Patents on the soles of your shoes...: September 2020

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

International Translation Day 2020

References

FIT - Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs - International Federation of Translators. https://www.fit-ift.org/international-translation-day/

United Nations - International Translation Day (Sept. 30, 2020) https://www.un.org/en/events/translationday/

UN Resolution 71/288 - May 24, 2017 - The role of professional translation in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding and development. http://undocs.org/en/A/RES/71/288

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Oh, patents! The Skypod (2)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Autonomous Exotec Skypods dance their 3D way around warehouses, climbing up and down shelves to towering heights, swiveling around as if mounted on ball-bearings. The following video (viewable only on Youtube) offers a Skypod choreography to the tune of Edvard Grieg’s (1875) orchestral piece for Scene 6, Act II of Henrik Ibsen’s (1867) play Peer Gynt (1).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HoEFcZOiuY

The Skypods also move around with a visible stability, regardless of the presence, absence or position of the load transported in the payload crate. The US family member utility patent US2019263463A1, titled Automatically guided trolley for transporting and/or handling a load, discloses an invention that precisely addresses the load-bearing issue, relative to equilibrium, speed and energy-efficiency, including the corollary issue of swiveling-capacity.

In a nutshell, the invention disclosed replaces the typical 4-wheel drive suspension system of a vehicle. The invention system comprises two frames: one receiving the payload, and the other in contact with the ground, supporting the payload-receiving frame. The supporting frame further comprises two connected walking beams at the front and rear of the Skypod autonomous vehicle (termed automated trolley), connected to two idler wheels and two drive wheels. Translation of the two walking beams is designed to distribute the payload weight, received by the main frame, evenly between all wheels, idle and drive, at the front and rear of the vehicle, as well as left and right. The walking beam system is also much lighter, thus promoting enhanced vehicle performance. both in terms of speed and energy efficiency.

For those skilled in the art, the abstract of this patent, hyperlinked to the complete disclosure of the invention, is included below, together with the patent Figure 1, showing an exemplary embodiment of the invention. In particular, the patent Figure 1 depicts the Skypod vehicle (guided trolley) 10, comprising a supporting frame 12 and main load-receiving frame 11, idle wheels 18 and driver wheels 16, engine 17, and the two walking beams 13 and 14, connected to the supporting frame 12, with translation arms (132, 142), and (131, 141), contributing to evenly distribute a payload weight to all the wheels. In sum, a new mechanical load-bearing-and-distributing system, enabling the visible stability, and calculated efficiency, of the autonomous Skypod vehicle.

An automated guided trolley for transporting and/or handling a load. The trolley has a main frame for receiving the load and a supporting frame having two walking beams extending respectively towards the front and the rear of the trolley. The walking beams are mounted rotatably with respect to the main frame respectively about a first axis and a second axis and such a walking beam includes elements for securing one arm of one walking beam to one arm of the other walking beam and for supporting the first of these arms on the other arm. [Abstract US2019263463A1]

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(1) Grieg, Suite No 1 Op. 46:IV - In the Hall of the Mountain King.

Reference

Exotec (website): www.Exotec.com

Friday, September 25, 2020

Oh, patents! The Skypod (1)

Within the context of booming eCommerce, resolving issues of warehouse logistics arises as another pandemic-aggravated priority. A priority with many different robotic solutions. The Exotec Skypod solution is a towering, three-dimensional solution, primarily addressing order processing and storage space, including issues of retrieval and accelerated speed. The video below shows the Skypods in action.

The essential components of the Exotec Skypod system are stackable bins and a fleet of autonomous robots, able to navigate the stacks in three dimensions (up, down and across). The Skypods travel 4 meters per second (approx., 13ft/s) to retrieve and deliver merchandise to the operator stations. The robots' activity is synchronized using a software package called ASTAR. Stackable bins, available in 2 sizes, carry up to 30 kilos (approx., 66 lbs) of merchandise. Bins are stackable up to 10 meters high (approx., 33 feet). Thus, operators are able to work at ergonomically-designed stations. They no longer have to walk an estimated 15 km per day (approx. 10 miles/day) in the stacks, where pedestrian accidents occur. Space is optimized, due to vertical stacking. Adding racks, and stacks, does not interrupt the existing flow of activity. The energy footprint of the system is also very small, due to the robots’ recharging capacity. In sum, the system is super scalable, which also makes the Exotec Skypod system super nimble, customizable, and modular.

