ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,298,784, issued on May 13, was assigned to Hydro-Gear LP (Sullivan, Ill.).
"Visual identifiers for docking and zoning an autonomous mower" was invented by Damon J. Hoyda (McCordsville, Ind.), Eric S. Phanco (Plainfield, Ind.), John Tyler Hibbard (Indianapolis) and David H. Dunten (Whitestown, Ind.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A lawn vehicle network includes a charging station having a visual identifier, a lawn vehicle having a battery, a blade system, a drive system whose output effects lawn vehicle forward movement, a processor board connected to both systems, the processor board capable of processing image data and sending commands t...