Daniel John Urban

US Patent:

20190059249, Feb 28, 2019

Filed:

Oct 30, 2018

Appl. No.:

16/174785

Inventors:

- Oakland CA, US
James McBride - Berkeley CA, US
Daniel Urban - Palo Alto CA, US
Robert Heilmayr - Piedmont CA, US

International Classification:

A01G 25/16

Abstract:

Systems and methods for assessing a field of plants for irrigation having program code to acquire at least one thermal image of a field having a plurality of plants thereon; generate a thermal map of the field from the thermal image providing a thermal value for a plurality of geographically referenced locations in the field; measure at least one weather parameter for the field; calculate a water stress value for each of the plurality of locations using the weather parameter and the thermal value; and estimate a water property value for each of the plurality of locations using the water stress value and a predetermined correlation of the water stress value and the water property value. Thus, the system leverages high-resolution aerial thermal imagery to estimate plant stress with the advantage of obtaining estimates of the water property value, such as the stem water potential (SWP), potentially for every plant in a field, thereby providing a more powerful tool for irrigation scheduling.