Exotec, a French company launched in 2014, has now opened offices in North America. The various mechanical (e.g., robot climbing system), logistics (eg., sorting system) and navigation aspects of the Skypod invention are patented in a series of patent families, including the following French patent family members (with English patent titles in parenthesis):

FR3072371 A1 - Système de stockage et de transport d'objets entreposés dans des rayonnages d'un entrepôt. (System for storing and transporting objects stored in the racks of a warehouse.)
FR3065208A1 - Chariot à guidage automatique pour le transport et/ou la manutention d'une charge. (Automatically guided trolley for transporting and/or handling a load.)
FR3057258 A1 - Système de préparation de commandes. (Order picking system.)
FR3048238A1 - Système de tri d'articles et procédé de tri correspondant. (Article sorting system and corresponding sort method.)
FR3045895 A1 - Système de preparation de commandes et procédé de préparation d'au moins une partie d'une commande correspondant. (System for preparing orders and corresponding method for preparing at least one portion of an order.)

The Exotec Skypod system is 3D-warehousing, brought to you from the northern city of Lille, in France. A solution that integrates with existing Warehouse-Management Systems (WMS).

References

Skypod– Exotec solutions

https://www.exotec.com/ (FR)

https://www.exotec.com/en/solutions (ENG)

Friday, September 18, 2020

Oh, patents! The Robomart™

Back to robots, their expanded role within the context of the pandemic and re-opening of economies. The Robomart™ is a driverless autonomous mini-market on wheels. Already in operation, prior to the pandemic, the Robomart™ offered a mobile-driven mini-market, wherever customers ordered it to drive by. The Robomart™ was successful because it was not just saving customers time, going to the grocery store, it raised the bar on the experience of online shopping, allowing customers to see, and choose the produce they were buying, wherever they were located. Advantages that became amplified during the pandemic, when everyone was confined, and the demand for online shopping skyrocketed.

Indeed, the Robomart™ became especially attractive, since it offered contactless delivery of produce, via a robotic operator that never got sick. As an autonomous vehicle, the Robomart™ delivery van is equipped with all the standard AI self-driving technology, such as LiDAR, radar and cameras, CAN motion-control system, robotic route-planning and obstacle-avoidance software, enabling various levels of autonomy from a human operator.

The video below shows The Robomart™ in action. After viewing the video you might legitimately wonder how it is that the Robomart™ knows which merchandise has been selected, “checked-out”, and debited to your credit card. This question has a patented answer.

The Robomart invention recited in US20180349872 is titled One tap/command grocery ordering via self-driving mini-marts and seamless checkout-free technology. The abstract, together with the patent Figure 3, are included below.

The present disclosure generally relates to an application for obtaining groceries or other merchandise and, more particularly, a one tap/command grocery ordering via self-driving mini marts and seamless checkout-free technology. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions and is operable to: deploy an autonomous vehicle which carries consumer merchandise to a consumer; determine which merchandise has been taken from the autonomous vehicle by the consumer; calculate a cost for the merchandise taken from the autonomous vehicle by the consumer; and provide a receipt to the consumer for the merchandise taken from the autonomous vehicle by the consumer. [Abstract US20180349872]

US20180349872

The invention recites a system that advantageously combines the convenience of online delivery with the comfort of picking out produce yourself. An invention that also promises cost savings, passed on to customers, resulting from the fully automated system. The patent further discloses that an entire mini store is brought to the consumer vs. just an order of groceries. Thus, the Robomart™ is effectively able to compete with delivery bots and drones, as it offers a much larger selection of produce and groceries.

According to the disclosure of the invention, the user taps on the Robomart™ app to dispatch the closest Robomart™ van 100, from a store, to their location. On its way, the Robomart™ van 100 will be tracked by the user. When the Robomart™ van 100 arrives, the user opens the compartment doors and selects items. A seamless check out system is invoked as tagged selections are recorded by sensors 105, on the racks, while prices and costs are displayed on a smart glass panel 110 of the van compartment doors, together with the customer’s name. Once the purchase is completed, debited using POS (Point-of-Sale) means from the user’s saved credit card, time-stamped according to the opening and closing of the van compartment doors, and processed using the Stripe platform on the backend, the Robomart™ van 100 moves on to the next customer, or to a replenishment center for refilling the racks, all of which can be tracked variously by users and managers, equipped with the Robomart™ app.

