Patents by Inventor Zhiqiang YUAN

Zhiqiang YUAN has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12333587
    Abstract: Implementations set forth herein relate to utilizing S2 cell values to characterize arbitrary portions of land parcels and storing the S2 cell values in association with a non-fungible token (NFT) that is stored on a blockchain network, or other peer-to-peer (P2P) network. The S2 cell values can be generated by iteratively using bounding shapes that are selected to extend over at least a portion of a respective parcel of land, and each bounding shape can be represented by one or more single dimensional values. When a generated bounding shape extends outside of a boundary of a parcel of land, subcells of the bounding shape can be generated to define further bounding shapes. A land NFT for the list of cell values for the bounding shapes can be stored at a blockchain address for an authenticated owner of the parcel of land.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventors: Elliott Grant, Zhiqiang Yuan
  • Patent number: 12333631
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for colorizing an X-ray image and predicting one or more phenotypic traits about a plant based on the colorized X-ray image. In various implementations, an X-ray image that depicts a plant with a canopy of the plant partially occluding a part-of-interest is obtained, where the part-of-interest is visible through the canopy in the X-ray image. The X-ray images is colorized to predict one or more phenotypic traits of the part-of-interest. The colorization includes processing the X-ray image based on a machine learning model to generate a colorized version of the X-ray image, and predicting the one or more phenotypic traits based on one or more visual features of the colorized version of the X-ray image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Elliott Grant
  • Patent number: 12333424
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed that enable generating a predicted yield for a cereal grain crop based on one or more traits extracted from image(s) of the cereal grain crop. Various implementations include determining a heading trait value based on the number of identified spikelets, where the spikelets are identified by processing the image(s) of the cereal grain crop using a spikelet detection model. Additional or alternative implementations include generating a predicted cereal grain crop yield based on one or more additional or alternative trait values such as one or more heading values, one or more projected leaf area values, one or more stand spacing values, one or more wheat rust values, one or more maturity detection values, one or more intercropping phenotyping values extracted cereal grains intercropped with other crops, one or more additional or alternative trait output values, and/or combinations thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Theodore Monyak
  • Patent number: 12280870
    Abstract: Implementations are directed to generating a stream of agricultural annotations with respect to area(s) of interest of an agricultural field, and providing the stream of agricultural annotations for presentation to the user in an augmented reality manner with respect to the area(s) of interest. In some implementations, a stream of vision data may be received at a first computing device of the user and from a second computing device of the user. Further, the first computing device may process the stream of vision data to generate the stream of agricultural annotations. Moreover, the first computing device may transmit the stream of agricultural annotations to the second computing device to cause the stream of agricultural annotations to be provided for presentation to the user. In other implementations, the first computing device may be omitted, and the second computing device may be utilized to generate the stream of agricultural annotations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2025
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Elliott Grant, Zhiqiang Yuan, Bodi Yuan
  • Patent number: 12260179
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for incorporating unstructured data into machine learning-based phenotyping. In various implementations, natural language textual snippet(s) may be obtained. Each natural language textual snippet may describe environmental or managerial features of an agricultural plot that exist during a crop cycle. A sequence-to-sequence machine learning model may be used to encode the natural language snippet(s) into embedding(s) in embedding space. The embedding(s) may semantically represent the environmental or managerial features of the agricultural plot. Using one or more phenotypic machine learning models, phenotypic prediction(s) may be generated about the agricultural plot based on the one or more semantic embeddings and additional structured data about the agricultural plot. Output may be provided at one or more computing devices that is based on one or more of the phenotypic predictions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventor: Zhiqiang Yuan
  • Publication number: 20250095138
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for training and applying machine learning models to digital images capturing plants, and to other data indicative of attributes of individual plants captured in the digital images, to recognize individual plants in distinction from other individual plants. In various implementations, a digital image that captures a first plant of a plurality of plants may be applied, along with additional data indicative of an additional attribute of the first plant observed when the digital image was taken, as input across a machine learning model to generate output. Based on the output, an association may be stored in memory, e.g., of a database, between the digital image that captures the first plant and one or more previously-captured digital images of the first plant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2024
    Publication date: March 20, 2025
    Inventors: Jie Yang, Zhiqiang Yuan, Hongxu Ma, Cheng-en Guo, Elliott Grant, Yueqi Li
  • Patent number: 12190501
