Robotic multi-peak leveling of piled granular material
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.
Claims20
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 a pile of granular material in a bulk store, wherein the pile of granular material comprises multiple peaks;
- and
- direct traversal, by the robot, about atop surfaces of portions of multiple peaks of the pile of the granular material in the bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portions such that the multiple peaks are smoothed and leveled, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of each of the portions of the pile of granular material through agitation of the portions by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system.
A method of multi-peak leveling of piled granular material, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of pile of granular material in a bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor of the robot according to the instructions, movement of the robot relative to the of the pile of granular material via an auger-based drive system of the robot;
- and
- traversing, by the robot, about atop surfaces of portions of multiple peaks of the pile of granular material in the bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portions such that the multiple peaks are smoothed and leveled, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of each of the portions of the pile of granular material through agitation of the portions by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions embodied thereon which, when executed, cause a processor to perform a method of robotic multi-peak leveling of piled granular material, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a robot, instructions to traverse a surface of pile of granular material in a bulk store;
- controlling, by a processor of the robot according to the instructions, movement of the robot relative to the of the pile of granular material via an auger-based drive system of the robot;
- and
- directing traversal, by the robot, about atop surfaces of portions of multiple peaks of the pile of granular material in the bulk store to incite sediment gravity flow in the portions such that the multiple peaks are smoothed and leveled, wherein the sediment gravity flow is incited by disruption of viscosity of each of the portions of the pile of granular material through agitation of the portions by auger rotation of the auger-based drive system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.