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 can get the pipe from the depot to […]
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 designs, and the inventors seem to understand the […]
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. Why is this important? Water is a tricky […]
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. Thrust, power and torque are used as functions […]
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 applications, the structure can be manipulated to allow […]
The FVR platform is certainly an impressive accomplishment. According to its maker, “The FVR is designed for long endurance, 12 to 18 hours, with an 8 to 22 pound payload capacity.”(https://www.l3harris.com/all-capabilities/fvr-90-airframe) According to the patent, large quad platforms are great at their VTOL thing, but have little yaw authority. To make a quad more agile, […]