Did You Know...
...that in 1800 ether was first used by partyers as a fun diversion? Sniffing the gas led to hilarious and raucous laughter as people watched each other become more and more intoxicated and silly. Several doctors independently realized the value ether would have to anesthetize surgery patients. Of those who claimed rights to the "discovery," none had a happy ending. One had a seizure and died defending his rights. Another spent his life in an asylum because he had been denied acclaim. A third became addicted to chloroform and, in a New York City jail, he soaked a cloth in the drug, severed an artery and bled to death.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| D659311 | Robot vacuum cleaner | 05/08/2012 |
| 8166904 | Delivery systems for pressure protecting and delivering a submerged payload and methods for using the same A payload delivery unit for protecting and delivering a payload submerged in a submersion medium comprises a container including a pressure resistant shell and a resilient seal device. The shell defines a containment chamber and includes first and second shell membe... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8127704 | Submersible vehicles and methods for transiting the same in a body of liquid A submersible vehicle for use in a body of liquid includes a vehicle body, a pair of fins coupled to the vehicle body on opposed sides thereof, and a dihedral angle control system. The dihedral angle control is system operative to vary a fin dihedral angle of each o... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8122982 | Mobile robot systems and methods Mobile robot systems and methods are provided. At least one tracked mobile robot has a first end comprising a first pair of wheels, a second end comprising a second pair of wheels, an articulated arm coaxial with the first pair of wheels, and a driven support surfac... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8113304 | Robotic platform An articulated tracked vehicle that has a main section, which includes a main frame, and a forward section. The main frame has two sides and a front end, and includes a pair of parallel main tracks. Each main track includes a flexible continuous belt coupled to a co... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8109191 | Remote digital firing system A remote digital firing system for selectively firing a plurality of remote mission payloads. The remote digital firing system includes a first set of firing circuits communicatively coupled to and operative to fire a corresponding first set of remote mission payloa... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8108092 | Autonomous behaviors for a remote vehicle A method for enhancing operational efficiency of a remote vehicle using a diagnostic behavior. The method comprises inputting and analyzing data received from a plurality of sensors to determine the existence of deviations from normal operation of the remote vehicle... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8107318 | Sonar scanner Detecting an object using sound waves includes outputting a sound wave from a transducer, receiving an echo after outputting the sound wave, obtaining a threshold value based on the echo and plural other echoes that are within a predetermined range of the echo, and ... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8095238 | Robot development platform A modular robot development kit includes an extensible mobile robot platform and a programmable development module that connects to the mobile robot platform. The mobile robot platform includes a controller that executes robot behaviors concurrently and performs rob... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8087117 | Cleaning robot roller processing A coverage robot includes a chassis, a drive system, and a cleaning assembly. The cleaning assembly includes a housing and at least one driven cleaning roller including an elongated core with end mounting features defining a central longitudinal axis of rotation, mu... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8082836 | Mitigating recoil in a ballistic robot Recoil mitigating devices and methods for use with projectile firing systems such as a disrupter mounted to a robotic arm. A pair of parallel spring provides dampening of axial recoil movement of the disrupter relative to the robotic arm. Forward ends of the springs... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8079432 | Maneuvering robotic vehicles having a positionable sensor head Configurations are provided for vehicular robots or other vehicles to provide shifting of their centers of gravity for enhanced obstacle navigation. Various head and neck morphologies are provided to allow positioning for various poses such as a stowed pose, observa... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8074752 | Mobile robotic vehicle A mobile robot includes a robot chassis having a forward end, a rearward end and a center of gravity. The robot includes a driven support surface to propel the robot and first articulated arm rotatable about an axis located rearward of the center of gravity of the r... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8061461 | Robotic vehicle deck adjustment A method is disclosed for a robotic vehicle to climb a step. The robotic vehicle uses tracked flippers to engage the top of the step and drives with additional tracks other than the tracked flippers. The robotic vehicle also shifts and tilts a payload in order to mo... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8042663 | Communications spooler for a mobile robot A cable handling system mounted to a mobile robot to dispense and retrieve cable at zero tension includes a cable reel drive and a downstream tension roller drive that includes an idler. As a cable passes through the tension roller drive, position along the length o... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8020657 | Systems and methods for obstacle avoidance Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for obstacle avoidance. In some embodiments, a robotically controlled vehicle capable of operating in one or more modes may be provided. Examples of such modes include teleoperation, waypoint navigation, follo... | 09/20/2011 |
