Patents by Inventor DAVID LOYAL CHRISTENSEN

DAVID LOYAL CHRISTENSEN has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20180217662
    Abstract: A modular floor with active tiles that utilize numerous friction or contact disks each with a raised segment or portion on their edges that together provide a planar contact surface for the active tile. Each disk is oriented at a fixed tilt angle to define which part of the disk's outer surfaces act as the raised portion, and each disk is oriented to position where the raised surface is located so as to define the direction that a supported object is moved over the modular floor. The drive system typically includes, for each disk assembly, a disk orienting mechanism along with a disk rotation mechanism to rotate the disk at a rotation rate about its central axis. The controller of the motion system operates the disk orienting mechanism to orient the disk so that a particular location on the disk behaves as the raised portion where an object is contacted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2017
    Publication date: August 2, 2018
    Inventors: LANNY S. SMOOT, GÜNTER D. NIEMEYER, DAVID LOYAL CHRISTENSEN, ROBERT BRISTOW