Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/X9QyP_ppVto Drones are making agriculture more exciting by improving efficiency and saving resources. For example, take this invention, a brain child of the brilliant Dr. Soon-Shiong of NantWorks. You are a farmer. Your crops are doing well, but you have some underperforming regions where the crops are smaller […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/EWBNzFC9TzA Toyota is no stranger to using barcodes for its manufacturing operations. This invention helps a delivery drone land in an exact location for unloading or recharging. The invention uses a series of hieroglyphs to help the drone orient itself correctly. Regrettably, the patent text seems to have […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/zhSciJ3oeks It has been in the news the last six months: fiber optic drones, used mainly in the war between Ukraine and Russia. These drones are controlled by a thin, robust strand of cable, and have a ten-kilometer range. It is impossible to jam their RF signal, because […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/CF4TBfaOpcY A typical drone has to tilt into the direction of flight, but why not just tilt its engines? What if you need the drone to remain oriented to the horizontal plane during flight? This invention proposes a solution. Aerbots has patented a system of omnidirectional propeller housings […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/LN5DTkB7cow Some might scoff at the idea of a Design Patent. “It only protects the aesthetic shape, and very narrowly too” they may say. “A competitor can change the shape beyond a certain threshold (which is low), and they go around the Patent, so why bother?” Why bother? […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/VABnM8SmEnM The sea can be a perilous place. Unpredictable, cruel, and relentless. But the world must go on, and for ship operations, sometimes you need to get a rope across. For example, resupplying a ship with fuel or fresh water can be done offshore, as long as you […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/pu1Ys8k4kVU As they say, ‘a thing designed to do two functions does neither well’. The ideal aircraft that can land on a dime yet cruise like a plane hasn’t been invented yet, or at least hasn’t been perfected yet. This invention acknowledges the trials and errors of past […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/N3pIsNzCf6I The US Navy has an interesting patent for an unmanned underwater vehicle (or UUV) platform that can be easily tailored to any mission. The UUV platform has components that fit together either mechanically or with magnets, and these components allow the user to create a mission-specific UUV. […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/I1cScTqvEmU Pipistrel, a Slovenian company, now a subsidiary of Textron, has invented an algorithm to get the most out of propellers of electric flying vehicles. As the patent states, “The algorithm incorporates information such as the propeller diameter (D), the maximum power, torque, and RPM of the propeller. […]
Have this article read to you at https://youtu.be/BGqo9yEl-Z4 University of Colorado’s Adaptive Robotics Lab has filed for an interesting structure based on tensegrity. The geometry of the structure can be changed, allowing it to be used for driving or for swimming robots. As a wheel, the structure can be completely two-dimensional, or spherical. For swimming […]