| 8019223 | Method and device for controlling a remote vehicle A system and method for controlling a remote vehicle comprises a hand-held controller including a laser generator for generating a laser beam. The hand-held controller is manipulable to aim and actuate the laser beam to designate a destination for the remote vehicle... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8007221 | Lifting apparatus for remote controlled robotic device A retrofittable lifting apparatus for use on an articulated robotically controlled device is disclosed. The lifting apparatus includes a structure for mating the apparatus to the robotic device and a mechanism for the remotely controlled lifting of an ordnance or ot... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7979175 | Systems and methods for control of an unmanned ground vehicle Systems and methods for interruptible autonomous control of a vehicle. Autonomous control is achieved by using actuators that interact with input devices in the vehicle. The actuators (e.g., linkages) manipulate the input devices (e.g., articulation controls and dri... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7957837 | Companion robot for personal interaction A mobile robot guest for interacting with a human resident performs a room-traversing search procedure prior to interacting with the resident, and may verbally query whether the resident being sought is present. Upon finding the resident, the mobile robot may facili... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7942107 | Delivery systems for pressure protecting and delivering a submerged payload and methods for using the same A payload delivery system for protecting and delivering a payload submerged in a submersion medium includes a containment system. The containment system includes a container and a dehiscing system. The container includes a pressure-resistant shell defining a sealed ... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7926598 | Mobile robotic vehicle A mobile robot includes a robot chassis having a forward end, a rearward end and a center of gravity. The robot includes a driven support surface to propel the robot and first articulated arm rotatable about an axis located rearward of the center of gravity of the r... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7894951 | Systems and methods for switching between autonomous and manual operation of a vehicle Systems and methods for switching between autonomous and manual operation of a vehicle are described. A mechanical control system can receive manual inputs from a mechanical operation member to operate the vehicle in manual mode. An actuator can receive autonomous c... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7891446 | Robotic vehicle deck adjustment A robotic vehicle is disclosed, which is characterized by high mobility, adaptability, and the capability of being remotely controlled in hazardous environments. The robotic vehicle includes a chassis having front and rear ends and supported on right and left driven... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7835529 | Sound canceling systems and methods A system for sound cancellation includes a source microphone for detecting sound and a speaker for broadcasting a canceling sound with respect to a cancellation location. A computational module is in communication with the source microphone and the speaker. The comp... | 11/16/2010 |
| 7784570 | Robotic vehicle A robotic vehicle is disclosed, which is characterized by high mobility, adaptability, and the capability of being remotely controlled in hazardous environments. The robotic vehicle includes a chassis having front and rear ends and supported on right and left driven... | 08/31/2010 |
| 7761954 | Autonomous surface cleaning robot for wet and dry cleaning An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a transport drive and control system arranged for autonomous movement of the robot over a floor for performing cleaning operations. The robot chassis carries a first cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to s... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7720572 | Companion robot for personal interaction A robot system includes a base station and a robot. The base station includes a wireless transceiver configured to communicate TCP/IP transmissions over a local wireless protocol, a wired Ethernet connector for communicating TCP/IP transmissions over a local wired E... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7706917 | Celestial navigation system for an autonomous robot A navigational control system for an autonomous robot includes a transmitter subsystem having a stationary emitter for emitting at least one signal. An autonomous robot operating within a working area utilizes a receiving subsystem to detect the emitted signal. The ... | 04/27/2010 |
| 7688676 | Sonar scanner Detecting an object using sound waves includes outputting a sound wave from a transducer, receiving an echo after outputting the sound wave, obtaining a threshold value based on the echo and plural other echoes that are within a predetermined range of the echo, and ... | 03/30/2010 |
| 7663333 | Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as sp... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7654348 | Maneuvering robotic vehicles having a positionable sensor head Configurations are provided for vehicular robots or other vehicles to provide shifting of their centers of gravity for enhanced obstacle navigation. Various head and neck morphologies are provided to allow positioning for various poses such as a stowed pose, observa... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7636982 | Autonomous floor cleaning robot An autonomous floor-cleaning robot comprising a housing infrastructure including a chassis, a power subsystem; for providing the energy to power the autonomous floor-cleaning robot, a motive subsystem operative to propel the autonomous floor-cleaning robot for clean... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7620476 | Autonomous surface cleaning robot for dry cleaning An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a transport drive and control system arranged for autonomous movement of the robot over a floor for performing cleaning operations. The robot chassis carries a first cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to s... | 11/17/2009 |
| 7600593 | Robotic vehicle with dynamic range actuators A robotic vehicle including a chassis having front and rear ends, an electric power source supported by the chassis, and multiple drive assemblies supporting the chassis. Each drive assembly including a track trained about a corresponding drive wheel and a drive con... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7597162 | Robotic platform An articulated tracked vehicle that has a main section, which includes a main frame, and a forward section. The main frame has two sides and a front end, and includes a pair of parallel main tracks. Each main track includes a flexible continuous belt coupled to a co... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7579803 | Robot confinement A method of confining a robot in a work space includes providing a portable barrier signal transmitting device including a primary emitter emitting a confinement beam primarily along an axis defining a directed barrier. A mobile robot including a detector, a drive m... | 08/25/2009 |
| 7571511 | Autonomous floor-cleaning robot An autonomous floor-cleaning robot comprises a self-adjusting cleaning head subsystem that includes a dual-stage brush assembly having counter-rotating, asymmetric brushes and an adjacent, but independent, vacuum assembly such that the cleaning capability and effici... | 08/11/2009 |
| 7567052 | Robot navigation A directed beam emitter system for robot navigation in which a light beam emitter emits a modulated directed light beam of a first modulation and an omnidirectional diffuse light region emitter emits a modulated diffuse light region of a second modulation. The modul... | 07/28/2009 |
| 7559269 | Remote digital firing system A remote digital firing system includes a firing circuit operative to fire remote mission payloads, a firing control panel linked to the firing circuit, and a digital code plug configured to communicate with the firing circuit and firing control panel. The firing ci... | 07/14/2009 |
