Celebrity Inventors
Glam girl Heddy Lamar may have used her good looks to good effect on the silver screen, but she put her smarts to better use as an inventor. During World War II, she co-patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was considered years ahead of its time.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7538511 | Modular trolling motor control system A trolling motor control system includes plurality of modules that are connected to a communication bus to transmit and receive data used in controlling operation of a trolling motor. Based upon data transmitted over the bus, trolling motor speed, steering, and trim... | 05/26/2009 |
| 7369923 | Control system and method A control system of the invention for regulating a quantity to be controlled based on a deviation of the controlled quantity from a target value thereof and control parameters includes a behavior feature value calculator, a basic state judgment data calculator and a... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7339339 | Control system of floating mobile body An object of the invention is to provide a floating mobile object control system capable of causing a floating mobile object to stand still in a predetermined position with high precision or track a target trajectory with high precision, even under disturbances caus... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7311058 | Automated trim tab adjustment system method and apparatus A trim tab control system adapted to adjust trim tabs to optimize the velocity of a water vessel. The trim tab control system is adapted to have a tilt sensor and a velocity sensor in communication with the microcontroller where the microcontroller records the posit... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7308357 | Component navigation system for a sailing vessel A component navigational system comprising a video interface unit and multiple purpose-built printed circuit boards that are presented in a card cage unit. A number of the printed circuit boards will be further connected to input sensors for measuring various parame... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7224137 | Instantaneous fan stopping method and structure thereof The present invention provides an instantaneous fan stopping method and structure thereof. The method and structure can eliminate the inertial rotating state of the fan when the power supplied to the fan is cut off. In accordance with the present invention, a closed... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7220157 | Arrangement and method for parallel alignment of propeller shafts and means for parallel alignment An arrangement and method for parallel alignment of propeller shafts in a first and a second underwater housing arranged on the hull of a vessel, which underwater housings are arranged to rotate around an axis of rotation which is angled in relation to the propeller... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7186155 | Power steering rate controller for a boat and method The invention provides a device and method for producing substantially kinematic steering of a boat whose yaw rate and direction is approximately proportional to the rate and direction that a steering device such as a steering wheel is being operated. The invention ... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7137595 | Flight lock actuator with dual energy sources A flight lock actuator that can be powered by two sources of stored energy when aircraft power has been switched off. A mechanical energy storage means and an electrical energy storage means provide a fully redundant energy storage system that stores sufficient ener... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7112109 | Propulsion system for ships, in particular for cruise vessels For avoiding a high permanent load of the main and control drives rotatable around the vertical axis for ships for the straight forward sailing by a small and compact course keeping rudder system provided for this purpose, for a propulsion system (10) for shi... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7064503 | Active noise compensation A method is for controlling a multi-phase electrical ship propulsion motor that is supplied with electric energy via a power converter. The ship propulsion motor is preferably a permanently excited motor with at least three windings. The phase currents flowing in th... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7036445 | Watercraft steer-by-wire system A watercraft steer-by-wire control system for watercraft comprising: a direction control system including a rudder position sensor; a helm control system including at least one of; a helm position sensor to produce and transmit a helm position signal and an optional... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7034492 | Methods and systems for reducing unintentional collisions A method for differentiating if a feedback signal is a result of an unintentional collisions in a servo system includes injecting a feed forward term in the servo system. ... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7006905 | Method and device for allocating thrust Force balance and moment balance associated with thrust of air and water craft equipped with thrust generators are preset in view of non-linear characteristics and dynamic characteristics of thrust generators. A performance index for minimizing thrusts generated by ... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6957990 | Electric houseboat An electric houseboat comprises a hull and a house-like structure mounted on the hull which includes at least one bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. A Diesel generator comprises the sole power source for the houseboat. The operating temperature of the Diesel genera... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6923047 | Reset system for outboard engine A reset system for a watercraft outboard engine comprises: a control unit comprising a time summating portion for summating time for management of oil change time of an engine, a memory portion having a non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM for memorizing the cumula... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6902446 | DC motor with integral controller A DC motor having a motor housing and a motor controller housed within the motor housing. In a preferred embodiment the heat producing components of the motor controller are in thermal communication with the housing such that the majority of the heat produced by suc... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6507164 | Current based power management for a trolling motor A trolling motor having current based power management including: an electric motor; a motor controller having an output for providing voltage to the motor; and a current sensor for measuring the electrical current flowing through the motor. Upon determin... | 01/14/2003 |
