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:
Nov. 20, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 12, 2000
Guy Frank Cooper, Ventura, CA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
The amphibious robot mine locator may be used in water-based and land-based environments to locate mines and other hazards. In a water-based environment a diver controls movement of the amphibious robot mine locator. In a land-based environment movement of the mine locator is via remote control. Mine locator includes a pair of oppositely rotating propellers which propel the mine locator through the water with a ruder being provided to control the direction of movement of amphibious robot mine locator as it travels through the water. There is also a control panel which includes the controls for allowing the diver to steer amphibious robot mine locator and control the depth of mine locator. When amphibious robot mine locator switches to a land-based mode of operation, the propellers function as wheels rotating in the same direction to move amphibious robot mine locator along a programmed path to continue its search for mines and other obstacles and hazards. The amphibious robot mine locator also has a pair of air operated pulsating blisters which allow for essentially frictionless movement across the grounds surface irregardless of the shape of the surface. Each blister has a contact surface located on its underside which is fabricated from a material which is flexible and has a hard surface that will not scratch, such as TEFLON. The flexibility of the contact surface of each blister allows the blister to travel over irregular shaped objects such as rocks since the contact surface conforms to the shape of the irregular shaped object.