ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,746,970, issued on Sept. 29, was assigned to Deere & Co. (Moline, Ill.).
"Zero turn mower cruise control system" was invented by Vinesh Y. Deshmukh (Pune, India), Bhargav R. Sarda (Jamnagar, India) and Robert D. Dunbar (Holly Springs, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A ZTR mower cruise control system comprising a pair of motion control levers coupled to drives that rotate rear drive wheels at a velocity. A pair of front wheels that are pivoted to steering angles corresponding to any difference between the positions of the levers. A position sensor positioned to provide a signal based on the position of the levers. A controller config...