Inciting sediment gravity flow in piled grain
AssigneeGrain Weevil Corporation
InventorsZane Zents, Chad E. Johnson, Benjamin H. Johnson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A piled grain surface management robot comprises an auger-based drive system, a memory, and a processor coupled with the memory. The processor is configured to control movement of the robot via the auger-based drive system. The processor is also configured to direct a traversal of a surface of piled grain in a bulk store, wherein a crust layer of the surface is broken up by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system during the traversal.
Claims23
A piled grain surface management robot, the robot comprising:
- an auger-based drive system comprising bilateral augers;
- a memory;
- and
- a processor coupled with the memory and configured to:
- control movement of the robot via the bilateral augers of the auger-based drive system to traverse about a surface of piled grain in a bulk store;
- and
- direct a traversal, by the robot, about a sloped portion of the surface of the piled grain to incite sediment gravity flow in the sloped portion by disruption of viscosity of the sloped portion through agitation of the sloped portion by auger rotation of the bilateral augers of the auger-based drive system, wherein the sediment gravity flow reduces an angle of slope of the sloped portion.
A method of piled grain surface management, the method comprising:
- receiving at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of piled grain in a bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor according to the instructions, movement of the robot via bilateral augers of an auger-based drive system to traverse about the surface of the piled grain in the bulk store;
- and
- directing, by the processor according to the instructions, a traversal by the robot about a sloped portion of the surface of piled grain to incite sediment gravity flow in the sloped portion by disruption of viscosity of the sloped portion through agitation of the sloped portion by auger rotation of the bilateral augers of the auger-based drive system, wherein the sediment gravity flow reduces an angle of slope of the sloped portion.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions embodied thereon which, when executed, cause a processor to perform a method of piled grain surface management, the method comprising:
- receiving at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of piled grain in a bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor according to the instructions, movement of the robot via bilateral augers of an auger-based drive system to traverse about the surface of the piled grain in the bulk store;
- and
- directing, by the processor according to the instructions, a traversal by the robot about a sloped portion of the surface of piled grain to incite sediment gravity flow in the sloped portion by disruption of viscosity of the sloped portion through agitation of the sloped portion by auger rotation of the bilateral augers of the auger-based drive system, wherein the sediment gravity flow reduces an angle of slope of the sloped portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.