Autonomous mobile robots for movable production systems
Published in USPTO, 2022
đź“Ś Overview
This patent, granted on December 27, 2022, describes a modular autonomous agriculture system that revolutionizes vertical farming through mobile, sensor-integrated plant pods serviced by autonomous robotics. The system comprises agriculture pods (vertical, multi‑tier plant towers with embedded sensors), a stationary robot system for farming operations, and mobile robots that transport pods autonomously within the facility (patentcut.com).
Why It Matters
Traditional vertical farming systems are constrained by fixed infrastructure, requiring permanent wiring and plumbing for each growing location. This patent addresses the need for flexible, scalable indoor farming solutions that can dynamically optimize plant placement, resource allocation, and operational efficiency without the limitations of static installations.
Core Innovations
Flexible, mobile pods Pods include plant towers in geometries like cylinder, spiral, or pyramid. They contain sensors to monitor plant health and growing conditions (patentcut.com).
Stationary robot system integration Reads data from pods, generates operations schedules, controls robot arms and cameras to perform precise interventions according to sensor insights (patentcut.com).
Mobile robot autonomy Executes routing—either via centralized commands or onboard planning. Lifts pods using risers off the ground, rotates them for proper alignment relative to the station, then transports to new locations (patentcut.com).
Connected cloud‑user ecosystem Optional remote app and cloud service to visualize sensor data, images, and analytics. Enables remote operation planning, schedule updates, and machine learning workflows (patentcut.com).
Technical Details
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Pods | Multi-level plant towers with sensor units (light, moisture, nutrient, temperature) |
| Stationary system | Camera‑equipped robot arms, wireless interface, scheduling & analytics engine |
| Mobile robots | Mechanical riser lift, orientation control, route planning, collision avoidance |
| Communications | Pod ↔ Station via wireless (Wi‑Fi, BLE, ZigBee); Station ↔ Cloud and mobile units |
| Control architecture | Local operations component, automation module, cloud integration; user-facing mobile/desktop interface (patentcut.com) |
Core Value
AgPods democratizes precision agriculture by removing infrastructure constraints that limit traditional vertical farming. It enables plug-and-play agricultural systems where growing locations can be dynamically optimized based on plant needs, environmental conditions, and operational efficiency, making precision farming accessible to facilities of all sizes.
Benefits & Applications
- Modular indoor/outdoor farming infrastructure: pods can be dynamically moved to optimize light, environment, or processing order.
- Resource efficiency: no fixed wiring/plumbing per pod, enabling plug‑and-play growth units.
- Scalable automation: stations and pods networked for orchestrated farming operations across warehouses or greenhouses.
- Data‑driven precision farming: real‑time sensing + robotics yield adaptive workflows and analytics insights (patentcut.com).
🔍 TL;DP Summary
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Patent | US 11,537,107 B2 |
| Issue Date | December 27, 2022 |
| Inventors / Assignee | Rizwan Majeed & Hasan Sinan Bank, assigned to Siemens |
| Goal | Enable mobile, sensor-integrated plant pods serviced by autonomous robotics |
| Mechanism | Station sends pod relocation & operation instructions; mobile robots lift, orient, route, and transport pods |
| User Control | Remote/cloud UI supports scheduling, monitoring, and ML‑based feedback |
| Outcome | Flexible, efficient, automated vertical farming system |
BibTeX Citation:
@misc {bank2022autonomous, title= {Autonomous mobile robots for movable production systems} , author= {Bank, Hasan Sinan and Majeed, Rizwan} , year= {2022} , month=dec # "~27", publisher= {Google Patents} , note= {US Patent 11,537,107} }