Autonomous vehicle with fuel cell and autonomous flushing system
AssigneeArgopower, LLC
InventorAllan Riggs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous aquatic vehicle with one or more fuel cells, a controller, a plurality of sensors, a battery, and at least one electric motor and propeller. The one or more fuel cells provide power to the battery, and the battery provides power for the vehicle. Seawater is provided to anodes of the fuel cell and air or oxygen is provided to the cathode to produce power for supply to the battery. The seawater-anode reaction creates waste or byproduct that tends to decrease output of the fuel cell. The waste or byproduct is automatically flushed from the fuel cell using seawater.
Claims31
A buoyant autonomous aquatic vehicle comprising:
- a base portion;
- a controller to control autonomous operations of the aquatic vehicle, said controller being arranged on said base portion;
- one or more sensors;
- a power source to supply power for the aquatic vehicle;
- a fuel cell device to supply power to said power source for recharging said power source, said fuel cell device including a plurality of anode/cathode pairs;
- a first partially submersible hull;
- a second partially submersible hull, said fuel cell device being housed by said second hull, and said second hull having a plurality of apertures arranged on a bottom side thereof to allow entry of seawater to react with anodes of said fuel cell device;
- a third partially submersible hull;
- and first and second electric motors respectively coupled to said first and third hulls to propel the aquatic vehicle,
- wherein said second hull is configured to allow air from outside the second hull to access and interact with the cathodes of said fuel cell device, and said second hull is configured substantially to prevent seawater passed through said plurality of apertures from contacting the cathodes of said fuel cell device, and
- wherein said plurality of apertures are configured to allow byproduct produced by reactions between the seawater and corresponding anodes to exit therethrough to outside the second hull.
A method for operating a buoyant aquatic vehicle having a base, a controller to control operations of the vehicle, at least one sensor, a battery, at least one fuel cell apparatus coupled to the battery, a first motor, and a second motor, a first hull that houses the at least one fuel cell apparatus, the method comprising:
- providing seawater to anodes of the at least one fuel cell apparatus through a plurality of openings in the first hull;
- providing air to cathodes of the at least one fuel cell apparatus through a first air-permeable and water-proof opening of the first hull;
- allowing discharge of a byproduct of the anodes of the at least one fuel cell apparatus through at least one of the openings of the plurality of openings;
- and
- supplying to the battery, an output of the at least one fuel cell apparatus.
A floating aquatic vessel comprising:
- means for floating the vessel;
- means for moving the vessel;
- means for controlling the vessel;
- means for sensing a characteristic of the vessel;
- means for supplying power to the vessel;
- means for supplying fuel to said power supplying means;
- means for providing salt water to said fuel supplying means;
- means for providing oxygen to said fuel supplying means;
- and
- means for removing a waste product created by said fuel supplying means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.