Blue River Technology Inc.

Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.

Deere + Company

Thomas W Brown

Eric M Gawehn

Thomas G Cooper

Kent M Anderson

Bruce M Schena

Roman L Devengenzo

David L Martin

Scott Osborne Luke

Lee Kamp Redden

James Patrick Ostrowski

Edward William Jeffcott Pell

Rajesh Radhakrishnan

Deaglan Halligan

Isabelle Heye

Scott O Luke

David Martin

A treatment system for spraying treatment fluid onto plants in a field is described. The treatment system includes a configurable treatment mechanism including an array of nozzles and valve assemblies coupled into manifolds, and manifold assemblies. The nozzle comprises a nozzle housing and an insert assembly contained within the nozzle housing. When coupled, a top casing including a fluid inlet and a bottom casing including at least one fluid outlet form the nozzle housing. The insert assembly comprises at least one nozzle insert to fluidically couple the fluid inlet and the fluid outlets such that fluid entering from the fluid inlet exits the nozzle housing through the fluid outlets.

Nozzles with interchangeable inserts for precision application of crop protectant

An instrument includes a tubular shaft, an end effector coupled to a distal end portion of the tubular shaft, and a relief feature extending circumferentially along a wall of the shaft and along at least a portion of a length of the shaft. The relief feature defines flexural members on opposing sides of the relief feature. The flexural members can move relative to one another in response to bending the shaft. The flexural members can engage one another on one or both of tension and compression sides of the shaft on the condition the shaft is bent to an angle within a predetermined range of bend angles. Systems and methods relate to instruments including such shafts.

Instrument shafts with relief features, and related devices, systems, and methods

A treatment system for spraying treatment fluid onto plants in a field is described. The treatment system includes a highly configurable treatment mechanism including an array of nozzles and valve assemblies coupled into manifolds, and manifold assemblies. The manifolds of the manifold assemblies can be oriented in an open state or a nested state, the open state with no overlap between nozzles of adjacent manifolds and the nested state with overlap between nozzles of adjacent manifolds. The manifolds can have multiple configurations, examples of which include a tube manifold and an offset manifold. The nozzles of the system can have multiple configurations, examples of which include a tri-spray nozzle, a bar nozzle, a fan nozzle, and a deflected fan nozzle. The system can be controlled by a system controller which detects plant material and instructs a nozzle or combination of nozzles to spray treatment fluid.

Nozzle, valve, and manifold assembly for precision application of crop protectant

A robotic surgery system includes an orienting platform, a support linkage movably supporting the orienting platform, a plurality of surgical instrument manipulators, and a plurality of set-up linkages. Each of the manipulators includes an instrument holder and is operable to rotate the instrument holder around a remote center of manipulation (RC). At least one of the manipulators includes a reorientation mechanism that when actuated moves the attached manipulator through a motion that maintains the associated RC in a fixed position.

Multi-port surgical robotic system architecture

A plant treatment system automatically adjusts camera operation parameters for a camera used by the plant treatment system to identify and treat plants in a field. The plant treatment system can generate image segments of images received from the camera and classify the image segments based on whether the image segments represent plants. The plant treatment system determines whether each of the image segments is over- or under-exposed and adjusts the camera operation parameters for the camera based on the exposure classification of the image segments. Alternatively, the plant treatment system may use a plant detection model to identify plant pixels within an image that represent plants. The plant treatment system can then determine whether the identified plant pixels are over- or under-exposed and adjust the camera operation parameters accordingly.

Automatic camera parameter adjustment on a plant treatment system

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Thomas W Brown