Robotic sod stacker
AssigneeSteiner Turf Equipment, Inc.
InventorsEmanuel A. Hendriks, Mathias M. Hendriks, Johannes G. Hendriks, Wilhelmus J. Hendriks, David S. Johnsen, Gerald L. Douglas, Frank R. Pohlman, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A numerically-controlled robotic manipulator arm mounted to a sod harvester comprises two segments pivotally coupled together. One segment is rotatably coupled to a fixed base on the harvester while the second segment carries a pick-up head which can turn with respect to the segment. The pick-up head is capable of picking up, holding, and releasing sod rolls. The arm is programmable so that a variety of configurations of stacked sod rolls can be achieved.
Claims10
An apparatus for cutting and stacking rolls of sod comprising:
- a wheeled chassis for traversing a sod field;
- a horizontal cutting mechanism for cutting a plurality of sod strips;
- an accumulator configured to hold the plurality of sod strips;
- a sod roller configured to roll the sod strips prior to transferring the sod to the accumulator;
- a conveyor configured to transfer sod from the cutting mechanism to the accumulator;
- a robotic arm configured to lift the plurality of sod strips from the accumulator to a sod storage location;
- and
- a controller configured to control the actuation of the accumulator and the robotic arm, wherein the accumulator comprises a retractable portion which allows an operator to return a rejected sod roll to the sod field, and wherein the robotic arm comprises a horizontal pick-up head having a plurality of gripper modules, each gripper module comprising a concave stripper, and configured to engage a separate individual sod roll.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.