US 2022/0177125 A1Published application

Mechanism for docking a magnetic crawler into a uav

AssigneesSaudi Arabian Oil Company, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

InventorsFadl Abdellatif, Ahmed Al Brahim, Hesham A. Jifri, Sahejad Patel, Amjad Felemban, Ali J. Alrasheed, Jeff S. Shamma

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Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle including a body and a docking mechanism coupled to the body is provided. The docking mechanism secures a magnetic crawler to the body during flight and during landing on a ferromagnetic cylindrical surface. The docking mechanism includes a docking hook that couples to the magnetic crawler and a linear actuator coupling the docking hook to the body. The docking hook includes passive latches that passively release the magnetic crawler from the docking hook onto the cylindrical surface after the landing, receive the magnetic crawler into the docking hook from the cylindrical surface after the releasing, and secure the magnetic crawler to the body during takeoff from the cylindrical surface after the receiving. The linear actuator lowers the docking hook and coupled magnetic crawler from the body to the cylindrical surface, and raises the docking hook and received magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface to the body.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:

a body;
and
a docking mechanism coupled to the body and configured to secure a magnetic crawler to the body during flight of the UAV and during landing of the UAV on a ferromagnetic cylindrical surface after the flight, the docking mechanism comprising:
a docking hook configured to couple to the magnetic crawler, the docking hook comprising passive latches configured to passively:
release the magnetic crawler from the docking hook after the landing in order to deploy the magnetic crawler on the cylindrical surface;
receive the magnetic crawler into the docking hook after the deployment in order to retrieve the magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface;
and
secure the magnetic crawler to the body during the flight, during the landing, and during takeoff of the UAV from the cylindrical surface after the retrieval;
and
a linear actuator coupling the docking hook to the body and configured to lower the docking hook and coupled magnetic crawler from the body to the cylindrical surface as part of the deployment, and to raise the docking hook and received magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface to the body as part of the retrieval.

7 more elements

A method of operating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising a body and a docking mechanism coupled to the body, the method comprising:

securing, by the docking mechanism, a magnetic crawler to the body during flight of the UAV and during landing of the UAV on a ferromagnetic cylindrical surface after the flight by coupling the magnetic crawler to a docking hook of the docking mechanism and coupling the docking hook to the body by a linear actuator of the docking mechanism;
deploying the magnetic crawler on the cylindrical surface after the landing by:
lowering, by the linear actuator, the docking hook and coupled magnetic crawler from the body to the cylindrical surface;
and
passively releasing, by passive latches of the docking hook, the lowered magnetic crawler from the docking hook onto the cylindrical surface;
retrieving the magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface after the deployment by:
passively receiving, by the passive latches, the magnetic crawler into the docking hook;
and
raising, by the linear actuator, the docking hook and received magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface to the body;
and
passively securing, by the passive latches, the raised magnetic crawler to the body during takeoff of the UAV from the cylindrical surface after the retrieval.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.