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:
Aug. 17, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 11, 1991
Ronald S Reich, Ramona, CA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
Mechanically cooperating assemblies on an undersea vehicle and an instrumation target assure the making of a rigid coupling for passing electrical, optical or fluid information between the vehicle and the instrumentation and reduce the complexity of such a coupling from a three-dimensional to a two-dimensional maneuver by the vehicle. An undersea vehicle locates a pair of spaced-apart vertical cables which are attached to an instrumentation target assembly and engages them anywhere along their length with a converging grabber assembly mounted on the forward moving underwater vehicle. After engaging the cables, the grabber assembly merely slides along the cables toward the instrumentation target assembly. When the grabber assembly is nested in the instrumentation target assembly, a rigid attachment therewith is achieved by merely retracting the grabber arm assembly to pull appropriately located mating electrical, optical or fluid information connectors together to effect a coupling since a proper alignment is guaranteed by the mating configurations of the assemblies.