Patents by Inventor Jonathan Binney

Jonathan Binney has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11707023
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: IRON OX, INC.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Patent number: 11647700
    Abstract: One variation of a method for monitoring growth of plants within a facility includes: aggregating global ambient data recorded by a suite of fixed sensors, arranged proximal a grow area within the facility, at a first frequency during a grow period; extracting interim outcomes of a set of plants, occupying a module in the grow area, from module-level images recorded by a mover at a second frequency less than the first frequency while interfacing with the module during the period of time; dispatching the mover to autonomously deliver the module to a transfer station; extracting interim outcomes of the set of plants from plant-level images recorded by the transfer station while sequentially transferring plants out of the module at the conclusion of the grow period; and deriving relationships between ambient conditions, interim outcomes, and final outcomes from a corpus of plant records associated with plants grown in the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: IRON OX, INC.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney, Winnie Ding, Zachary Wielgosz
  • Publication number: 20230139358
    Abstract: One variation of a method for deploying sensors within an agricultural facility includes: accessing scan data of a set of modules deployed within the agricultural facility; extracting characteristics of plants occupying the set of modules from the scan data; selecting a first subset of target modules from the set of modules, each target module in the set of target modules containing a group of plants exhibiting characteristics representative of plants occupying modules neighboring the target module; for each target module, scheduling a robotic manipulator within the agricultural facility to remove a particular plant from a particular plant slot in the target module and load the particular plant slot with a sensor pod from a population of sensor pods deployed in the agricultural facility; and monitoring environmental conditions at target modules in the first subset of target modules based on sensor data recorded by the first population of sensor pods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Publication date: May 4, 2023
    Applicant: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Winnie Ding, Jonathan Binney, Brandon Ace Alexander, Nicole Bergelin
  • Patent number: 11557118
    Abstract: One variation of a method for deploying sensors within an agricultural facility includes: accessing scan data of a set of modules deployed within the agricultural facility; extracting characteristics of plants occupying the set of modules from the scan data; selecting a first subset of target modules from the set of modules, each target module in the set of target modules containing a group of plants exhibiting characteristics representative of plants occupying modules neighboring the target module; for each target module, scheduling a robotic manipulator within the agricultural facility to remove a particular plant from a particular plant slot in the target module and load the particular plant slot with a sensor pod from a population of sensor pods deployed in the agricultural facility; and monitoring environmental conditions at target modules in the first subset of target modules based on sensor data recorded by the first population of sensor pods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: IRON OX, INC.
    Inventors: Winnie Ding, Jonathan Binney, Brandon Ace Alexander, Nicole Bergelin
  • Patent number: 11516973
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automatically redistributing plants throughout an agricultural facility includes, at a mobile robotic system: delivering a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants in approximately a second growth stage—from a grow area within a facility to a transfer station within the facility; delivering a second module—located within the facility and defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density—to the transfer station; and following transfer of a first subset of plants from the first array of plant slots in the first module into the second array of plant slots in the second module at the transfer station, delivering the second module to the grow area in the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: IRON OX, INC.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Publication number: 20220007589
    Abstract: One variation of a method for monitoring growth of plants within a facility includes: aggregating global ambient data recorded by a suite of fixed sensors, arranged proximal a grow area within the facility, at a first frequency during a grow period; extracting intermediate outcomes of a set of plants, occupying a module in the grow area, from module-level images recorded by a mover at a second frequency less than the first frequency while interfacing with the module during the period of time; dispatching the mover to autonomously deliver the module to a transfer station; extracting intermediate outcomes of the set of plants from plant-level images recorded by the transfer station while sequentially transferring plants out of the module at the conclusion of the grow period; and deriving relationships between ambient conditions, intermediate outcomes, and final outcomes from a corpus of plant records associated with plants grown in the facility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: Jonathan Binney, Winnie Ding, Peter Cheng, Paty Romano, Jamie Young, Sarah Osentoski
  • Publication number: 20220007590
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney, Winnie Ding, Bianca Homberg, Warren Huffman, Tom Kendall, Saqib Naveed, Pete Turner, Adrian Canoso, Ansgar Lorenz
  • Publication number: 20210150208
    Abstract: One variation of a method for deploying sensors within an agricultural facility includes: accessing scan data of a set of modules deployed within the agricultural facility; extracting characteristics of plants occupying the set of modules from the scan data; selecting a first subset of target modules from the set of modules, each target module in the set of target modules containing a group of plants exhibiting characteristics representative of plants occupying modules neighboring the target module; for each target module, scheduling a robotic manipulator within the agricultural facility to remove a particular plant from a particular plant slot in the target module and load the particular plant slot with a sensor pod from a population of sensor pods deployed in the agricultural facility; and monitoring environmental conditions at target modules in the first subset of target modules based on sensor data recorded by the first population of sensor pods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2021
    Publication date: May 20, 2021
    Inventors: Winnie Ding, Jonathan Binney, Brandon Ace Alexander, Nicole Bergelin
  • Publication number: 20210105951
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Publication date: April 15, 2021
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Patent number: 10936870
