US Patent Issued to Merlin Technology on May 27 for "Drill planning tool for topography characterization, system and associated methods" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,942, issued on May 27, was assigned to Merlin Technology Inc. (Kent, Wash.).

"Drill planning tool for topography characterization, system and associated methods" was invented by Rudolf Zeller (Seattle), Timothy Shaw (Auburn, Wash.), Timothy Bayliss (Maple Valley, Wash.) and Craig Caswell (Stanwood, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A planning tool plans movement of a boring tool for an underground drilling operation. The planning tool includes one or more wheels for rolling on a surface of the ground along a path responsive to movement by an operator to characterize the surface contour and to generate guidance for the boring tool ...