An agitator, a planting system including the agitator, and methods of using the agitator to agitate seeds in a hopper, are described. The agitator can be mounted within the hopper of the planting system. The hopper can be transported by an unmanned aerial vehicle to spread the seeds over a geography. The agitator can include one or more arms that oscillate through a sweep angle to move one or more paddles through the seeds. An outlet of the hopper can be within the sweep angle such that the arms and paddles sweep seeds into the outlet as the arms oscillate within the hopper. The sweep angle can vary over time by incrementally increasing the sweep angle during several stages. The varying sweep angle maintains consistent seed mixing and spreading over time. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
Planting system having oscillating seed agitator
2024-01-02
Patent
Electronic Resource
English