Motor vehicles – With powered means for creating fluid force to attract...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-16
2001-08-21
Boehler, Anne Marie (Department: 3618)
Motor vehicles
With powered means for creating fluid force to attract...
C180S901000, C015S001700, C114S222000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276478
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to remotely controlled devices. The remotely controlled devices are able to adhere to flat or curved surfaces, including significantly inclined and even backwardly leaning surfaces, and to maneuver on them to perform a variety of tasks. The invention includes the use of specially designed vacuum cups and a lubricant to facilitate sliding on the surface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Our invention is particularly designed to meet the needs of the shipbuilding industry, in that our robots are adept at climbing the sides of ships' hulls to inspect, clean (including scraping and/or removing of barnacles and ocean scum), paint, and weld them and to perform any other function one may wish to perform on a ship's hull from a readily manipulable, adherent robot, even on a very steep or even backwardly slanted surface. While my invention is particularly good for performing such tasks on ships' hulls, it may be used in any environment requiring such a remotely controlled device, whether or not the surface tends to curve backwardly and upwards. Various approaches have been proposed for accomplishing such tasks. See, for example, Perego's U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,711, describing a magnetic crawler for soldering. It has been known to make and use remotely controlled devices which adhere to a surface by vacuum. See, for example, Lisec's U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,555 disclosing such a device for cutting glass, the more versatile traveling device of Urakami described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,957, and Ochiai's U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,902, showing suction cups which can be slightly tilted to maneuver the device which carries them. The reader may also be interested in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,817,653, 5,293,887, and 4,828,059, also generally within the field.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,591, Raviv and Davidovitz propose a “vehicle with vacuum traction” which facilitates the sliding of a vacuum cup along a surface, while the vacuum is supporting a certain amount of weight, either by using a low surface friction material in the vacuum cup itself, particularly the rim portion, or by placing a flexible sheet of low surface friction material under the cup. One cannot rely on the low surface friction of such a material for long, however, under industrial use conditions. See also the device of Lange and Kerr described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,250. They use a “grabber/slider vacuum cup” in a cleaning system which sprays cleaning and rinsing liquids on the surface. Wolfe et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,009, coordinate the movement and activation of several vacuum cups to manipulate a robot on a surface.
Such prior art machines and devices are generally not very effective on rough or slimy surfaces. The art is in need of a reliable, versatile robot capable of performing various tasks on inhospitable and steeply inclined surfaces.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We have designed a robotic vehicle for use on steep inclines and even upside down, which will maneuver and move easily over the surface, and is capable of performing all sorts of tasks. The vehicle preferably has at least one, but frequently a plurality of vacuum cups, preferably specially designed as described herein, including means for feeding lubricant to the surface, and particularly to the surface occupied by the vacuum cup(s). Unlike the Raviv et al patent discussed above, my system does not require vacuum cup materials having low coefficients of friction, or a sheet of low friction plastic interposed between the vehicle and the surface, and is not unduly subject to wear.
Our invention includes one or more vacuum cups comprising a flexible, (preferably shallow bell-shaped) body, a port therein for a vacuum source, at least substantially annular ridge, preferably two or more concentric ridges, projecting downwardly therefrom for intimately contacting a base surface, and at least one port for introducing lubricant to the interface of at least one of the ridges and the base surface.
Our invention also includes a remotely controlled vehicle including a chassis, at least one vacuum cup as described above, and means for attaching a task-performing device to the chassis. Movement is provided by independently powered wheels which may be mounted separately or in modules together with the vacuum cups. The chassis may be rigid or more or less articulated or hinged. If it is articulated or hinged, the points of articulation or hinging may be powered or not. As will be seen below, a boomerang shape is preferred.
Our invention is useful not only for performing remote tasks on the hulls of ships, but also for inspecting, cleaning and painting, for example, domes, water towers, chemical plants and reactors, storage tanks including large petroleum product storage tanks, bridges and difficultly accessible surfaces on the inside and outside of buildings and other structures.
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Bour James
Hopkins Kathleen Garrubba
Thompson Dennis L.
Boehler Anne Marie
Hopkins Kathleen Garrubba
Krayer William L.
Yeagley Daniel
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