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US 12,589,895 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for ordinance mounting system
AssigneeLyell Loomis, Inc.
InventorNeil Buttermore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments of a payload attachment system secure a payload to a wing or fuselage of the drone (or another type of aircraft) using one or more vacuum mounting modules, wherein each vacuum mounting module comprises at least one vacuum pump controllably coupled to a microcontroller, a vacuum cup fluidly coupled to the at least one vacuum pump, and a transceiver that receives an instruction corresponding to one of a vacuum cup actuation signal or a vacuum cup release signal.
Claims15
An object mounting method, comprising:
- receiving a vacuum cup actuation signal at a transceiver residing in a vacuum mounting module that is secured to a surface of a wing or a fuselage of a drone,
- wherein the vacuum cup actuation signal is communicated from a remote electronic device in response to an actuation of the remote electronic device by a payload installer;
- operating a vacuum pump of the vacuum mounting module in response to receiving the vacuum cup actuation signal,
- wherein the vacuum pump creates a vacuum in a vacuum cup of the vacuum mounting module, and
- wherein the vacuum in the vacuum cup defines at least a predefined vacuum pressure between a surface of a payload and the vacuum cup so that the payload becomes releasably secured to the vacuum mounting module;
- operating the drone to transport the drone to a location of interest;
- receiving a vacuum cup release signal at the transceiver residing in the vacuum mounting module;
- and
- deactivating the vacuum pump in response to receiving the vacuum cup release signal,
- wherein the vacuum pump releases the vacuum in the vacuum cup so that the payload is released from the drone.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.