Receipt of purchased items might be itemized in various ways, depending on the embodiments of the invention. For example, items purchased might be listed, or they might include images. The information displayed on the smart glass compartment 110 might also be displayed simultaneously on the Robomart™ app.

The patent additionally recites various levels of self-driving vehicle technology i.e., radar and LIDAR; other cameras or backup Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for computation of items removed or added to shelves; other sensors (motion, proximity and infrared); modems for connectivity; a speaker for communication with the customer, and a cooling system for refrigeration. The patent further includes a description of the system architecture, as well as a description of real-time mapping, and tracking technology, the restocking depots and vehicle communications technology, and the on-demand summoning technology.

References

Robomart (website) https://robomart.co/

Tarantola, A. (Jan 9, 2018) Robomart autonomous bodegas will deliver produce to your door https://www.engadget.com/2018-01-09-robomart-autonomous-bodega-deliver-produce.html

Monday, September 14, 2020

Oh, patents ! Mining wastewater transformed into art (UK) (3)

To prevent 4000 tons (122 billion liters) of iron oxide from entering waterways and watersheds, each year, in the UK, the BritishCoal Authority manages 75 mine water treatment plants, at former British coalfields.

The University College of London (UCL) Slade School of Fine Art partnered with the Coal Authority for the production of paint pigments, using the iron oxide solids (i.e.; ochre) extracted from the mining wastewater, processed at the treatment plants.

Five pigments, ranging from primrose yellow to burnt terracotta, were created from the iron oxide sludge extracted at five different water treatment sites, within the context of a doctoral thesis focused on “The origins of earth colors and their contemporary significance.” The doctoral candidate and artist, Onya McCausland, collected samples from the Coal Authority treatment plants and then worked with UCL chemists to produce five strikingly different pigments for artist paint. The project culminated with an exhibit at UCL Cloisters titled Five Colours Five Landscapes, in April 2018, and recognition of the five water treatment sites as Public Works of Arts in the UK, considering they contribute the raw material pigments for top-grade artist paint.

The process invoked for oxidizing iron in the UK coal mine wastewaters is different from that which was implemented in the US, by grassroots activists, community organizers, Ohio University academics and artists, in the Appalachians (see previous posts). The UK process invokes aeration cascades, which provide the (invisible) iron contained in the mine wastewater with oxygen to encourage oxidation. The oxidized iron then settles as sludge at the bottom of pools, separating from the water, which flows through reed beds, for removal of any remaining iron oxide solids, and release into the waterways.

The video below shows the British Coal Authority coal mine wastewater treatment process, currently in use..

Collaboration between the Coal Authority wastewater remediation engineers and the UCL Slade School of Fine Art has resulted in a highly desirable product (i.e., pigments for artist paint). A collaboration which inscribes itself in a new climate-friendly future. In Onya McCausland's terms:

What sets these coal ochres apart is the quality of their colour and their sustainable production as part of the remediation legacy of the coal mining industry. This is in contrast to the current practise of importing natural ochres from unsustainable unnamed sources across the globe.

Three images of Onya McCausland’s paintings, using the pigments derived from iron-oxide sludge at the Coal Authority mine water treatment facilities, are included below. The paintings, respectively titled Saltburn Main 1, Deerplay Hill and Cuthill Red 1 were exhibited, in the UK, at the contemporary art Anima-Mundi Gallery, within the context of the Onya McCausland solo show Landscapes, Oct. 20-Dec. 8, 2018. The paintings, exhibited on the three floors of the Anima-Mundi Gallery, honored the landscapes where the iron-oxide ochres were sourced, in particular, Saltburn in East Yorkshire, Deerplay in Bacup, Lancashire, and Cuthill in West Lothian, Scotland, for the paintings included below.

