Robot-Loving Nebraska Family Invented One Meant to Save Nebraska Farmers

Each year, dozens of American farmers are injured or killed after they climb into a grain bin.

A father-son duo from Aurora founded their one-of-a-kind company with one mission: No more boots in that grain.

Chad Johnson and son Ben Johnson have created a robot, the Grain Weevil, meant to do most of the necessary – and oft-dangerous – tasks that farmers do inside their bins.

The pair started developing their robot in 2020, after a farmer friend asked them to build a robot so the farmer would never have to go inside a bin again.

There’s ample reason to want to stay out of grain bins, the large metal cylindrical structures many farmers use to keep harvested grain dry and free of insects.

Each year, workers are injured or killed after becoming trapped, suffocating or having a heart attack. The job is so dangerous that there’s a designated Grain Bin Safety Week each February.

The Grain Weevil, a potential solution to some of this danger, is now winning acclaim as it undergoes safety trials in four states and draws closer to a release date.

The company was recently named the 2022 NBDC Innovation Business of the Year.

If certified, the Grain Weevil will become the only grain bin safety robot of its kind commercially available in the world. It’s already something else: The centerpiece of a years-long labor of love for one robot-loving Nebraska family.

An Early Passion For Robots

Ben Johnson took to robotics early, entering robotics competitions while still in grade school. When he joined the high school robotics team, his dad Chad Johnson was his coach.

“I dragged him to the state fair and made him do demonstrations because it’s just a really cool way to try to give him skills to be able to do something that would be fun,” Chad Johnson said. “Then all of a sudden the projects turned into a real business.”

In high school, Ben Johnson got into designing printed circuit boards and doing wiring to create custom robots for several small businesses.

Source: nebraskapublicmedia.org

Photo Credit: pexels-adam-sondel