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US 2021/0307305 A1Published application
Nature-Inspired Design and Engineering of Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting and Delivering System
OwnerLillian R. Fu, Eric R. Fuinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Presented is a system and method via nature-inspired design and engineering to autonomously fish, sort and deliver the catch. It implements rope-less fishing via a novel variable buoyancy device and an autonomous aerial and underwater vehicle as a fishing gear carrier. Its versatile capabilities are comprised of the AI sorting capability to comply with regulations, the capability to capture renewable energy to reduce operating costs, the capability to both passively fish with bait and proactively hunt for fish and the capability to gather intelligence to find optimal fishing grounds.
Claims29
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An Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting, and Delivering System comprising:
- One or more submersible structures, wherein each of such said submersible structure further comprising:
- (a) a trap for capturing seafood within a cage, said cage volume contained therein;
- (b) said cage has an outer frame, a net wrapped around said frame, a door, a long rod, and a door locker with a locking rod and said long rod connects to said door to engage with said locking rod of said door locker;
- (c) said cage has a water-tight AI controller with one or more lights and two or more cameras;
- (d) said cage has a bait container;
- (e) said cage has a variable buoyancy device;
- and
- (f) said cage has an underwater acoustic modem;
- wherein, said AI controller is capable of sorting seafood pursuant to the categorization of a seafood visitor, including its size and its sex if applicable pursuant to regulations;
- wherein, once said seafood visitor gets into the cage, the acoustic modem communicates with one or more modules on the surface in a predefined way;
- wherein, the information of what seafood is caught inside said cage is also sent out via the acoustic modem, and such information will enable a receiver module which receives the information from various traps to determine which fishing spot has higher concentrations of targeted seafood;
- wherein, the variable buoyancy device is activated to release substances contained inside, after receiving the command to surface or when the battery level is below a predefined threshold;
- and
- wherein said submersible structures are autonomous, said autonomous submersible structure has a spear and a speargun for launching said spear to into a fish to catch said fish;
- wherein after catching said fish, a motor is activated to rewind a reel to pull said fish towards said autonomous submersible structure;
- wherein thereafter, said autonomous submersible structure will surface while carrying said fish and dock to an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of vertical take-off and landing and then transport said submersible structure to a destination.
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An Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting, and Delivering System comprising:
- One or more submersible structures, wherein each of such said submersible structure further comprising:
- (a) a trap for capturing seafood within a cage, said cage volume contained therein;
- (b) said cage has an outer frame, a net wrapped around said frame, a door, a long rod, and a door locker with a locking rod and said long rod connects to said door to engage with said locking rod of said door locker;
- (c) said cage has a water-tight AI controller with one or more lights and two or more cameras;
- (d) said cage has a bait container;
- (e) said cage has a variable buoyancy device;
- and
- (f) said cage has an underwater acoustic modem;
- wherein, said AI controller is capable of sorting seafood pursuant to the categorization of a seafood visitor, including its size and its sex if applicable pursuant to regulations;
- wherein, once said seafood visitor gets into the cage, the acoustic modem communicates with one or more modules on the surface in a predefined way;
- wherein, the information of what seafood is caught inside said cage is also sent out via the acoustic modem, and such information will enable a receiver module which receives the information from various traps to determine which fishing spot has higher concentrations of targeted seafood;
- wherein, the variable buoyancy device is activated to release substances contained inside, after receiving the command to surface or when the battery level is below a predefined threshold;
- further comprising an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of going underwater to picking up said trap off the bottom of a sea floor, wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle is comprised of the following parts:
- a left tilt rotor, a right tilt rotor, a rear tilt rotor, a left wing, a right wing, said left wing and right wing have one or more holes at the wing tip, a left aileron, a right aileron, a mini robotic arm, a left vertical stabilizer, a right vertical stabilizer, a left rudder, a right rudder, a horizontal stabilizer and an elevator and means for connecting the parts to said unmanned aerial vehicle;
- wherein when said unmanned aerial vehicle submerges water enters through said holes on said right and left wing therefore eliminating the need to have a strong water-tight vehicle body that can withstand the high pressures at the sea floor;
- and wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle surfaces, water exits from said wing tip holes due to gravity and said unmanned aerial vehicle can further roll to the left and to the right to get rid of the remaining water onboard as said unmanned aerial vehicle takes off.
