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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 19, 2022
Filed:
Apr. 17, 2019
Gecko Robotics, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Kevin Low, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Edward Bryner, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Logan MacKenzie, Union City, PA (US);
Joshua Moore, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Michael S. Auda, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Mark Cho, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Edwin H. Cho, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
GTC Law Group PC & Affiliates, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
An inspection apparatus for inspecting horizontal tubes in an industrial environment includes a drive module including a pair of wheels to engage a top tube of a vertically arranged layer of tubes, a telescoping pole, a sensor carriage assembly coupled to the telescoping pole, a lowering mechanism operationally coupled to the telescoping pole to selectively extend or retract the telescoping pole providing a selected vertical position of the sensor carriage assembly, and an encoder including a passive wheel, a spring, and a sliding coupler. The spring biases the passive wheel toward the top tube to ensure contact between the passive wheel and a surface of the top tube.