Patents Assigned to Aerovironment Inc.
  • Aircraft system for reduced observer visibility
    Patent number: 10227129
    Abstract: An aircraft apparatus is disclosed that has a fuselage boom having proximal and distal ends, a wing coupled to a proximal end of the fuselage boom and at least one transparent stabilizer coupled to a distal end of the fuselage boom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Eugene Fisher, Steven Bradley Chambers, Pavil Belik, Austin Craig Gunder, John Peter Zwaan
  • Multimode unmanned aerial vehicle
    Patent number: 10222177
    Abstract: A system comprising an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configured to transition from a terminal homing mode to a target search mode, responsive to an uplink signal and/or an autonomous determination of scene change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: Carlos Thomas Miralles
  • Rotating Lidar
    Publication number: 20190064325
    Abstract: A lidar system, including a base, a sensor body, and a motor having a shaft. The motor is affixed to the base, and can drive the sensor body in rotation with respect to the base. An LED device and a light sensor are each mounted upon the sensor body. A data processing device is also mounted upon the sensor body, and is programmed to produce range information based upon the sensor data. The shaft carries two slip rings. The LED, the sensor and the data processing device all receive electrical power via the two slip rings. The data processing device is configured to transmit the range information via the two slip rings using pulse width modulation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Applicant: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventor: Reza Miremadi
  • Safety system for operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle
    Patent number: 10209707
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for a safety system including: selecting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) command on a controller, the controller comprising a first processor with addressable memory; presenting a first activator and a second activator on a display of the controller for the selected UAV command, wherein the second activator is a slider; and sending the UAV command to a UAV if the first activator and the second activator are selected, the UAV comprising a second processor with addressable memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Thaddeus Benjamin Matuszeski, William Arden Lott, Derek Lisoski
  • Deep stall aircraft landing
    Patent number: 10204522
    Abstract: An aircraft defining an upright orientation and an inverted orientation, a ground station; and a control system for remotely controlling the flight of the aircraft. The ground station has an auto-land function that causes the aircraft to invert, stall, and controllably land in the inverted orientation to protect a payload and a rudder extending down from the aircraft. In the upright orientation, the ground station depicts the view from a first aircraft camera. When switching to the inverted orientation: (1) the ground station depicts the view from a second aircraft camera, (2) the aircraft switches the colors of red and green wing lights, extends the ailerons to act as inverted flaps, and (3) the control system adapts a ground station controller for the inverted orientation. The aircraft landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher E. Fisher, Thomas Robert Szarek, Justin B. McAllister, Pavel Belik
  • System for aligning a propeller
    Patent number: 10196150
    Abstract: A motor assembly that includes a motor (102) having a rotatable shaft, a hub coupled to the rotatable shaft, the hub having a propeller indexer to receive a propeller (104), when the propeller is present, a sensor trigger rotatable with the shaft (100) and positioned at a propeller offset angle ?PROP from the propeller indexer, and a sensor coupled to the motor and positioned to detect the sensor trigger so that the propeller indexer may be positioned at the propeller offset angle ?PROP from the sensor through rotation of the shaft so that said sensor is proximate to the sensor trigger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Jason Allen Firanski, Justin Bates McAllister, Ronald Howard Olch, Lane Dennis Dalan, Emil Ghapgharan
  • Mounting system for mechanical-shock resistant printed circuit board (PCB)
    Patent number: 10194551
    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: March 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventor: William John Nicoloff
  • UAV payload module camera assembly and retraction mechanism
    Patent number: 10189581
    Abstract: In one possible embodiment, a UAV payload module retraction mechanism is provided including a payload pivotally attached to a housing. A biasing member is mounted to bias the payload out of the housing and a winch is attached to the payload. An elongated flexible drawing member is coupled between the housing and the winch, the elongated drawing flexible member being capable of being drawn by the winch to retract the payload within the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: John Peter Zwaan, Pavel Belik, Manolis Dimotakis, Christopher J. D'Aquila
  • THERMAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AN AIRCRAFT AVIONICS BAY
    Publication number: 20190014691
    Abstract: A system for managing heat transfer is provided by the present disclosure, which in one form includes a cavity having an inner wall portion, at least one heat-generating component disposed within the cavity, and a plurality of heat conducting members disposed adjacent one another. Each heat conducting member includes a resilient core and an outer shell wrapped around at least a portion of the resilient core. The outer shell is made of a material having a relatively high thermal conductivity, and the plurality of heat conducting members are positioned between the heat-generating component and the inner wall portion of the cavity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2018
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Applicant: AeroVironment Inc.
