A Commodity Monitoring System and Related Methods

A method of monitoring a commodity within a container, the method comprising:

• applying an energy to the commodity within the container via at least one antenna probe of an antenna array mounted within the container;
• receiving remaining energy that has passed through at least a portion of the commodity or an interior of the container via at least one other antenna probe of the antenna array;
• based on the received remaining energy, determining measurement data;
• comparing the determined measurement data to reference measurement data of a known state of a given antenna probe of the antenna array;
• and
• based at least partially on the comparison, determining whether the given antenna probe of the antenna array is in the commodity within the container or out of the commodity within the container.

A system comprising:

• a container housing a commodity;
• an antenna array having a plurality of antenna probes within the container;
• an antenna controller operably coupled to and in communication with the antenna array;
• a commodity monitoring system in communication with the antenna controller and comprising:
• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the commodity monitoring system to:
• receive measurement data from the antenna array;
• compare the received measurement data to reference measurement data of known states of the plurality of antenna probes of the antenna array;
• and
• based at least partially on the comparison, determine whether a given antenna probe of the plurality of antenna probes of the antenna array is in the commodity within the container or out of the commodity within the container.