USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Albert Ortiz

Donald D Dalessandro

Qing Dong

John K Overby

John M Roach

Donald R Longo

Saroj K Biswas

David J Kocsik

The present invention is particularly efficacious when practiced as a system for transferring payloads between sideways-adjacent vessels at sea. As typically embodied, an inventive inter-locational transfer system includes: a trolley; a set of parallel cable-rails upon and along which the trolley is rollable; a pair of pulling cables, respectively connected to the two sideways-adjacent ships, for exerting pulling forces on the trolley in opposite directions along the cable-rails; at least four hoisting cables, separately and distantly attached at the bottom of the trolley and at peripheral points of the payload, for suspending a rectangular payload (e.g., ISO container with contents) from the trolley; a first computer control capability; for controlling the impelling and restraining of the trolley by the respective pulling cables; and, a second computer control capability, for controlling the lengthening and shortening of the respective hoisting cables in a coordinated manner to reduce or minimize payload pendulation.

Trolley-payload inter-ship transfer system

According to typical inventive practice, each inventive sensor node performs computer processing that is tri-chotomized in a progressive, power-regulating scheme of three processors, namely, a low-performance processor, a middle-performance processor (which remains in sleep mode until activated upon demand for a middle-computation function), and a high-performance processor (which remains in sleep mode until activated upon demand for a high-computation function). The low-performance processor performs low computation functions such as routine sensing functions. The middle-performance processor performs middle-computation functions such as validative sensing functions. The high-performance processor performs high computation functions such as remedial communicative functions. Each sensor node has one or more transceivers for wirelessly transmitting and receiving radio signals (e.g. remedial communication) to and from transceivers of other sensor nodes. Some transceivers may be specifically dedicated to wirelessly communicating 'wake-up' signals among nodes. Inventive practice is notably efficacious in furtherance of situational awareness of damage events onboard naval ships.

Power managing energy-harvesting for selectively controlling a state of individual computer based on a harvesting energy stored available

An apparatus for wirelessly transmitting electric currents walls. The walls may be bulkhead compartment walls of a fixed structure or a vehicle or the like. The apparatus includes a wireless electric power transmission arrangement that includes an electronic device on one side of a wall, which is powered by a power source on another side of the wall. The electronic device may be a sensor arrangement having one or more sensors, a battery charging device, a through-the-bulkhead repeater device or other electronic device requiring power.

Wireless electric power transmission through wall

Conventional multi-hop routing of ad hoc wireless networks involves considerations such as costs, connection quality, distances, and numbers of hops. A conventional wireless routing algorithm may fail when a destructive event takes place and is rapidly expanding in area, as the route discoveries may perpetually lag behind the rate of expansion of the destructive area. As typically embodied, the present invention's wireless routing algorithm detects a destructive event early, assumes rapid expansion of the destruction area, establishes 'subnets' of nodes, and predetermines one or more routes that circumvent the rapidly expanding destruction area by exiting from and returning to the subnet in which the destructive event originates. Typical inventive practice avails itself of the architectural character of the physical setting for the wireless network, for instance by establishing subnets corresponding to compartments formed by wall-like structures (e.g., shipboard bulkheads), which represent natural barriers to expansion of a destruction area.

Active-avoidance-based routing in a wireless ad hoc network

A method and apparatus for transmitting radio frequency signals and associated information through a plurality of compartments and associated bulkhead walls in a water vessel. The method and apparatus includes a through-the-bulkhead repeater system, in which one or more bi-directional repeater units are mounted on bulkhead walls in each compartment. The bi-directional units communicate with each other to transfer signals throughout the vessel. In operation, a bi-directional unit converts radio frequency signals into energy forms such as ultrasonic waves, which are propagated from one compartment to an adjacent compartment through the thick bulkhead walls. The propagated energy forms are received in the adjacent compartment by another bi-directional unit, which eventually converts the energy form into an output radio frequency signal, which is then transmitted by the bi-directional unit.

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Chalfont, PA, United States of America

Albert Ortiz