Autonomous intelligence surveillance reconnaissance and payload delivery system and method of using same
AssigneeSilicis Technologies, Inc.
InventorsMichael J. Stigler, Nicholas James Setar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system is disclosed including a ground station and one or more aerial vehicles. The aerial vehicles are autonomous systems capable of communicating intelligence data to the ground station and be used as part of a missile delivery package. A plurality of aerial vehicles can be configured to cast a wide net of reconnaissance over a large area on the ground including smaller overlapping reconnaissance areas provided by each of the plurality of the aerial vehicles.
Claims20
A vehicle, comprising:
- a skin defining an interior volume adapted to hold a quantity of fluid that is lighter than air;
- a blow-hole formed in the skin;
- a valve positioned in said blow-hole and having a closed position sealing the blow-hole and an opened position allowing the fluid to escape from within the interior volume;
- and
- a solenoid operatively coupled to the valve;
- wherein the valve is biased toward the opened position and changing a state of the solenoid allows the valve to assume the opened position.
A method of controlling altitude of a lighter-than-air vehicle, comprising:
- providing a vehicle comprising:
- a skin defining an interior volume adapted to hold a quantity of fluid that is lighter than air,
- a blow-hole formed in the skin,
- a valve positioned in the blow-hole, and
- a solenoid operatively coupled to the valve, wherein the valve is biased toward an opened position;
- changing a state of the solenoid such that the valve assumes the opened position;
- and
- venting a portion of the fluid from the interior volume to reduce buoyancy of the vehicle.
A vehicle system, comprising:
- a vehicle comprising
- a skin defining an interior volume adapted to hold a quantity of fluid that is lighter than air,
- a blow-hole formed in the skin,
- a valve positioned in the blow-hole and having a closed position and an opened position, and
- a solenoid operatively coupled to the valve;
- a data processing unit operatively coupled to the solenoid,
- wherein the valve is biased toward the opened position, and
- wherein the data processing unit is configured to change a state of the solenoid to allow the valve to assume the opened position based on one or more operational parameters of the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.