    Inventors: Uchenna Ofoma, Bart Dean Hibbs
  • Reconfigurable battery-operated vehicle system
    Patent number: 10155588
    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: March 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    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
  • UNMANNED AIRCRAFT TURN AND APPROACH SYSTEM
    Publication number: 20180356822
    Abstract: An aircraft including a wing system, a plurality of control surfaces, a camera mounted on a camera pod, and a control system. The camera pod is configured to vary the orientation of the camera field of view only in yaw, relative to the aircraft, between a directly forward-looking orientation and a side-looking orientation. The control system controls the control surfaces such that they induce a significant aircraft yaw causing an identified target to be within the field of view of the camera with the camera in the directly forward-looking orientation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Applicant: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: William J. Nicoloff, Eric M. Sornborger, Lars B. Cremean
  • Powerplant and related control system and method
    Patent number: 10138801
    Abstract: A hydrogen fueled powerplant including an internal combustion engine that drives a motor-generator, and has a two-stage turbocharger, for an aircraft. A control system controls the operation of the motor-generator to maintain the engine at a speed selected based on controlling the engine equivalence ratio. The control system controls an afterburner, an intercooler and an aftercooler to maximize powerplant efficiency. The afterburner also adds power to the turbochargers during high-altitude restarts. The turbochargers also include motor-generators that extract excess power from the exhaust.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Nelson Brooks, James Gallagher Daley
  • FLUX CONCENTRATOR FOR IRONLESS MOTOR
    Publication number: 20180331590
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a magnet array and ironless winding for a motor is provided which has an array of permanent magnets being arranged such that flux from the permanent magnets reinforce on one side of the array and substantially cancel on an opposite side of the array, the array further includes flux concentrators forming poles on the reinforcing side of the array, and such that a magnetic moment at the poles is oriented generally perpendicular to the reinforcing side of the array, the winding being adjacent to the array and comprising conductor bundles having a generally rectangular cross-section arranged such that a long side of the generally rectangular cross-section is transverse to a direction of magnetic field lines at the poles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2018
    Publication date: November 15, 2018
    Applicant: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Bart Dean HIBBS, Bang Xuan PHAN
  • Systems and devices for remotely operated unmanned aerial vehicle report-suppressing launcher with portable RF transparent launch tube
    Patent number: 10124909
    Abstract: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch tube (100) that comprises at least one inner layer of prepreg substrate (370) disposed about a right parallelepiped aperture (305), at least one outer layer of prepreg substrate (380) disposed about the right parallelepiped aperture, and one or more structural panels (341-344) disposed between the at least one inner layer of prepreg substrate (340) and the at least one outer layer of prepreg substrate (380).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Carlos Thomas Miralles, Guan H Su, Alexander Andryukov, John McNeil
  • RECONFIGURABLE BATTERY-OPERATED VEHICLE SYSTEM
    Publication number: 20180305013
    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: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2018
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Applicant: 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
  • Stator winding heat sink configuration
    Patent number: 10103592
    Abstract: In one possible implementation, a motor is provided including a rotor and a stator. Front cooling fins are thermally coupled to a front of the stator, and rear cooling fins are thermally coupled to a rear portion of the stator. The winding is between the front and rear cooling fins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Zaher Abdallah Daboussi, Lindsay Aspinwall Sheppard, Bart Dean Hibbs, Wally Ewald Rippel
  • Thermal management system for an aircraft avionics bay
    Patent number: 10104809
    Abstract: A system for managing heat transfer is provided by the present disclosure, which in one form includes a cavity having an inner wall portion, at least one heat-generating component disposed within the cavity, and a plurality of heat conducting members disposed adjacent one another. Each heat conducting member includes a resilient core and an outer shell wrapped around at least a portion of the resilient core. The outer shell is made of a material having a relatively high thermal conductivity, and the plurality of heat conducting members are positioned between the heat-generating component and the inner wall portion of the cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: AeroVironment Inc.
    Inventors: Uchenna Ofoma, Bart Dean Hibbs
  • Water-tight compartment with removable hatch and two-sided gel seal for multiple conduit access
    Patent number: 10094165
    Abstract: A water-tight or air-tight accessible compartment has a removable hatch sealed at the edge with elastically conformable opposing seals, with elongate communication elements extending into the compartment between the opposing seals, seals conforming to the topology formed between the compartment edge and the elongate communication elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald H. Olch, Pavel Belik
  • Inverted-Landing Aircraft
    Publication number: 20180283860
    Abstract: An aircraft defining an upright orientation and an inverted orientation, a ground station; and a control system for remotely controlling the flight of the aircraft. The ground station has an auto-land function that causes the aircraft to invert, stall, and controllably land in the inverted orientation to protect a payload and a rudder extending down from the aircraft. In the upright orientation, the ground station depicts the view from a first aircraft camera. When switching to the inverted orientation: (1) the ground station depicts the view from a second aircraft camera, (2) the aircraft switches the colors of red and green wing lights, extends the ailerons to act as inverted flaps, and (3) the control system adapts a ground station controller for the inverted orientation. The aircraft landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Applicant: AeroVironment, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher E. Fisher, Thomas Robert Szarek, Justin B. McAllister, Pavel Belik
  • Operating control device for an unmanned aerial vehicle
    Patent number: D837166
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Thaddeus Benjamin Matuszeski, Andrew Logan