Heath Company

Zenith Electronics Corporation

Zenith Radio Corporation

Zenith Data Systems Corporation

Terry A Perdue

David Poplewski

William Cubbage

Apparatus and method for automatically controlling the rotation of an angularly positionable antenna from one angular position to a desired new angular position. The disclosed technique provides the user with a list of destination indicia, each of which corresponds to a geographic location. The user is also provided with a selector for choosing one or more of the available destination indicia. Once the user selects a destination index, a retrieval system automatically retrieves the appropriate geographic reference location from a destination indicia table stored in memory. A calculation is then automatically performed to determine the desired angular position of the antenna with respect to an arbitrary reference angle. The antenna rotor shaft is then energized to rotate the shaft to the desired angular position.

Microprocessor-based antenna rotor controller

A plastic housing comprised of a pair of identical half sections joined along peripheral edges thereof so as to form a generally hollow shell structure having an elongated linear aperture and a circular aperture in facing end portions thereof encloses a printed circuit (PC) board. A flat ribbon cable extends through the elongated linear aperture, while a round cable extends through the circular aperture, with both cables coupled to the PC board. Elongated projections having a half-cylinder cross section are disposed immediately above and below each of the apertures on the facing end portions of the housing so as to restrict the bending of and limit the strain upon the cables extending from the apertures in the housing.

Cable strain relief

An opto/acoustic navigation system allows a mobile robot to detect and mate with a floating plug-equipped charging unit upon detection of the need for recharging of the robot's storage battery. A plurality of infrared (IR) emitters and sensors located on the robot and adjacent to the charger in combination with the robot's acoustic sensors allow the robot to locate the charger, move to within a predetermined distance of the charger, maneuver to a position directly in front of the charger, and then back into engagement with the charger's floating plug.

Navigation system and method for a mobile robot

A sonar ranging/light detection system provides information regarding the surrounding environment to a robot. The sonar portion of the system includes an upper rotating detector which provides 360.degree. coverage as well as a lower, fixed detector located on the front of the robot which provides sensory information in the direction of robot movement. A light detector similarly provides a 360.degree. light sensing capability. The upper sonar and light detectors utilize a common rotating mirror driven by a stepper motor and include a slotted shaft encoder in combination with an optopair semiconductor detector. The shaft encoder provides angular information to a microcomputer controller which is also responsive to sonar ranging information in exercising control of the stepper motor. The transmitted sonar signal is comprised of a pulse train of four different frequencies to ensure that simultaneous echoes from more than one surface do not cancel each other out and provide false ranging information. As the time for echo return increases for greater distances, the gain of the sonar receiver is increased by the controller in anticipation of receipt of a weaker echo. The rotating detector is capable of continuous 360.degree. rotation, sector scanning, or pointing in a designated direction in obtaining ranging information and employs a retro-torque damping technique to provide faster angular stabilization of the mirror prior to making range measurements. The upper and lower sonar detectors are utilized in an alternating manner in the various modes of operation.

Sonar ranging/light detection system for use in a robot

A touch sensitive variable speed tuning selector is disclosed. A rotary tuning selector knob includes a finger contact coupled to touch sensitive circuitry. Tuning selector rotation causes a shaft encoder to provide a first pulsed output to tuning circuitry for normal frequency change increments. When the touch sensitive circuitry detects the presence of a finger on the contact, a signal is provided to the tuning circuitry causing each pulse from the shaft encoder to change frequency in larger increments for fast, or coarse, tuning. In a preferred embodiment, a change in the capacitance of a touch sensitive capacitive network changes the timing of input pulses provided to a flip-flop which, in turn, changes the flip-flop output to the variable speed tuning circuitry resulting in an increase in frequency change increments.

Variable speed tuning selector

A system is disclosed for utilizing command buffers in a microprocessor controlled electronic code keyer for storing, rather than text to be transmitted, command strings for keyer operation. The command string is defined by a series of keypad closures for selecting a sequence of text buffers to be transmitted. In addition, the command buffers may be used during automatic text transmission to selectively change keyer parameters such as the speed of character transmission, inter-character and inter-word spacing, dot-to-dash-to-space ratio, or the number of times the contents of a text buffer will be automatically repeated. The use of text and command buffers permits the formation of essentially errorless Morse code transmissions, substantially enhances keyer operating and makes more efficient use of available memory.

Growing community of inventors

St. Joseph, MI, United States of America

Terry A Perdue