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AssigneeStone Aerospace, Inc.
InventorsWilliam C. Stone, Evan Clark, Kristof Richmond, Jeremy Paulus, Jason Kapit, Mark Scully, Peter Kimball
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A system for automated rendezvous, docking, and capture of autonomous underwater vehicles at the conclusion of a mission comprising of comprised of a docking rod having lighted, pulsating (in both frequency and light intensity) series of LED light strips thereon, with the LEDs at a known spacing, and the autonomous underwater vehicle specially designed to detect and capture the docking rod and then be lifted structurally by a spherical end strop about which the vehicle can be pivoted and hoisted up (e.g., onto a ship). The method of recovery allows for very routine and reliable automated recovery of an unmanned underwater asset.
A method for retrieval of an autonomous underwater vehicle using an automated rendezvous and docking system, the steps of said method comprising;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.