Agricultural sampling system and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021208035-A1
Application number	US-202117144066-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 7, 2021
Priority date	Jul 10, 2018
Publication date	Jul 8, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

An automated computer-controlled sampling system and related methods for collecting, processing, and analyzing agricultural samples for various chemical properties such as plant available nutrients. The sampling system allows multiple samples to be processed and analyzed for different analytes or chemical properties in a simultaneous concurrent or semi-concurrent manner. Advantageously, the system can process soil samples in the “as collected” condition without drying or grinding. The system generally includes a sample preparation sub-system which receives soil samples collected by a probe collection sub-system and produces a slurry (i.e. mixture of soil, vegetation, and/or manure and water), and a chemical analysis sub-system which processes the prepared slurry samples for quantifying multiple analytes and/or chemical properties of the sample. The sample preparation and chemical analysis sub-systems can be used to analyze soil, vegetation, and/or manure samples.

First claim

1 . A fluidic processing device for analysis of agricultural samples comprising:
a body comprised of a plurality of connected layers; a plurality of external fluid exchange ports to exchange process fluids with the device; an internal flow network comprising a plurality of fluidic channels fluidly coupled to the fluid exchange ports; a plurality of diaphragm pumps; a plurality of diaphragm valves to control flow of agricultural slurry; wherein the flow network is configured to receive and mix a chemical and agricultural slurry to form a slurry mixture.

2 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the diaphragm pumps are arranged in the flow network of channels, and the diaphragm valves are arranged in the flow network.

3 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of diaphragm pumps comprises a chemical pump and a slurry pump.

4 . The device according to claim 2 , wherein the plurality of diaphragm pumps comprises a chemical pump and a slurry pump.

5 . The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a chemical reservoir arranged in the flow network downstream of the chemical pump to store a predetermined volume of chemical, and a slurry reservoir arranged in the flow network downstream of the slurry pump to store a predetermined volume of slurry.

6 . The device according to claim 5 , wherein the chemical and slurry pumps are arranged in the flow network upstream of their respective reservoirs.

7 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the body is formed from a plurality of chemical processing manifolds detachably interlocked together, each processing manifold comprising a separate internal flow network of fluidic channels fluidly isolated from the flow network of every other processing manifolds.

8 . The device according to claim 7 , wherein each processing manifold includes a separate chemical pump and slurry pump arranged in its respective flow network.

Assignees

• Prec Planting Llc

Inventors

• Swanson Todd
• Koch Dale
• Splechter Hayden
• Schaefer Timothy

Classifications

• G01N35/1072

  with provision for selective pipetting of individual channels · CPC title

• G01N35/08

  using a stream of discrete samples flowing along a tube system, e.g. flow injection analysis · CPC title

• G01N2001/4061

  Solvent extraction · CPC title

• G01N1/4055

  by solubility techniques · CPC title

• G01N1/04

  in the solid state, e.g. by cutting · CPC title