Patents by Inventor Leif Alan Bloomquist

Leif Alan Bloomquist 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).

  • Patent number: 5999865
    Abstract: A system guides self-propelled equipment through passageways, such as underground mine corridors. The vehicle contains a signal generator for bouncing signals off the walls of the passageways. A receiver collects the signals bounced off of the passageways to determine the distance to side walls of the passageways. A storage device contains a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways. Each of the nodes contains steering information. A processor finds the distance to the side walls of the passageways in order to steer the vehicle through the passageways. The system's operational state and method of steering changes depending upon the location of the equipment in the interlinking nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1999
    Assignee: Inco Limited
    Inventors: Leif Alan Bloomquist, Eric Herbert Hinton