ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,358,661, issued on July 15, was assigned to MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES LTD. (Tokyo).
"Takeoff and landing pad apparatus" was invented by Makoto Hirai (Tokyo) and Ichiro Oba (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A takeoff and landing pad apparatus for an unmanned aerial vehicle includes: a pad including a takeoff and landing surface; a mooring mechanism configured to moor the unmanned aerial vehicle on the pad; a drive source configured to rotate the pad together with the mooring mechanism; and a controller configured to control operation with the mooring mechanism and the drive source. The controller drives, based on information about a...