Agricultural sampling system and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021208036-A1
Application number	US-202117144107-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 system for determining the volume of a collected sample, the system comprising:
a chamber of known fixed volume having an inlet; an actuated sample loading valve fluidly coupled to the inlet for introducing a sample into the chamber; a reference container of known fixed volume fluidly coupled to the chamber by a flow conduit controlled by a gas valve; a pressurized gas source fluidly coupled to the reference container; an actuated outlet valve fluidly coupled to the chamber; and a pressure sensor.

2 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a mixer comprising a motor-driven blade assembly.

3 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a reference slurry outlet valve fluidly coupled to the chamber.

4 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a weighing device fluidly coupled to the reference slurry outlet valve, the weighing device configured and operable to receive and measure a weight of at least a portion of slurry extracted from the mixing chamber.

5 . The system according to claim 2 , further comprising a weighing device fluidly coupled to the reference slurry outlet valve, the weighing device configured and operable to receive and measure a weight of at least a portion of slurry extracted from the mixing chamber.

6 . The system according to claim 3 , further comprising a weighing device fluidly coupled to the reference slurry outlet valve, the weighing device configured and operable to receive and measure a weight of at least a portion of slurry extracted from the mixing chamber.

7 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a programmable controller operably and communicably coupled to the mixing device, valves, solvent pump, and weighing device which controls operation of the system.

8 . The system according to claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to:
open the agricultural sample loading valve to add the agricultural sample to the mixing chamber; operate the solvent pump to add solvent to the mixing chamber; operate the blade assembly to prepare the slurry; open the reference slurry outlet valve, whereby at least a portion of the slurry flows into the weighing device; and obtain a weight of the slurry from the weighing device.

9 . The system according to claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to add additional solvent to the slurry in the mixing chamber in accordance with a preprogrammed target solvent to agricultural sample ratio, and operate the blade assembly to remix the additional solvent and slurry.

10 . The system according to claim 9 , wherein the controller is further configured to open the main slurry outlet valve to transfer the remixed slurry to an analysis system to measure an analyte in the remixed slurry.

11 . The system according to claim 10 , wherein the weighing device is a weigh coil.

12 . The system according to claim 11 , wherein the weight coil includes a strain gauge operable to measure the weight of the reference slurry.

13 . The system according to claim 11 , further comprising a movable excitation plunger which acts on a target surface integrally formed with or rigidly attached to the weigh coil, and an electronic vibration sensor located proximate to the target surface, the plunger operable to strike the target surface inducing a vibration in the weigh coil generating a frequency response measured by the sensor to determine the weight of the reference slurry.

14 . The system according to claim 11 , further comprising an emitting piezo transducer mounted on one end of the weigh coil and excited at a specified predetermined frequency to induce vibration in the weigh coil, and a separate receiving piezo transducer mounted on the opposite end of the weigh coil which measures a response of the weigh coil to the induced frequency for determining the weight of the reference slurry.

15 . The system according to claim 11 , further comprising an electronic vibration sensor located proximate to the weigh coil, the electronic vibration sensor generating a frequency response measured by the sensor to determine the weight of the reference slurry, wherein system operation generates an excitation.

16 . A method for preparing an agricultural sample slurry controlled by a programmable controller, the controller performing steps comprising:
adding an amount of agricultural sample to a mixing chamber of a mixer; adding a known volume of solvent to a mixing chamber of a mixer; mixing the solvent and agricultural sample to prepare a slurry; extracting at least a portion of slurry from the mixing chamber; transferring the at least a portion of slurry to a weighing device; obtaining a weight of the at least a portion of slurry using the weighing device; determining a volume of slurry in the mixing chamber; determining an initial solvent to agricultural sample ratio of the at least a portion of slurry; and comparing the initial solvent to agricultural sample ratio to a target solvent to agricultural sample ratio preprogrammed into the controller.

17 . The method according to claim 16 , further comprising after the comparing step:
adding an additional volume of solvent to the mixing chamber to obtain the target solvent to agricultural sample ratio of the slurry; and mixing the slurry with additional volume of solvent with the blade assembly.

18 . The method according to claim 16 , further comprising after the step of adding the agricultural sample, estimating a volume of the agricultural sample by volumizing.

Assignees

• Prec Planting Llc

Inventors

• Swanson Todd
• Koch Dale
• Levy Kent
• O'Neall Matthew
• Harman Reid
• Schaefer Timothy
• Vaccari Adam

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