Patents Assigned to Aerovironment Inc.
  • Patent number: 11319087
    Abstract: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch tube that comprises at least one inner layer of prepreg substrate disposed about a right parallelepiped aperture, at least one outer layer of prepreg substrate disposed about the right parallelepiped aperture, and one or more structural panels disposed between the at least one inner layer of prepreg substrate and the at least one outer layer of prepreg substrate. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch tube that comprises a tethered sabot configured to engage a UAV within a launcher volume defined by an inner wall, the tethered sabot dimensioned to provide a pressure seal at the inner wall and tethered to the inner wall, and wherein the tethered sabot is hollow having an open end oriented toward a high pressure volume and a tether attached within a hollow of the sabot and attached to the inner wall retaining the high pressure volume or attach to the inner base wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Carlos Thomas Miralles, Guan H Su, Alexander Andryukov, John McNeil
  • Patent number: 11299269
    Abstract: Embodiments include one or more high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft capable of persistent station-keeping having one or more electromagnetic (IR/Visual/RF) sensor elements or suites for purposes of survey and/or signal gathering. Embodiments include one or more high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft capable of persistent station-keeping having a directable laser. Embodiments include a group of four or more high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft configured as GPS repeaters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Edward Oscar Rios
  • Patent number: 11292591
    Abstract: A method of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight includes providing horizontal thrust in-line with the direction of forward flight of the UAV (110) using at least one electric motor (120), providing primary vertical lift for the UAV (110) during the forward flight using a fixed and non-rotating wing (125), repositioning the at least one electric motor (120?) to provide vertical thrust during transition of the UAV (110) to vertical flight (A) for descent (E), landing the UAV (110) on a surface (270) using a vertical approach after the motor repositioning, and deploying an anchor (150) to secure the UAV (110) to a surface (270).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher E. Fisher, John P. Zwaan, Marc L. Schmalzel, Steven Chambers, Justin McAllister
  • Patent number: 11292583
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods including an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); one or more inner wing panels of the UAV; one or more outer wing panels of the UAV; at least one inboard propeller attached to at least one engine disposed on the one or more inner wing panels; at least one tip propeller attached to at least one engine disposed on the one or more outer wing panels; at least one microcontroller configured to: determine an angular position of the at least one inboard propeller; and send a signal to halt rotation of the at least one inboard propeller such that the at least one inboard propeller is held in an attitude that provides for clearance of the propeller blade to the ground upon landing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Bart Dean Hibbs
  • Publication number: 20220069653
    Abstract: In one possible embodiment, a motor winding is provided having a high density multi-conductor wire bundle with a compacted Litz wire bundle. The compacted Litz wire bundle has a serpentine configuration with a central portion having compacted Litz wire and end turns having non-compacted Litz wire.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Applicant: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Wally Ewald Rippel, Zaher Abdallah Daboussi, Bradford M. Hori, Scott Garret Berman, Bart Dean Hibbs
  • Patent number: 11264925
    Abstract: An electric motor controller system for modulating requested motor torque via oscillating the instantaneous torque, including a bi-stable torque controller; a proportional-integral (PI) velocity controller a proportional-integral-differential (PID) position controller; and sinusoidal zero-velocity table mapping.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Leonardi, William Nicoloff
  • Patent number: 11254229
    Abstract: A method of migrating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations between geographic survey areas, including: uploading a first plurality of flight missions into a first UAV pod; deploying the UAV pod; autonomously launching the UAV from the UAV pod a plurality of times to perform the first plurality of flight missions; providing first survey data from the UAV to the UAV pod; autonomously migrating the UAV from the first UAV pod to a second UAV pod; receiving a second plurality of flight missions in a second UAV pod; providing the UAV with one of the second plurality of flight missions from the second UAV pod; autonomously launching the UAV from the second UAV pod a plurality of times to perform the second plurality of flight missions; and providing a second survey data from the UAV to the second UAV pod; where the autonomous migrating of the UAV to accomplish the first and second survey data happens autonomously and without active human intervention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Eugene Fisher, Jason Sidharthadev Mukherjee, William Arden Lott, Eric James Aagaard
  • Patent number: 11247772
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for an aircraft having a fuselage; a wing extending from both sides of the fuselage; a first pair of motors disposed at a first end of the wing; and a second pair of motors disposed at a second end of the wing; where each motor is angled to provide a component of thrust by a propeller attached thereto that for a desired aircraft movement applies a resulting torque additive to the resulting torque created by rotating the propellers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Henry Thome Won, Quentin Lindsey
  • Patent number: 11230374
    Abstract: In one possible embodiment, an amphibious unmanned aerial vehicle is provided, which includes a fuselage comprised of a buoyant material. Separators within the fuselage form separate compartments within the fuselage. Mounts associated with the compartments for securing waterproof aircraft components within the fuselage. The compartments each have drainage openings in the fuselage extending from the interior of the fuselage to the exterior of the fuselage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Pavel Belik, Thomas Szarek, Gabriel E. Torres, Vernon P. Fraye
  • Patent number: 11220170
