ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,326,538, issued on June 10, was assigned to Torc Robotics Inc. (Blacksburg, Va.).

"Directional precipitation flow rate measurement" was invented by Akshay Pai Raikar (Blacksburg, Va.) and Joseph Fox-Rabinovitz (Austin, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Aspects of this technical solution can include determining, by one or more processors of a liquid collection system and based on respective amounts of liquid detected by a plurality of sensors and a velocity of a vehicle, a direction of movement of the liquid. The plurality of sensors can each be associated with respective ones of a plurality of receptacles. The plurality of sensors can...