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:
Jun. 09, 2026
Filed:
Apr. 26, 2024
The United States of America, As Represented BY the Secretary of the Navy, Newport, RI (US);
Thomas J. Gieseke, Dighton, MA (US);
Abstract
A thermally controlled buoyancy device is provided with a bi-metallic structure that, when heated, causes volume changes and resulting changes in the buoyancy of the device. The buoyancy device includes an electrical source, a pressure sensor, an electronic controller and at least one variable buoyancy cell with a tunable internal volume. The buoyancy cells include laminated materials with differing coefficients of thermal expansion such that when heated can change shape and volume. The device controls buoyancy by monitoring the depth and supplying that signal to the controller. If the pressure exceeds the pre-set depth pressure; the controller passes current to a heating element in the buoyancy cell. The buoyancy cell responds to the current by increasing volume and thus increasing buoyancy. The design can be inverted such that heating causes the thermally controlled buoyancy device to shrink and lose buoyancy.