GRAIN WEEVIL’S MISSION IS BIN SAFETY, PRODUCT QUALITY

The Grain Weevil, an Aurora, Neb. company’s robotic invention that preserves the quality of stored grain while eliminating the danger inherent when farmers and others must work inside a grain bin, is the 2022 Innovation Business of the Year.

The Grain Weevil is an autonomous robot that uses augers and gravity to level grain, break crusts, conduct inspections, and feed grain into extraction augers. It is portable and, if accidentally buried, can dig itself out of up to five feet of grain. The goal is to robotically maintain the quality of the grain while keeping farmers out of grain bins, which can be dangerous and deadly.

The invention is the brainchild of Ben Johnson, who worked on the first versions of the Grain Weevil while he was an undergrad student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

In the second year, Johnson was joined by his roommate, software engineer Zane Zents. Johnson has since graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and serves as Grain Weevil’s chief innovation officer. Zents graduated with a degree in computer science and mathematics and is the company’s lead software engineer.

The company is led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Chad Johnson, Ben’s father. Chad has more than two decades of informal science education experience, including exhibit design, curriculum development, and program facilitation. He was a NASA MESSENGER Fellow, the Association of Science and Technology Centers’ Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge award winner, and the recipient of the American Public Power Association’s Energy Innovator award.

Chad’s interest in education is leading to a new collaboration this spring between the Grain Weevil company and a group of UNO College of Business Administration undergraduate seniors taught by Patty Bick, Ph.D., associate professor of finance, banking, and real estate.

“Together with Dr. Bick, we’ve come up with a couple different feasibility projects that four teams of students will work on,” Chad says. “This provides a higher level of engagement for them. They get to work with real numbers to produce accurate predictions and evaluations. While they gain real workforce skills through innovation, their proposals will eventually be extremely useful for us.”

The idea for the Grain Weevil grew from a conversation between Ben Johnson and an Aurora farmer. Chad recalls the two were discussing Ben’s first major robotics project. “He said, ‘Hey, if you can build that robot, you could build me a robot to stay out of the grain bin,’” Chad says.

The team went to work, and after two years of trials and hundreds of hours, they finished the prototype robot.

The Johnsons and Zents consulted with the Nebraska Business Development Center for assistance with an initial business plan, as well as applications for grants through the

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) federal funding program and the Nebraska Innovation Fund.

The company also joined The Combine Incubator program based in Lincoln. The Combine Incubator hosts food and agriculture technology companies and leads them through its commercialization program, which begins with goal setting and idea assessment with a focus on pursuing capital.

In 2021, Grain Weevil received the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, along with $10,000. Earlier in 2022, Grain Weevil finished in first place and won $50,000 in the Ag Innovation Challenge competition, sponsored by American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) in partnership with Farm Credit Services of America.

Grain Weevil also received a 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Research Grant worth $256,000, and that was coupled with a Nebraska Innovation Fund matching grant worth $100,000. In late February, the company submitted its application for a Phase II SBIR grant worth $1 million.

“Our research is focusing on the tasks necessary for the robot to provide the right functions within the grain bin,” Chad Johnson says. “It has to be able to meet a wide range of variables including the moisture content of the grain and temperatures that range from below zero to over 120 degrees. We also are working to develop the robot’s capabilities in a very hazardous environment.

The Grain Weevil is currently undergoing trials in grain bins on farms in Nebraska, Iowa, and Tennessee, and at a commercial facility in Illinois. Chad says the mission of the Aurora-based company is simple: “No boots in the grain.”

“Going inside a grain bin is the worst job on the farm,” he says. “We want to prevent the deaths and injuries that occur in grain bins every year, while also maintaining the high quality of the grain being stored.”