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for training and applying machine learning models to digital images capturing plants, and to other data indicative of attributes of individual plants captured in the digital images, to recognize individual plants in distinction from other individual plants. In various implementations, a digital image that captures a first plant of a plurality of plants may be applied, along with additional data indicative of an additional attribute of the first plant observed when the digital image was taken, as input across a machine learning model to generate output. Based on the output, an association may be stored in memory, e.g., of a database, between the digital image that captures the first plant and one or more previously-captured digital images of the first plant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: DEERE &COMPANY
    Inventors: Jie Yang, Zhiqiang Yuan, Hongxu Ma, Cheng-en Guo, Elliott Grant, Yueqi Li
  • Publication number: 20250001610
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for coordinating semi-autonomous robots to perform agricultural tasks on a plurality of plants with minimal human intervention. In various implementations, a plurality of robots may be deployed to perform a respective plurality of agricultural tasks. Each agricultural task may be associated with a respective plant of a plurality of plants, and each plant may have been previously designated as a target for one of the agricultural tasks. It may be determined that a given robot has reached an individual plant associated with the respective agricultural task that was assigned to the given robot. Based at least in part on that determination, a manual control interface may be provided at output component(s) of a computing device in network communication with the given robot. The manual control interface may be operable to manually control the given robot to perform the respective agricultural task.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2024
    Publication date: January 2, 2025
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Elliott Grant
  • Patent number: 12175303
    Abstract: Implementations are disclosed for adaptively reallocating computing resources of resource-constrained devices between tasks performed in situ by those resource-constrained devices. In various implementations, while the resource-constrained device is transported through an agricultural area, computing resource usage of the resource-constrained device ma may be monitored. Additionally, phenotypic output generated by one or more phenotypic tasks performed onboard the resource-constrained device may be monitored. Based on the monitored computing resource usage and the monitored phenotypic output, a state may be generated and processed based on a policy model to generate a probability distribution over a plurality of candidate reallocation actions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Deere &Company
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Rhishikesh Pethe, Francis Ebong
  • Publication number: 20240411837
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed. An example agricultural robot comprises interface circuitry; machine readable instructions; and at least one processor to execute the machine readable instructions to: spatially align, by execution of a trained machine learning model, an invariant anchor point within high-elevation images and a plant whose wind-triggered deformation is perceptible between the high-elevation images; localize, by execution of the trained machine learning model, the plant based on the spatial alignment; and cause the agricultural robot to perform, in response to the localization, one or more agricultural tasks to the plant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2024
    Publication date: December 12, 2024
    Inventor: Zhiqiang Yuan
  • Patent number: 12159457
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2024
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventors: Bodi Yuan, Zhiqiang Yuan, Ming Zheng
  • Patent number: 12112501
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for localizing individual plants using high-elevation images at multiple different resolutions. A first set of high-elevation images that capture the plurality of plants at a first resolution may be analyzed to classify a set of pixels as invariant anchor points. High-elevation images of the first set may be aligned with each other based on the invariant anchor points that are common among at least some of the first set of high-elevation images. A mapping may be generated between pixels of the aligned high-elevation images of the first set and spatially-corresponding pixels of a second set of higher-resolution high-elevation images. Based at least in part on the mapping, individual plant(s) of the plurality of plants may be localized within one or more of the second set of high-elevation images for performance of one or more agricultural tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2024
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Jie Yang
  • Patent number: 12111888
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for localizing individual plants by aligning high-elevation images using invariant anchor points while disregarding variant feature points, such as deformable plants. High-elevation images that capture the plurality of plants at a resolution at which wind-triggered deformation of individual plants is perceptible between the high-elevation images may be obtained. First regions of the high-elevation images that depict the plurality of plants may be classified as variant features that are unusable as invariant anchor points. Second regions of the high-elevation images that are disjoint from the first set of regions may be classified as invariant anchor points. The high-elevation images may be aligned based on invariant anchor point(s) that are common among at least some of the high-elevation images. Based on the aligned high-elevation images, individual plant(s) may be localized within one of the high-elevation images for performance of one or more agricultural tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2024
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventor: Zhiqiang Yuan
  • Publication number: 20240296151
    Abstract: This application provides a data processing method, apparatus, a device, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2024
