Payload Coupling Apparatus for UAV and Method of Delivering a Payload
AssigneeWing Aviation LLC
InventorsAndré Prager, Trevor Shannon, Zhefei Li, Kyle Liske
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle system including an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); a tether having a first end positioned in a winch system of the UAV and a second end secured to a payload coupling apparatus; a payload coupling apparatus receptacle positioned in the UAV; a payload having a handle, wherein the handle of the payload is positioned within a slot in the payload coupling apparatus; wherein the UAV has a recessed restraint slot for receiving a top portion of the payload.
Claims15
An unmanned aerial vehicle system comprising:
- an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);
- a tether having a first end positioned in a winch system of the UAV and a second end secured to a payload coupling apparatus;
- a payload coupling apparatus receptacle positioned in the UAV;
- a payload having a handle, wherein the handle of the payload is positioned within a slot in the payload coupling apparatus;
- wherein the UAV has a recessed restraint slot for receiving a top portion of the payload.
A method of securing a payload to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), including:
- providing a tether having a first end secured to a winch system of the UAV and a second end secured to a payload coupling apparatus;
- a payload coupling apparatus receptacle positioned in the UAV;
- a payload having a handle, wherein the handle of the payload is positioned within a slot in the payload coupling apparatus;
- wherein the UAV has a recessed restraint slot for receiving a top portion of the payload:
- operating the winch system to raise the payload coupling apparatus and payload to the UAV;
- and
- further operating the winch system to position the payload coupling apparatus into the payload coupling apparatus receptacle and to position the top portion of the payload into the recessed restraint slot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.