US-12616079-B2 - Information processing method, non-transitory storage medium, and information processing device

US12616079B2US 12616079 B2US12616079 B2US 12616079B2US-12616079-B2

Abstract

An information processing method is executed by an information processing device configured to decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying by an unmanned aerial vehicle. The information processing method includes acquiring information about each of a plurality of farm fields and deciding an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over a first farm field to be sprayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle based on information about a second farm field located around the first farm field.

Inventors

Ryotaro Fujiwara
Hirotada Nakanishi
Fuhito Kodama
Yuki Uchida
Satoshi KOMAMINE
Yoshinori Okada
Satoshi Hirano

Assignees

TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230512
Priority Date: 20220516

Claims (20)

1 . An information processing method executed by an information processing device configured to decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying by an unmanned aerial vehicle, the information processing method comprising: acquiring information about each of a plurality of farm fields; deciding an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over a first farm field of the plurality of farm fields to be sprayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle based on information about a second farm field of the plurality of farm fields located around the first farm field; and transmitting a signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle to cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically perform the agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field at the decided execution timing, wherein the information processing method further comprises acquiring information indicating a scheduled execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle, the information about each of the plurality of farm fields includes information indicating whether or not harvesting of a crop in each of the plurality of farm fields has been completed, and the information processing device is configured to decide that the scheduled execution timing is the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has been completed.
2 . The information processing method according to claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, to a manager of the second farm field, a message requesting that harvesting of the crop in the second farm field is to be completed before the scheduled execution timing when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has not been completed.
3 . The information processing method according to claim 2 , further comprising giving a reward to the manager of the second farm field when the manager of the second farm field responds to a request of the message.
4 . The information processing method according to claim 1 , wherein: the information about each of the plurality of farm fields further includes information indicating a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the information processing device is configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field.
5 . The information processing method according to claim 4 , further comprising acquiring information indicating the crop in the first farm field, for which an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable, wherein: the information about each of the plurality of farm fields includes information indicating the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the information processing device is configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the crop in the second farm field does not correspond to the crop for which the agricultural chemical is usable.
6 . The information processing method according to claim 1 , wherein the signal is transmitted to the unmanned aerial vehicle by a communicator of the information processing device, the communicator includes a communication interface configured to connect to a network, and the communication interface corresponds to at least one of a mobile communication standard, a wired local area network (LAN) standard, or a wireless LAN standard.
7 . The information processing method according to claim 4 , further comprising acquiring information indicating a timing when an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable for the crop in the first farm field, wherein the information processing device is configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the scheduled execution timing does not correspond to the timing when the agricultural chemical is usable for the crop in the second farm field.
8 . A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that are executable by one or more processors in an information processing device configured to decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying by an unmanned aerial vehicle and that cause the one or more processors to perform: acquiring information about each of a plurality of farm fields; deciding an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over a first farm field of the plurality of farm fields to be sprayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle based on information about a second farm field of the plurality of farm fields located around the first farm field; and transmitting a signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle to cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically perform the agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field at the decided execution timing, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform acquiring information indicating a scheduled execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle on the information processing device, the information about each of the farm fields includes information indicating whether or not harvesting of a crop in each of the plurality of farm fields has been completed; and the one or more processors are configured to decide that the scheduled execution timing is the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has been completed.
9 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform transmitting, to a manager of the second farm field, a message requesting that harvesting of the crop in the second farm field is to be completed before the scheduled execution timing when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has not been completed.
10 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform giving a reward to the manager of the second farm field when the manager of the second farm field responds to a request of the message.
11 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein: the information about each of the plurality of farm fields further includes information indicating a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the one or more processors are configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field.
12 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform acquiring information indicating the crop in the first farm field, for which an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable, wherein: the information about each of the plurality of farm fields includes information indicating the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the one or more processors are configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the crop in the second farm field does not correspond to the crop for which the agricultural chemical is usable.
13 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein the signal is transmitted to the unmanned aerial vehicle by a communicator of the information processing device, the communicator includes a communication interface configured to connect to a network, and the communication interface corresponds to at least one of a mobile communication standard, a wired local area network (LAN) standard, or a wireless LAN standard.