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An Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting, and Delivering System comprising:
- One or more submersible structures, wherein each of such said submersible structure further comprising:
- (a) a trap for capturing seafood within a cage, said cage volume contained therein;
- (b) said cage has an outer frame, a net wrapped around said frame, a door, a long rod, and a door locker with a locking rod and said long rod connects to said door to engage with said locking rod of said door locker;
- (c) said cage has a water-tight AI controller with one or more lights and two or more cameras;
- (d) said cage has a bait container;
- (e) said cage has a variable buoyancy device;
- and
- (f) said cage has an underwater acoustic modem;
- wherein, said AI controller is capable of sorting seafood pursuant to the categorization of a seafood visitor, including its size and its sex if applicable pursuant to regulations;
- wherein, once said seafood visitor gets into the cage, the acoustic modem communicates with one or more modules on the surface in a predefined way;
- wherein, the information of what seafood is caught inside said cage is also sent out via the acoustic modem, and such information will enable a receiver module which receives the information from various traps to determine which fishing spot has higher concentrations of targeted seafood;
- wherein, the variable buoyancy device is activated to release substances contained inside, after receiving the command to surface or when the battery level is below a predefined threshold, wherein said submersible structures are autonomous, said submersible structures become an autonomous underwater vehicle have a docking station for connecting to said cage;
- wherein during the docking process, said autonomous underwater vehicles have one or more propellers provides lateral movement as needed, and one or more propellers provides up and down movement in vertical mode and back and forth movement in horizontal mode;
- wherein during the docking process, said autonomous underwater vehicle has one or more cameras to provide various visual feedback to said AI controller to control the docking approach;
- wherein after said autonomous underwater vehicle gets into the right position, said AI controller has means to push rods inwards to eject and catch said seafood in said trap;
- wherein said autonomous underwater vehicle has said propellers that tilt into vertical mode to bring the trap up to a water surface;
- wherein after the trap is brought up to said water surface, an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of vertical take-off and landing can dock with said autonomous underwater vehicle and then transport said autonomous underwater vehicle to a destination;
- and
- wherein said unmanned aerial vehicle is comprised of the following parts:
- a left tilt rotor, a right tilt rotor, a rear tilt rotor, a left wing, a right wing, a left aileron, a right aileron, a left landing gear with an acoustic modem inside to communicate with one or more traps at the floor of a body of water, a right landing gear, a mini robotic arm, a left vertical stabilizer, a right vertical stabilizer, a left rudder, a right rudder, a horizontal stabilizer and an elevator and means for connecting the parts to said unmanned aerial vehicle.
17 more elements
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An Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting, and Delivering System comprising:
- One or more submersible structures, wherein each of such said submersible structure further comprising:
- (a) a trap for capturing seafood within a cage, said cage volume contained therein;
- (b) said cage has an outer frame, a net wrapped around said frame, a door, a long rod, and a door locker with a locking rod and said long rod connects to said door to engage with said locking rod of said door locker;
- (c) said cage has a water-tight AI controller with one or more lights and two or more cameras;
- (d) said cage has a bait container;
- (e) said cage has a variable buoyancy device;
- and
- (f) said cage has an underwater acoustic modem;
- wherein, said AI controller is capable of sorting seafood pursuant to the categorization of a seafood visitor, including its size and its sex if applicable pursuant to regulations;
- wherein, once said seafood visitor gets into the cage, the acoustic modem communicates with one or more modules on the surface in a predefined way;
- wherein, the information of what seafood is caught inside said cage is also sent out via the acoustic modem, and such information will enable a receiver module which receives the information from various traps to determine which fishing spot has higher concentrations of targeted seafood;
- wherein, the variable buoyancy device is activated to release substances contained inside, after receiving the command to surface or when the battery level is below a predefined threshold;
- wherein said submersible structures are autonomous, said submersible structures become an autonomous underwater vehicle have a docking station for connecting to said cage;
- further comprising an autonomous surface vehicle in form of a geometry-stabilized catamaran, which is comprised of the following parts:
- a solar panel as the top platform, a left hull, a right hull, a left propeller, a right propeller, an acoustic modem, a charging pole, a longer antenna for longer wave long-range radio communication, a shorter antenna for short-range radio communication, a reel with a ring attached to one end of its threads and a motor to rewind, a left docking and charging receptacle and a right docking and charging receptacle for connecting and docking to said autonomous underwater vehicle having said cameras for docking control, an upward looking camera, a forward looking camera for navigation and docking with said autonomous surface vehicle and means for connecting the parts to said geometry-stabilized catamaran.
12 more elements
An Autonomous Seafood Capturing, Sorting, and Delivering System comprising:
- an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of vertical take-off and landing, which docks with a submersible structure;
- said unmanned aerial vehicle is comprised of the following parts:
- a left tilt rotor, a right tilt rotor, a rear tilt rotor, a left wing, a right wing, a left aileron, a right aileron, a left landing gear with an acoustic modem inside to communicate with one or more traps at the floor of a body of water, a right landing gear, a mini robotic arm, a left vertical stabilizer, a right vertical stabilizer, a left rudder, a right rudder, a horizontal stabilizer and an elevator and means for connecting the parts to said unmanned aerial vehicle;
- said submersible structure is comprised of:
- a trap for capturing seafood within a cage, said cage volume contained therein;
- said cage has an outer frame, a net wrapped around said frame, a door, a long rod, and a door locker with a locking rod and said long rod connects to said door to engage with said locking rod of said door locker;
- said cage has a water-tight AI controller with one or more lights and two or more cameras;
- said cage has a bait container;
- said cage has a variable buoyancy device;
- and said cage has an underwater acoustic modem;
- wherein, said unmanned aerial vehicle records location information such as the GPS coordinates of said trap drop location, so that the location information can be used to find and retrieve said trap;
- wherein, said AI controller is capable of sorting seafood pursuant to the categorization of a seafood visitor, including its size and its sex if applicable pursuant to regulations;
- wherein, once said seafood visitor gets into the cage, the acoustic modem communicates with one or more modules on the surface in a predefined way;
- wherein, the information of what seafood is caught inside said cage is also sent out via the acoustic modem, and such information will enable a receiver module which receives the information from various traps to determine which fishing spot has higher concentrations of targeted seafood;
- wherein, after landing at the water surface, the unmanned aerial vehicle can find and communicate with said traps also equipped with acoustic modems;
- and
- wherein, after said trap reports the number of catches inside, it can be commanded to surface.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.