References

Anima-Mundi Gallery - Onya McCausland Landscapes solo exhibit, Oct.20-Dec.8, 2018. https://www.animamundigallery.com/news/2018/10/23/only-mccausland-landscapes-opens-at-anima-mundi

Buckloa, I. (2018) Visions of Excess: Exhibit essay (Onya McCausland Landscapes). https://www.artsy.net/animamundiart/article/anima-mundi-onya-mccausland-landscapes

Coal authority (UK) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-coal-authority

Onya McCausland https://onyamccausland.com/

Onya McCausland - UCL Slade School of Fine Art - Research Fellow. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/research/projects/onya-mccausland

Onya McCausland UCL Cloisters Exhibit - Five Colours, Five Landscapes April 2018 https://onyamccausland.com/ucl/

UCL (University College London) Slade School of Fine Art. Art https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/apr/artist-creates-paint-pigments-coal-mine-sludge

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Oh, patents! Mining wastewater transformed to art (2)

Included below, two electrifying works of art, produced using iron oxide pigment extracted from the contaminated mine wastewaters of Ohio, respectively titled Chroma S4 Chimaera, and Polar Chroma. The works were created by John Sabraw, Professor of Art at Ohio University, environmentalist, activist, and member of a grassroots movement and collaboration that culminated in an invention. An invention disclosed in the US patent application US20180134597A1 titled System and method for actively treating mining wastewater for pigment production. An invention filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), by Guy Riefer, the inventor, Professor of Engineering, also at the Ohio University.

The invention resulted in the construction of a new model treatment facility, in Ohio, at the site of one of the many abandoned mines, leaking iron oxide into Ohio's streams and creeks. The new treatment facility, located in Millfield, OH, embodies the twin invention purposes of actively decontaminating wastewaters escaping from abandoned mines, and producing iron-oxide pigments for artist supplies. Scaled up, the model facility is designed to invoke the inventive sustainable treatment processes for reducing water pollution, and transforming dangerous iron oxide contamination of water across the US, into prized artist supplies.(1)

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Note

(1) Three pigments —Brown Ochre, Rust Red and Iron Violet— using iron oxide extracted from the wastewaters of Ohio's abandoned mines, are currently marketed and sold by Gamblin Artist Colors, OR.

References

Gamblin Artist Colors https://gamblincolors.com/reclaimed-earth-colors/

John Sabraw (website) https://www.johnsabraw.com/

US20180134597A1 - System and method for actively treating mining wastewater for pigment production. (Patent application)

Friday, September 11, 2020

Oh, patents! Transforming mining wastewater into art supplies (1)

Contrary to the COVID19-related pause that also paused relatively big polluters, such as air and automobile traffic, the environmental damage caused by industrial wastewaters, for example, has hardly paused. The good news, however, is that the following invention aims to make a small dent, specifically in mining wastewaters, also called Acid Mine Drainage (AMD).

In a tradition that extends as far back as 300,000 years to prehistoric cave art, pottery and body paint, natural earth-based iron-rich oxides (e.g.; ochre) have been used as color pigments (Hirst, 2019). To date iron oxide is still used to make color pigment in a wide variety of paint and cosmetics applications. When heated, iron oxide changes color, producing yellow, red to purple pigments depending on the thermal treatment. Each year, 240 tons of iron oxide are used in the US, mostly imported from China (Dilawar, 2020).

Iron that has oxidized in various ways, inside some 23,000 old abandoned coal mines in the US, also leaks out as contaminated mining wastewaters. Mining wastewater, specifically contaminated with iron-oxide, produces red-orange streams and brown water, which kills all aquatic life, destroys plant life, and corrodes bridges. This sort of pollution, called Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), also contaminates watersheds and drinking water. Transported via streams into rivers and oceans, iron oxide in turn becomes an added source of marine and waterway contamination.

In 2015, for example, the Animas River in Colorado (shown in the picture) was contaminated with an estimated three million US gallons of contaminated mine water. The (orange) contaminated mine water, containing metals such as cadmium, lead, iron, copper and zinc, as well as acid such as arsenic, poured out of an old gold mine, at a rate of 500 to 700 USgal/min. Sadly, the accident occurred when the mine wastewater plug was destroyed during an Environmental Protection Agency-led effort to drain a contaminated pond, just at the entrance of the Gold King Mine (DiStasio, 2015).

In the US, coal mines are mostly found in the Appalachians, regrouping West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, further extending to Ohio, Alabama and Virginia. Treatment of coal mine wastewater —at the expense of the mine operators for active coal mines; local and state authorities for abandoned coal mines— has variously consisted in applying expensive and lengthy processes such as alkalization (neutralizing the acid contaminants), removing the sources of contamination, collecting discharged wastewaters into ponds for settling and treatment, diverting streams to treatment facilities, and re-introducing fauna and flora into the contaminated areas. However, for the case of some abandoned coal mines (i.e.; no longer regulated), wastewater has continued to runoff into streams, often untreated, simply because of insufficient local and public funds. Cognizant of this situation, a grassroots coalition of artists, academic researchers and community organizers, backed by the non-profit group Rural Action, is in the process of changing the direction, processes and goals of the treatment of iron oxide-contaminated wastewater, escaping from flooded and abandoned coal mines at various rates, or accumulating as a disaster-waiting-to-happen anew, somewhat comparable to the 2015 Animas River spill.

