It’s not yet ready for market, but a little robot gadget is a game-changer for agriculture safety and could save lives by preventing grain-bin accidents. The device has already caught the eye of at least one Wyoming farmer, who told Cowboy State Daily he hopes it will be available soon.
Ron Rabou, a farmer in southeast Wyoming, has been watching the progress of the little gadget, which is called the Grain Weevil, for quite some time.
The remote-controlled robot was created by a Nebraska family whose farmer friend pleaded with them to build him a robot so he never had to risk going into a dangerous grain bin again.
Noting on their website that there are around 25 grain-bin engulfment deaths a year, Grain Weevil has adopted the motto “No boots in the grain.”
That’s a motto that sits well with Rabou, who grows wheat and other grains near Cheyenne.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of grain you’re raising, it’s all dangerous when it’s in a bin,” Rabou told Cowboy State Daily. “All you have to do is just collapse one empty pocket, and it can just, as soon as it has pressure on it, collapse and pull everything into it.”
Everything, in the case of many family farms, is likely to be either a good friend or family member. That makes grain-bin entrapment a very personal tragedy, both for the farm family and the surrounding farming community.
Rabou said given the choice of sending a robot into a grain bin or a person, it’s going to be the robot every time.
Why Grain Bins Are So Dangerous
While some posts on a recent X (formerly Twitter) post thought the issue with grain bins might be fumes, that’s actually not the biggest danger. Granted, long-term exposure to the damp, moist air inside a grain bin can cause a condition known as farmer’s lung.
But the primary danger, the one that costs so many lives every year, is engulfment.
“A lot of times, farmers get in those bins to try to move grain along,” Rabou said. “And if there’s a pocket and it collapses, you can get sucked all the way down into the auger system. So, it’s just, every time you enter a grain bin, it’s dangerous.”
Digging a person out of a grain bin is next to impossible once that happens, Rabou explained. The grain flows like water and acts a lot like quicksand.
“Imagine digging a hole in the ground and, as you’re pulling the dirt out, it’s just going to fall back into the hole,” Rabou said. “It’s like quicksand. Once it pulls you in, you’re in. You’re not getting out unless you have something to pull against.”
Research into grain bin engulfment has shown that people can really only escape from grain entrapment if it remains below knee level. Once they are submerged above that point, assistance is required, and, if it’s reached chest level, it’s an emergency situation. The pressure on a human body submerged in grain feels similar to a semi-truck, survivors have said. Breathing becomes difficult, and the blood won’t circulate properly.
A human body partially submerged also won’t float for long in grain. It will begin to rapidly sink, just like in quicksand.
Once completely submerged, suffocation can occur within minutes, while finding someone who is completely submerged in a grain bin could take hours.
A Nebraska company has developed a pioneering robot called a Grain Weevil that can do everything in a grain bin a human with a shovel might need to do. It’s a dramatic step up in safety for farmers, one that Wyoming farmers say is game-changing. (Courtesy Grain Weevil) 
A Nebraska company has developed a pioneering robot called a Grain Weevil that can do everything in a grain bin a human with a shovel might need to do. It’s a dramatic step up in safety for farmers, one that Wyoming farmers say is game-changing. (Courtesy Grain Weevil) 
A Nebraska company has developed a pioneering robot called a Grain Weevil that can do everything in a grain bin a human with a shovel might need to do. It’s a dramatic step up in safety for farmers, one that Wyoming farmers say is game-changing. (Courtesy Grain Weevil)
Industry Likes It
Donn Nolin, co-owner of Quality Storage Solutions in Denver, which sells grain bins manufactured by Sukup Manufacturing throughout the Rockies, had never heard of the Grain Weevil before, but told Cowboy State Daily that he thought a device like that could catch on with the agricultural industry in a big way once it does come to market.
“From our standpoint, Sukup spends a lot of time trying to develop safety, and they’re one of the foremost leaders out there, as far as trying to be innovative in their safety as it pertains to grain bins on the farm,” he said. “We do highly encourage people to stay out of the bins and don’t get into the grain bin, but anything like (the Grain Weevil) would be highly supported by me. We would like to see safer methods come to market.”
As part of its safety promotions, Sukup even funded the production of a 2019 movie called “Silo,” a drama that followed a teenager named Cody, who gets trapped in a 50-foot grain silo and has to be rescued. The movie, which has been shown across the Midwest, shows just how personal grain bin tragedies are for the communities where they happen, as well as illustrates some of the difficulties involved in rescuing someone.
“Wyoming has a drier climate as a rule,” Nolin added. “They don’t get the humidity they do back in the Midwest, where they seem to have more exposure and more accidents. But this is something that can happen anywhere.”
Available Soon?
Videos of the Grain Weevil in action show the 50-pound robot doing just about anything a person with a shovel might need to do in a grain bin — tamping down air pockets, scooping stuck grain off the walls and breaking up surface crust so that the grain will dry properly.
The company has received a total of $1.1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to develop its product, and it appears to be nearing the point where the device will be available commercially. This past year, it set up a BinAssist Network, where it is testing the use of this device in grain bins. Some of the states where the device is being tested, according to its map of the network, include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska.
Cowboy State Daily emailed and called the company but did not receive a response for further details about the product’s timeline for commercial availability.
Rabou said he’s hopeful it will be available soon, and said he plans to seriously consider buying one.
“I don’t know of anyone personally this has happened to yet,” he said. “But I hear of incidents every single year where people who went in to check a grain bin ended up dead. In fact, it just happened recently to one of my friends. In Ohio, who had a neighbor that very thing happened to.”
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
