Robots For Grain Bin Safety
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Farming is a very dangerous occupation, and one of the most dangerous places on a farm is a grain bin. About 25 people die every year from entrapments in grain bins. Grainweevil’s Chad Johnson explains why their goal is to build a tool so that no farmer has to ever get into a grain bin while there’s grain in it.
Johnson… “ It takes less than four seconds to be completely entrapped where they may or may not be able to save you. They say less than 50% of the people that get entrapped get rescued. Whether it's someone accidentally turns on the extraction auger, whether there's a shift in the grain, or if there's a bridging situation like a crust that collapses on you, then you find yourself buried in the grain.”
Johnson’s Grainweevil is designed to do the work that would normally require bin entry. He says it’s a scurry bot with two sets of augers that scurries across the surface of the grain.
Johnson… “ The whole goal to start out with was just to break up crusts and bridges so people wouldn't have to go in there if there was a bad situation in their grain. But as we learn the Grainweevil will can actually move grain. So we can level grain bins. We can push grain out into the extraction augers. So basically just turned into a full scale grain bin management robot.”
Johnson added that robots can do the work that no humans should ever have to do.