14 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform acquiring information indicating a timing when an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable for the crop in the first farm field, wherein the one or more processors are configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the scheduled execution timing does not correspond to the timing when the agricultural chemical is usable for the crop in the second farm field.
15 . An information processing device configured to decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying by an unmanned aerial vehicle, the information processing device comprising a communicator and a processor to: acquire information about each of a plurality of farm fields; decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over a first farm field of the plurality of farm fields to be sprayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle based on information about a second farm field of the plurality of farm fields located around the first farm field; and cause the communicator to transmit a signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle to cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically perform the agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field at the decided execution timing, wherein the processor is configured to acquire information indicating a scheduled execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle, the information about each of the plurality of farm fields includes information indicating whether or not harvesting of a crop in each of the plurality of farm fields has been completed, and the processor is configured to decide the scheduled execution timing as the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has been completed.
16 . The information processing device according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to cause the communicator to transmit, to a manager of the second farm field, a message requesting that harvesting of the crop in the second farm field is to be completed before the scheduled execution timing when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has not been completed.
17 . The information processing device according to claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to execute a process of giving a reward to the manager of the second farm field when the manager of the second farm field responds to a request of the message.
18 . The information processing device according to claim 15 , wherein the information about each of the plurality of farm fields further includes information indicating a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the processor is configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than a scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field.
19 . The information processing device according to claim 18 , wherein: the information about each of the plurality of farm fields includes information indicating the crop in each of the plurality of farm fields; and the processor is configured to acquire information indicating the crop in the first farm field, for which an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable; and the processor is configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the crop in the second farm field does not correspond to the crop for which the agricultural chemical is usable.
20 . The information processing device according to claim 15 , wherein the communicator includes a communication interface configured to connect to a network, and the communication interface corresponds to at least one of a mobile communication standard, a wired local area network (LAN) standard, or a wireless LAN standard.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-080443 filed on May 16, 2022, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The disclosure relates to an information processing method, a non-transitory storage medium, and an information processing device. 2. Description of Related Art The technique of spraying an agricultural chemical over a farm field by using an unmanned aerial vehicle, such as a drone, is known. For example, WO 2021/140657 discloses that when a drone is flown along a flight route including an edge route and a central route over a farm field, control is executed such that a flight altitude of the edge route is lower than a flight altitude of the central route. SUMMARY There is room for improvement in the technique of spraying an agricultural chemical over a farm field by using an unmanned aerial vehicle. For example, when an agricultural chemical sprayed over a certain farm field is scattered to other surrounding farm fields, the scattered agricultural chemical may adversely affect crops in the other farm fields. The disclosure is to improve the technique of spraying an agricultural chemical over a farm field using unmanned aerial vehicles. A first aspect of the disclosure relates to an information processing method executed by an information processing device configured to decide an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying by an unmanned aerial vehicle. The information processing method includes acquiring information about each of a plurality of farm fields and deciding an execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over a first farm field to be sprayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle based on information about a second farm field located around the first farm field. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information processing method may further include acquiring information indicating a scheduled execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle. The information about each of the farm field may include information indicating whether or not harvesting of a crop in the farm field has been completed, and the information processing device may be configured to decide that the scheduled execution timing is the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle when harvesting of a crop in the second farm field has been completed. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information processing method may further include transmitting, to a manager of the second farm field, a message requesting that harvesting of the crop in the second farm field is to be completed before the scheduled execution timing when harvesting of the crop in the second farm field has not been completed. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information processing method may further include giving a reward to the manager of the second farm field when the manager of the second farm field responds to a request of the message. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information about each of the farm fields may include information indicating a scheduled harvest timing of a crop in the farm field, and the information processing device may be configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than a scheduled harvest timing of a crop in the second farm field. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information processing method may further include acquiring information indicating a crop for which an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable, the information about each of the farm fields may include information indicating the crop in the farm field, and the information processing device may be configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the crop in the second farm field does not correspond to the crop for which the agricultural chemical is usable. In the first aspect of the disclosure, the information processing method may further include acquiring information indicating a scheduled execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle and information indicating a timing when an agricultural chemical to be sprayed over the first farm field is usable for the crop, and the information processing device may be configured to decide the execution timing of agricultural chemical spraying over the first farm field by the unmanned aerial vehicle to be later than the scheduled harvest timing of the crop in the second farm field when the scheduled execution timing does not correspond to the timing when the agricultural chemical is usable for the cr