US Patent Issued to The Boeing on July 29 for "Methods for marking surfaces using unmanned aerial vehicles" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,193, issued on July 29, was assigned to The Boeing Co. (Arlington, Va.).

"Methods for marking surfaces using unmanned aerial vehicles" was invented by James J. Troy (Issaquah, Wash.), Gary E. Georgeson (Tacoma, Wash.) and Gregory J. Sweers (Renton, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and apparatus for UAV-enabled marking of surfaces during manufacture, inspection, or repair of limited-access structures and objects. A UAV is equipped with a marking module that is configured to apply marking patterns (e.g., alignment features) of known dimensions to surfaces. The marking module may include a 2-D plotter that enables free-form ...