US Patent Issued to The Boeing on July 21 for "Repair of structures using unmanned aerial vehicles" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,510, issued on July 21, was assigned to The Boeing Co. (Arlington, Va.).

"Repair of structures using unmanned aerial vehicles" was invented by James J. Troy (Issaquah, Wash.), Gary E. Georgeson (Tacoma, Wash.), Joseph L. Hafenrichter (Seattle) and Gregory J. Sweers (Renton, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and apparatus for performing repair operations using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The methods are enabled by equipping the UAV with tools for rapidly repairing a large structure or object (e.g., an aircraft or a wind turbine blade) that is not easily accessible to maintenance personnel. In accordance with various embodim...