| 6369542 | Trolling motor foot control with fine speed adjustment A trolling motor foot control for use with a trolling motor is disclosed. The trolling motor foot control includes a pad adapted to receive an operator's foot, a first operating interface coupled to the pad and adapted to be coupled to the trolling motor ... | 04/09/2002 |
| 6114823 | Circuit and apparatus for sensing fluid flow A circuit and apparatus for magnetically sensing fluid flow through a conduit. The circuit includes a sensor and a sensor magnet for biasing the sensor in an on condition. A second magnet indicative of the relative position of a conduit valve substantiall... | 09/05/2000 |
| 5747950 | Steering system for vehicles or ships A steering system for vehicles or ships is provided, with a steering handwheel and a steering element with no mechanical linkage line therebetween, with a steering handwheel sensor device, a steering element sensor device and a control arrangement which, ... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5629595 | Method and apparatus for an amusement ride having an interactive guided vehicle An apparatus and method in which a vehicle is guided along a path defined by a centerline and left and right boundaries parallel to and spaced laterally on opposite sides thereof and in which a passenger in the vehicle can steer it for lateral movement be... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5523951 | System and method for automatic ship steering A real-time ship steering system provides steering of a survey ship along a rescribed thumb line track in accordance with a received point location on the thumb line and a received heading of the rhumb line. The system of the present invention requires an ... | 06/04/1996 |
| 5408230 | Remote control system for marine propulsion unit A remote control system is provided for transmitting control movement from a remote control unit to a controlled element which includes a throttle or transmission control lever on a marine propulsion unit. An operator is associated with the remote control... | 04/18/1995 |
| 5406488 | Correction of errors in autopilots A system (1) responds to inputs (2) in parallel with a state estimator (4). The controller (6) provides the inputs (2) in response to ordered state inputs (14) and state estimator inputs. An external disturbance vector (f) affects the system (1) so that t... | 04/11/1995 |
| 5361024 | Remote, electrical steering system with fault protection A remote, electrical steering system for marine vehicles including an electrical motor operable by a control and power circuit to rotate a drive screw having a screw connection to a nut in a drive tube for moving the drive tube in translation to cause ste... | 11/01/1994 |
| 5313397 | Autopilot system for a vessel An autopilot system for a vessel such as a boat receives a pre-set heading direction set by e.g. the user and also receives the apparent orientation (heading) from a heading sensor. The difference between the pre-set heading direction and the actual headi... | 05/17/1994 |
| 5235927 | Autopilot system An autopilot system for a vessel such as a boat has an autopilot unit connected via a drive to the rudder or other direction determining means of the vessel. When the autopilot unit is operating normally, direction information from e.g. a heading sensor i... | 08/17/1993 |
| 5214363 | Remote electrical steering system with fault protection A remote, electrical steering system for marine vehicles including an electrical motor operable by a control and power circuit to rotate a drive screw having a screw connection to a nut in a drive tube for moving the drive tube in translation to cause ste... | 05/25/1993 |
| 5209682 | Speed and direction indicator for ships A speed and direction indicator for ships having at least one rudder propeller, or pump jet, and preferably several such devices for determining the direction of the ship and its speed in the selected direction. An optical display is provided in the area ... | 05/11/1993 |
| 5202835 | Trolling motor with heading lock A trolling motor with heading lock coupled to the trolling motor and producing a thrust to pull a watercraft is disclosed. The system contains a bow-mounted motor and a steering motor connected to the bow-mounted motor. The outputs of a heading detector c... | 04/13/1993 |
| 5179905 | Adaptive autopilot A marine autopilot having adaptive gain control. The autopilot operates under a proportional plus derivative (PD) control law during course change operation (i.e. when the difference between a desired course and the actual vessel heading is greater than a... | 01/19/1993 |
| 5175481 | Adjusting device for a remote control system An adjusting device embodied in a remote control system which adjusts the output potential characteristics of one or more of the system's detector's relative to their associated inputs and/or relative to each other to improve the motion transmissibility o... | 12/29/1992 |
| 5172324 | Electronic steering system A device for controlling the heading of a water craft using a propulsion device which pulls the water craft is disclosed. The device includes a motor with a variable thrust orientation and a controller for controlling the direction of the thrust of the mo... | 12/15/1992 |
| 5152239 | Autopilot having roll compensation capabilities A marine autopilot includes a roll compensation feature to improve autopilot performance. An additional parameter is included in a proportional-integral-derivative control algorithm. The additional term corresponds to the roll angle of the vessel. Since, ... | 10/06/1992 |
| 5107424 | Configurable marine steering system A ship steering system has a multiplicity of selectable steering stations. A continuously rotating helm at each steering station generates digital rudder control signals which cause a predetermined rudder movement for each 360° of helm rotation. Steering... | 04/21/1992 |
| 5034895 | Enhanced performance bias integrator for marine automatic pilot system The rudder order bias integrator of a marine autopilot is reactivated upon substantial completion of a turning maneuver in response to heading error, heading rate and the derivative portion of the rudder order signal. Upon reactivation, the integrator tim... | 07/23/1991 |
| 5004962 | Automatic motor synchronizer An automatic synchronizer 20 includes a throttle rod 62 which provides a direct link between the slave motor throttle lever 44 and the slave motor 36. A microprocessor system 30 provides a signal to a bi-directional synchronization motor 58 dependent on t... | 04/02/1991 |
| 4933617 | Servo steering system for motor boats In a servo steering system for motor boats comprising a steering wheel which mechanically acts on the position of a hydraulic control valve, and a rubber cylinder connected to a hydraulic power unit by way of the control valve, the control valve comprises... | 06/12/1990 |
| 4872118 | System for automated monitoring of trim and stability of a vessel A system for automated controlling of the trim and stability of a vessel includes sensors for monitoring the value of the draft of the vessel, a sensor of the heel angle of the vessel and a heeling subsystem connected to a signal conditioner connected, in... | 10/03/1989 |