    Publication date: September 5, 2024
    Inventors: Zhiqiang YUAN, Xinda ZHAO, Yandong YANG
  • Patent number: 12053894
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for coordinating semi-autonomous robots to perform agricultural tasks on a plurality of plants with minimal human intervention. In various implementations, a plurality of robots may be deployed to perform a respective plurality of agricultural tasks. Each agricultural task may be associated with a respective plant of a plurality of plants, and each plant may have been previously designated as a target for one of the agricultural tasks. It may be determined that a given robot has reached an individual plant associated with the respective agricultural task that was assigned to the given robot. Based at least in part on that determination, a manual control interface may be provided at output component(s) of a computing device in network communication with the given robot. The manual control interface may be operable to manually control the given robot to perform the respective agricultural task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2024
    Assignee: MINERAL EARTH SCIENCES LLC
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Elliott Grant
  • Publication number: 20240212068
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for leveraging private and public agricultural knowledge graphs to generate agricultural inferences for growers, automatically based on agricultural events and/or on demand. In various implementations, public data source(s) may be identified using a public agricultural knowledge graph. These public source(s) may contain public data usable to respond to an agricultural query seeking agricultural inference(s) about a subject agricultural field managed by an agricultural entity. Public data retrieved from the public data source(s) may be encoded into public embedding(s) and passed to a private computing system controlled by the agricultural entity. The private computing system may identify, using a private agricultural knowledge graph, private data source(s) containing private data that can respond to the agricultural query, and encode that private data into private embedding(s).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Publication date: June 27, 2024
    Inventors: Yujing Qian, Zhiqiang Yuan, Yuanyuan Tian, Gaoxiang Chen, Yawen Zhang
  • Publication number: 20240143667
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed herein that enable the generation and processing of user defined functions for customized aggregation and/or joining of instances of agricultural data. Various implementations include agricultural image data which includes one or more high elevation images that capture an agricultural plot. Additional or alternative implementations include transmitting the user defined function to a remote computing device for processing. In some implementations, the user defined function can be processed in tandem with additional user defined functions, where processing of instructions occurring in multiple user defined functions are not repeated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Inventors: Nanzhu Wang, Zhiqiang Yuan, Sai Cheemalapati
  • Publication number: 20240144672
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed herein that enable generating an updated instance of agricultural image data where portions of the instance of agricultural image data are represented in the updated instance of image data as a vector. Various implementations include identifying a contiguous portion of the instance of agricultural image data that captures the same value. Additional or alternative representations include generating a vector representation of the contiguous portion and generating the updated instance of agricultural image data by replacing portions of the image the corresponding portion with the vector representation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Inventors: Nanzhu Wang, Zhiqiang Yuan, Sai Cheemalapati
  • Publication number: 20240112282
    Abstract: Implementations are described herein for leveraging an agricultural knowledge graph to generate messages automatically. In various implementations, an agricultural event may trigger proactive performance of one or more of the following operations. Nodes of the agricultural knowledge graph may be identified as related to the agricultural event, including field node(s) representing subject agricultural field(s) to which the agricultural event is relevant and other node(s) connected to one or more of the field nodes by edge(s). Machine learning model(s) may be accessed based on the identified nodes and/or the edges that connect the identified nodes. Data relevant to the subject agricultural field(s) may be retrieved from data source(s) controlled by an agricultural entity and processed based on the machine learning model(s) to generate inference(s) about the subject agricultural field(s).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2022
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Zhiqiang Yuan, Hong Wu, Yujing Qian, Francis Ebong, Elliott Grant, Ngozi Kanu, Bodi Yuan, Chunfeng Wen, Chen Cao, Yueqi Li
  • Patent number: 11941879
    Abstract: Implementations are disclosed for selectively operating edge-based sensors and/or computational resources under circumstances dictated by observation of targeted plant trait(s) to generate targeted agricultural inferences. In various implementations, triage data may be acquired at a first level of detail from a sensor of an edge computing node carried through an agricultural field. The triage data may be locally processed at the edge using machine learning model(s) to detect targeted plant trait(s) exhibited by plant(s) in the field. Based on the detected plant trait(s), a region of interest (ROI) may be established in the field. Targeted inference data may be acquired at a second, greater level of detail from the sensor while the sensor is carried through the ROI. The targeted inference data may be locally processed at the edge using one or more of the machine learning models to make a targeted inference about plants within the ROI.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: MINERAL EARTH SCIENCES LLC
    Inventors: Sergey Yaroshenko, Zhiqiang Yuan