The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Jun. 09, 2020

Filed:

May. 27, 2016
Applicant:

Earthly Dynamics, Llc, Atlanta, GA (US);

Inventors:

Mark F. Costello, Atlanta, GA (US);

Michael Brian Ward, Atlanta, GA (US);

R Matthew Tallent, McLean, VA (US);

Ryan Hofmeister, Arlington, VA (US);

Ashish Bagai, Vienna, VA (US);

Assignee:

Other;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B64C 25/00 (2006.01); B64C 25/32 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B64C 25/001 (2013.01); B64C 25/32 (2013.01); B64C 2025/008 (2013.01); B64C 2025/325 (2013.01);
Abstract

The present invention relates to robotic landing gear for a rotorcraft that is designed to allow for landing on sloped and irregular surfaces. The robotic landing gear consists of articulated legs with contact sensors. Once the contact sensor touches a landing surface, the articulated leg in which contact is detected retracts to maintain a certain amount of contact pressure with the surface. Each articulated leg does this independently until contact is detected on the sensors of all of the robotic legs, at which point the legs lock in position and the rotorcraft can safely land.


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