    Abstract: One variation of a method for deploying sensors within an agricultural facility includes: accessing scan data of a set of modules deployed within the agricultural facility; extracting characteristics of plants occupying the set of modules from the scan data; selecting a first subset of target modules from the set of modules, each target module in the set of target modules containing a group of plants exhibiting characteristics representative of plants occupying modules neighboring the target module; for each target module, scheduling a robotic manipulator within the agricultural facility to remove a particular plant from a particular plant slot in the target module and load the particular plant slot with a sensor pod from a population of sensor pods deployed in the agricultural facility; and monitoring environmental conditions at target modules in the first subset of target modules based on sensor data recorded by the first population of sensor pods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Winnie Ding, Jonathan Binney, Brandon Ace Alexander, Nicole Bergelin
  • Patent number: 10897850
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Publication number: 20210007287
    Abstract: One variation of a method for monitoring growth of plants within a facility includes: aggregating global ambient data recorded by a suite of fixed sensors, arranged proximal a grow area within the facility, at a first frequency during a grow period; extracting interim outcomes of a set of plants, occupying a module in the grow area, from module-level images recorded by a mover at a second frequency less than the first frequency while interfacing with the module during the period of time; dispatching the mover to autonomously deliver the module to a transfer station; extracting interim outcomes of the set of plants from plant-level images recorded by the transfer station while sequentially transferring plants out of the module at the conclusion of the grow period; and deriving relationships between ambient conditions, interim outcomes, and final outcomes from a corpus of plant records associated with plants grown in the facility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Publication date: January 14, 2021
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney, Winnie Ding, Zachary Wielgosz
  • Patent number: 10813295
    Abstract: One variation of method for monitoring growth of plants within a facility includes: aggregating global ambient data recorded by a suite of fixed sensors, arranged proximal a grow area within the facility, at a first frequency during a grow period; extracting interim outcomes of a set of plants, occupying a module in the grow area, from module-level images recorded by a mover at a second frequency less than the first frequency while interfacing with the module during the period of time; dispatching the mover to autonomously deliver the module to a transfer station; extracting interim outcomes of the set of plants from plant-level images recorded by the transfer station while sequentially transferring plants out of the module at the conclusion of the grow period; and deriving relationships between ambient conditions, interim outcomes, and final outcomes from a corpus of plant records associated with plants grown in the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan BInney, Winnie Ding, Zachary Wielgosz
  • Publication number: 20200296902
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automatically redistributing plants throughout an agricultural facility includes, at a mobile robotic system: delivering a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants in approximately a second growth stage—from a grow area within a facility to a transfer station within the facility; delivering a second module—located within the facility and defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density—to the transfer station; and following transfer of a first subset of plants from the first array of plant slots in the first module into the second array of plant slots in the second module at the transfer station, delivering the second module to the grow area in the facility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Patent number: 10716265
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automatically redistributing plants throughout an agricultural facility includes, at a mobile robotic system: delivering a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants in approximately a second growth stage—from a grow area within a facility to a transfer station within the facility; delivering a second module—located within the facility and defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density—to the transfer station; and following transfer of a first subset of plants from the first array of plant slots in the first module into the second array of plant slots in the second module at the transfer station, delivering the second module to the grow area in the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Publication number: 20200187425
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Publication date: June 18, 2020
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Publication number: 20200012852
    Abstract: One variation of a method for deploying sensors within an agricultural facility includes: accessing scan data of a set of modules deployed within the agricultural facility; extracting characteristics of plants occupying the set of modules from the scan data; selecting a first subset of target modules from the set of modules, each target module in the set of target modules containing a group of plants exhibiting characteristics representative of plants occupying modules neighboring the target module; for each target module, scheduling a robotic manipulator within the agricultural facility to remove a particular plant from a particular plant slot in the target module and load the particular plant slot with a sensor pod from a population of sensor pods deployed in the agricultural facility; and monitoring environmental conditions at target modules in the first subset of target modules based on sensor data recorded by the first population of sensor pods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2019
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Inventors: Winnie Ding, Jonathan Binney, Brandon Ace Alexander, Nicole Bergelin
  • Patent number: 10524425
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Publication number: 20190313583
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Publication date: October 17, 2019
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney
  • Patent number: 10375898
    Abstract: One variation of a method for automating transfer of plants within an agricultural facility includes: dispatching a loader to autonomously deliver a first module—defining a first array of plant slots at a first density and loaded with a first set of plants at a first growth stage—from a first grow location within an agricultural facility to a transfer station within the agricultural facility; dispatching the loader to autonomously deliver a second module—defining a second array of plant slots at a second density less than the first density and empty of plants—to the transfer station; recording a module-level optical scan of the first module; extracting a viability parameter of the first set of plants from features detected in the module-level optical scan; and if the viability parameter falls outside of a target viability range, rejecting transfer of the first set of plants from the first module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Iron Ox, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Ace Alexander, Jonathan Binney