We built a robot to do the work no human should.
No Boots
In The Grain
"Build me a robot so I never have to go into a grain bin again!"
Grain Weevil started with a simple challenge from a Nebraska farmer. It became the world's first grain bin management robot — protecting workers, and recovering value that used to be lost to labor, spoilage, and risk.
It Started With One Farmer and One Challenge.
A few years ago, our friend Zach Hunnicutt looked at us and said: “Build me a robot so I never have to go into a grain bin again.”
Grain bins are one of the most dangerous workplaces in American agriculture. Entrapments. Engulfments. Falls. Auger accidents. Farmer’s Lung. On the nearly 450,000 American farms with grain storage, these risks are part of every harvest season — and a farmer with a shovel has always been the only answer.
We decided to build a better one.
Our Mission
The Grain Weevil robot replaces one of the most dangerous tasks in bulk storage with a safer, more efficient way to control and manage materials. It improves safety, reduces labor costs, recovers value, increases throughput, and maximizes capacity across facilities at any scale.
BUILT IN NEBRASKA.
DEPLOYED ACROSS AMERICA
Proudly Engineered and Hand-Assembled in Omaha, Nebraska
Grain Weevil operates in the heart of American agriculture — within reach of the farmers, co-ops, elevators, and industrial operations we serve. More than a billion bushels of grain are stored on Nebraska farms alone. We’re not shipping solutions in from somewhere else. We’re building them here, for the people we know.
Grain Weevil is the first step toward fully automated bulk storage management —the most dangerous job in agriculture shouldn't require a human. We proved it doesn't.
ROBOTS DEPLOYED
IN AVOIDED LOSSES
avoided hours of entry per year
TOTAL METRIC TONS MANAGED
ROBOTS DEPLOYED
IN AVOIDED LOSSES
avoided hours of entry per year
TOTAL METRIC TONS MANAGED
Meet the Team
Chad Johnson
Co-Founder & CEO
Ben Johnson
Co-Founder / Chief Innovation Officer
Zane Zents
Lead Software Engineer
Travis Vanderheyden
Senior Product Design Engineer
Juan Bogado-Torres
Senior Robotics Engineer
Herve Mwunguzi
Embedded Software Engineer
Daniel Kaseya
Embedded Software Engineer
Donovan Egger
Robotics Engineering Technician
Marcus Minzel
Business Development & Sales Lead
Preston Parmley
Trent Johnson
Product Safety & Compliance Engineer
Ryan Baker
Cole Oswald
Mechanical Engineer
Alesa Johnson
A FEW OF OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Recognitions & Awards
2021 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Eat-It Category Winner
2024 INEDA Startup Showcase Winner
2022 American Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Winner
2023 National Science Foundation Phase II SBIR Grant + TECP
ASABE 2026
Davidson Prize