;
an image capture device onboard the autonomous aircraft;
a pollen dispensing system;
a flight control system onboard the autonomous aircraft; and
a processor onboard the autonomous aircraft and communicatively coupled to the autonomous aircraft storage device, wherein the processor executes application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the system to:
operate the flight control system to maneuver the autonomous aircraft higher than a plant and in the general vicinity of the plant;
operate the image capture device to capture an image below the autonomous aircraft and including a top view of the plant;
process the image onboard the autonomous aircraft to differentiate between the plant and ground below the plant by:
converting the image to RGB format;
blurring the image with a low pixel brush;
creating a mask comprising the RGB values from dark to light green; and
applying the mask to obtain a binary black and white image;

determine a center of the plant based on the processed image;
operate the flight control system to position the autonomous aircraft above the plant and relative to the center of the plant; and
operate the pollen dispensing system to dispense pollen from the autonomous aircraft.