US Patent Issued to International Business Machines on April 22 for "Docking orientation device" (American, Canadian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,282,343, issued on April 22, was assigned to International Business Machines Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.).

"Docking orientation device" was invented by John Stern Alexander (Hampstead, N.C.), Scott E. Schneider (Rolesville, N.C.), Richard Wayne France (Schaumburg, Ill.) and Neil Delima (Scarborough, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Autonomously aligning docking bodies is provided. A first-axis surface is identified as a target axis surface corresponding to a desired docking approach vector of a first body to a second body. The first body is maneuvered to align relative to a second-axis surface until a third-axis surface is less than a define...