    Abstract: A quadrotor UAV including ruggedized, integral-battery, load-bearing body, two arms on the load-bearing body, each arm having two rotors, a control module mounted on the load-bearing body, a payload module mounted on the control module, and skids configured as landing gear. The two arms are replaceable with arms having wheels for ground vehicle use, with arms having floats and props for water-surface use, and with arms having pitch-controlled props for underwater use. The control module is configured to operate as an unmanned aerial vehicle, an unmanned ground vehicle, an unmanned (water) surface vehicle, and an unmanned underwater vehicle, depending on the type of arms that are attached.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher E. Fisher, Phillip T. Tokumaru, Marc L. Schmalzel, John Peter Zwaan, Jeremy D. Tyler, Justin B. McAllister, Gabriel E. Torres, Pavel Belik
  • Patent number: 11216015
    Abstract: A method of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operation, including: receiving from a customer a first data request, the first data request having: a first geographic coverage area; and a refresh rate for the first geographic coverage area; planning a first plurality of flight missions to accomplish the first data request; uploading flight missions data representing the first plurality of flight missions into a UAV pod; and deploying the UAV pod.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Eugene Fisher, Jason Sidharthadev Mukherjee, William Arden Lott
  • Patent number: 11171528
    Abstract: In one possible embodiment, a motor winding is provided having a high density multi-conductor wire bundle with a compacted Litz wire bundle. The compacted Litz wire bundle has a serpentine configuration with a central portion having compacted Litz wire and end turns having non-compacted Litz wire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Wally Ewald Rippel, Zaher Abdallah Daboussi, Bradford M. Hori, Scott Garret Berman, Bart Dean Hibbs
  • Patent number: 11155348
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for receiving image data; transferring the captured image data to a server having a processor and addressable memory via a network-connected computing device; storing the captured image data on the server; generating captured image metadata based on the stored captured image data; providing access to the captured image data and captured image metadata via an image management component; displaying, by the image management component, the captured image data; and filtering, by the image management component, the captured image data based on the generated captured image metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Nazlin Kanji, Greg Aragon, Carolyn Hall
  • Patent number: 11157736
    Abstract: A method and system including: an aerial vehicle including: a first camera comprising a first sensor having at least red, green, and blue color channels, where the blue color channel is sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths; a first optical filter disposed in front of the first sensor, wherein the first optical filter is configured to block wavelengths below green, between red and NIR, and longer wavelength NIR; a processor having addressable memory in communication with the first camera, where the processor is configured to: capture at least one image of vegetation from the first camera; provide red, green, and NIR color channels from the captured image from the first camera; and determine at least one vegetative index based on the provided red, green, and NIR color channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Phillip T Tokumaru
  • Patent number: 11153537
    Abstract: A system having: a processor and addressable memory, where the processor is configured to: receive a geographic data defining a selected geographical area; receive an operating mode associated with the selected geographical area, where the received operating mode restricts at least one of: a viewing of a UAV data and a recording of the UAV data by at least one user device; and broadcast the UAV data to the at least one user device based on the selected geographical area and the received operating mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Gabriel E. Torres, Steven B. Chambers, Carlos Augusto Coronado, Gordon Bryan Hudson, Peter De Baets
  • Patent number: 11147179
    Abstract: A shock resistant fuselage system includes first and second fuselage side walls, each of the first and second fuselage side walls having a plurality of guide posts, and a printed circuit board (PCB) rigidly attached to at least one of the first and second fuselage side walls, the PCB having a plurality of guide slots, each of the plurality of guide posts slideably seated in a respective one of the plurality of guide slots so that elastic deformation of the PCB is guided by the guide slots between the first and second fuselage side walls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: William John Nicoloff
  • Patent number: 11145435
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods including a launch control box; a multi-pack launcher (MPL) box; and a cable connecting the launch control box and the MPL box, where the cable comprises: an outer jacket, a shielded braid, a first wire, a second wire, a third wire, and a fourth wire, where the first wire and the second wire are shielded by the shielded braid, where the third wire and the fourth wire are outside of the shielded braid, and where the third wire and the fourth wire act as an antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Reza Miremadi
  • Patent number: 11138706
    Abstract: A method and system including: defining a geographic area; receiving a plurality of images; determining a plurality of image points; partitioning the geographic area into a plurality of image regions based on the plurality of image points; and stitching the plurality of images into a combined image based on the plurality of image regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Quentin Lindsey
  • Patent number: 11130573
    Abstract: A disbursement system for a UAV is provided. The disbursement system may include a plurality of disbursement nozzles operable to dispense an agricultural product at variable flowrates, a flow controller responsive to instructions and operable to regulate a volume of the agricultural product dispensed by the disbursement nozzles, and a control system. The control system may include a plurality of sensors operable to monitor a plurality of flight parameters and a processing unit configured to model an effect of the plurality of flight parameters on first flow control instructions corresponding to a prescription coverage of the agricultural product and calculate and output modulated flow control instructions to the flow controller. The control system may modulate the first control instructions to change a flowrate of one or more of the plurality of disbursement nozzles to achieve an actual coverage of the agricultural product that is closer to the prescription coverage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Lance Holly, William Donovan, Aaron Lessig
  • Patent number: 11118867
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for determining a predicted impact point of a selected weapon and associated round based on stored ballistic information, provided elevation data, provided azimuth data, and provided position data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: John C. McNeil, Earl Clyde Cox, Makoto Ueno, Jon Andrew Ross