Robotic grain walk down in a flat storage bulk store
AssigneeGrain Weevil Corporation
InventorsBenjamin H. Johnson, Chad E. Johnson, Zane Zents
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robot comprises an auger-based drive system, a memory, and a processor coupled with the memory and configured to control movement of the robot, via the auger-based drive system, relative to grain in a flat storage bulk store. The processor is further configured to direct traversal, by the robot, of a portion of a pile of the grain in the flat storage bulk store. The traversal is performed to incite sediment gravity flow in the portion of pile of grain system to walk-down the grain in the portion. The sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of the portion of the pile of grain through agitation of the portion of the pile of grain by auger rotation of the auger-based drive.
Claims17
A robot comprising:
- an auger-based drive system;
- a memory;
- and
- a processor coupled with the memory and configured to:
- control movement of the robot, via the auger-based drive system, relative to grain in a flat storage bulk store;
- and
- direct traversal, by the robot, of a portion of a pile of the grain in the flat storage bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portion of pile of grain to walk-down the grain in the portion, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of the portion of the pile of grain through agitation of the portion of the pile of grain by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system, wherein the portion is in a corner region of the flat storage bulk store, and wherein the traversal walks down grain of the pile of grain into the corner region to raise an elevation of grain in the corner region to a predetermined elevation.
A method of robotic grain walk down in a flat storage bulk store, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of pile of grain in a flat storage bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor of the robot according to the instructions, movement of the robot relative to grain in the flat storage bulk store via an auger-based drive system of the robot;
- and
- traversing, by the robot, of a portion of a pile of the grain in the flat storage bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portion of pile of grain to walk-down the grain in the portion, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of the portion of the pile of grain through agitation of the portion of the pile of grain by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system, wherein the portion is a corner region of the flat storage bulk store, and wherein the traversal walks down the grain into the corner region until an elevation of the grain in the corner region reaches a predetermined elevation.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions embodied thereon which, when executed, cause a processor to perform a method of robotic grain walk down in a flat storage bulk store, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of pile of grain in a flat storage bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor of the robot according to the instructions, movement of the robot relative to grain in the flat storage bulk store via an auger-based drive system of the robot;
- and
- directing traversal, by the robot, of a portion of a pile of the grain in the flat storage bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portion of pile of grain to walk-down the grain in the portion, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of the portion of the pile of grain through agitation of the portion of the pile of grain by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system, wherein the portion is a corner region of the flat storage bulk store, and wherein the traversal walks down the grain into the corner region until an elevation of the grain in the corner region reaches a predetermined elevation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.