Grain Weevil circuitry produced in Aurora

An innovative robotic concept that could soon help improve safety conditions in grain bins all across America is strengthening its already strong ties to Aurora.
Father and son Chad and Ben Johnson lived in Aurora when they came up with the Grain Weevil concept several years ago, and as production has begun on a product expected to hit the market in 2025 some of the circuit boards are being produced in Aurora as well.
Gary Bales, president and CEO at Aurora Boardworks, said it’s been an exciting connection for everyone involved.
“It’s definitely fun to watch a local company that has come up with a great idea really bring it to fruition,” Bales said. “A lot needs to happen for us to be part of it for the long-term, and we’d love for that to happen, but even to be a part of their initial production run is fun, and fun to watch.”
Isaac Solis, a manufacturing engineer at Aurora Boardworks, explained that the Grain Weevil team provided the designs for a power distributor unit (PDU, which is about the size of a cell phone) as well as a controller used to make the remote control unit interface between an actual remote control and the robot.
“As you know, we are a custom circuit board manufacturer, mostly, so everything we do is custom,” added Vonnie Whiting, a sales operations supervisor at the company, which located in the Aurora Industrial Park. “This product has its unique items on it, some of them we’ve never seen before, so we get to learn with each new board that comes in house.”
Aurora Boardworks staff members made the first delivery of circuit boards to Grain Weevil’s corporate headquarters in Omaha last week and work is continuing now on the rest of the initial order.
“Our understanding is that they are working toward a fully autonomous robot, which means they can put the robot in the grain bin and it completely does its job without any human intervention,” Bales said. “I think these first units will be used for their service customers,” he continued. “In other words, they’re starting out by providing this as a service, or working with individuals to provide this as a service to farmers, where they would take the robots out and smooth out the grain.”
The circuit boards built in Aurora are in fact small components of a complex robot, which will eventually be put together by an assembly partner in Tennessee that specializes in robotics.
“They are working toward having them do their full robot assembly, so when they get to that point where they are having them build it it’s a possibility that we could still build circuit boards for them, but it’s not 100 percent,” Bales added. “We don’t have a long-term contract with them.”

Hometown connection
The initial contract between the Grain Weevil and Aurora Boardworks reflects a connection that goes back several years, Bales pointed out.
“We have quite a long history with Chad and Ben and their family, including sister Anna,” he said. “Chad led the robotics competition team at Aurora and we sponsored them many years ago. We actually had them visit our plant and did solder training, so Ben, who is their chief innovation officer, actually learned to solder here in our plant.”
Sister Anna also left a lasting impression at the Aurora plant, designing a unique piece of art that remains on display.
“Anna actually made us what we call the ‘Circuit Tree’ and it’s a decoration that we still have at our plant today,” Bales said. “It’s a little tree with circuits on it and it’s also a little play on words, so we have quite a history with Chad and Ben and Anna.”
Bales concluded by emphasizing how much he and his staff have enjoyed partnering on a project he believes has tremendous potential.
“It’s really fun to see what they’ve done and where they are going with their product,” he said. “From everything that we can tell their company has the potential to really explode and probably be a national if not an international company, so to be part of that is really exciting.”
Ben Johnson said the connection between the two companies is significant to him as well.
“It is rewarding that we have come full circle,” he said. “International Sensor Systems (later renamed Aurora Boardworks) taught me to solder in the eighth grade and now I get to incorporate Aurora Boardworks electronics into our first production robots. Partnering with local manufacturers like Aurora Boardworks streamlines our innovation process, thanks to the strong relationships we build and the personalized attention they bring to our projects.”