US 11,703,371 B1
Bin material measurement
Keith William Anderson, Hillsborough, NC (US); Mark Adam Bednasz, Cary, NC (US); Wilson Christopher Lamb, Hillsborough, NC (US); Anthony James Sammarco, Raleigh, NC (US); Andrew Alden Spear, Raleigh, NC (US); and Robert Charles Witter, Hillsborough, NC (US)
Assigned to DEVICESOLUTIONS, Morrisville, NC (US)
Filed by DeviceSolutions, Morrisville, NC (US)
Filed on Mar. 31, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/219,235.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/005,630, filed on Apr. 6, 2020.
Int. Cl. G01F 23/24 (2006.01); A01F 25/14 (2006.01); G01F 23/00 (2022.01); G01F 23/80 (2022.01)
CPC G01F 23/248 (2013.01) [A01F 25/14 (2013.01); G01F 23/0007 (2013.01); G01F 23/804 (2022.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A non-transitory machine readable medium having machine executable instructions, the machine executable instructions comprising a bin volume predictor that:
receives data characterizing measurements of a temperature at a plurality of temperature sensors of a temperature sensor cable that is positioned to extend along a height of the storage bin in an interior of the storage bin and data characterizing measurements of an ambient temperature of an exterior of the storage bin;
identifies, based on the measured temperature for temperature sensors in the interior of the storage bin, whether a top temperature sensor of the temperature sensor cable is covered or uncovered, and if the top temperature sensor is uncovered, determining a topmost covered remaining temperature sensor of the temperature sensor cable,
wherein the identifying whether the top temperature sensor of the temperature sensor cable is covered or uncovered further comprises:
calculating a variance of an ambient temperature sensor array that includes a set of the measurements of the ambient temperature of the exterior of the storage over a window of time; and
calculating a variance of a top temperature sensor array that includes a set of the measurements of the temperature measured by the top temperature sensor of the temperature sensor cable over the window of time; and
determines, based on the identified topmost covered temperature sensor, an amount of material stored in the storage bin.