Back to results
US 11,014,443 B2Granted
Fuel delivery to a vehicle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsBrian Bennie, Cynthia M. Neubecker, Brad Alan Ignaczak, Somak Datta Gupta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system that includes a vehicle fuel-receiver comprising a port located on a vehicle surface; and an onboard computer programmed to: send a fuel delivery request to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); actuate the port to permit the UAV to deliver fuel; and instruct a communication module to transmit a beacon signal to the UAV.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a fuel-receiver for a non-aerial vehicle, the fuel-receiver comprising:
- a port located on a vehicle surface of the non-aerial vehicle;
- and
- a landing pad located on the vehicle surface of the non-aerial vehicle, the landing pad including a locking feature;
- and
- an onboard computer programmed to:
- send a fuel delivery request to a server;
- instruct a communication module to transmit a beacon signal;
- detect an approach of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the non-aerial vehicle;
- and
- responsive to a determination that the UAV is authorized to deliver fuel to the fuel-receiver:
- actuate the locking feature from a closed position to an open position to enable the UAV to land on the landing pad;
- and
- responsive to a determination that the UAV has landed on the landing pad:
- actuate the locking feature from the open position to the closed position to secure the UAV to the landing pad;
- and
- actuate the port to permit the UAV to deliver fuel.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.