Indeed the artist-environmentalist-activist, research and community coalition group intends to initially extract an estimated 1000 tons of granular iron oxide pouring into a creek called the Sunday Creek, for the purposes of making pigment for artist paint. The creek runs through the town of Millfield Ohio, previously called Truetown, where an underground mine discharges all the iron oxide. Plans exist for the model treatment facility, built on location, to in turn scale-up to other locations, where iron oxide is a major water contaminant. Plans that are anticipated to result in the creation of jobs, decontaminated water, and the production of pigments for artist supplies that might be sold to offset the costs of water purification. Artist supplies sold to artists like John Sabraw, art professor, environmentalist and activist, who became an important player in the whole grassroots process, when he realized that the pollution he witnessed in Ohio Rivers was caused by iron oxide, the raw material for the paint pigments on his artist palette (Dilawar, 2020).

The new treatment processes are recited in the 2018 US utility patent application US20180134597A1, titled System and method for actively treating mining wastewater for pigment production. The wastewater treatment is different from prior art processes in that it directly results in the production of a useful end product, i.e.; paint pigment for artists. The wastewater treatment is also different in that the oxidation process both emulates and greatly speeds up the slow process of passive oxidation, actually observed in the abandoned mines. Using iron-oxidizing micro-organisms (i.e.; bacteria), the invention treatment activates a process that naturally occurs over a long period of time, implementing it in just a few hours.

The invention processes are best described succinctly in the patent application abstract included below. The patent application Figure 1 block process diagram is also included, as it specifically indicates the very swift timeframe of the wastewater treatment processes invoked for remediation, oxidation, and extraction of iron oxide from sludge for production of art supply paint pigments.

Systems and methods for actively treating mining wastewater, such as acid mine drainage, using a mixed culture of iron oxidizing bacteria, in a manner that results in both remediation of the water and the production of a useful end product. Exemplary systems and methods employ a reaction vessel where the bacteria can oxidize the iron in the mining wastewater for some amount of time, and a settling tank into which reacted water may be transferred and retained to permit iron oxyhydroxide contained in the water to settle as iron oxyhydroxide sludge. The iron oxyhydroxide sludge may be dried to produce iron oxyhydroxide solids that can be employed in the manufacture of a usable pigment .[Abstract US20180134597A1]

References

Dilawar, A. (Sept. 4, 2020) An Ohio Artist and Activist is Turning Acid Mine Pollution Into Paint. Time.com https://time.com/5881219/pollution-into-paint-john-sabraw/

DiStasio, C. (8-25-2015) 30,000 mines leaking toxic waste into US Water. Inhabitat.

https://inhabitat.com/over-30000-mines-are-leaking-toxic-waste-into-american-waterways/

Hirst, K, (July 3, 2019) Ochre the oldest known pigment in the world. ThoughtCo.

https://www.thoughtco.com/ochre-the-oldest-known-natural-pigment-172032

Rural Action (website) https://ruralaction.org/

John Sabraw (website) https://www.johnsabraw.com/

Tuffnel, S. (Sept. 5, 2017) Acid Drainage: The global environmental crisis that you have never heard of. The Conversation.com
https://theconversation.com/acid-drainage-the-global-environmental-crisis-youve-never-heard-of-83515

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Circadian disruption : A dark orange day in San Francisco

Orange sky ? Smoke particles high in the atmosphere scatter short blue light, only letting longer red-orange waves through to the surface. The result is a dark orange day, even at noon.

Healthy air quality ? Smoke is on top of a layer of marine fog, which preserves air quality.

Disruption of Circadian rhythm ? An internal clock called the circadian clock drives rhythm in our bodies, such as sleep for example. This is the reason we feel jet lagged when traveling across time zones. Likewise, though perhaps just once in a lifetime, a dark orange day definitely baffles circadian rhythms.

References

Cabanatuan, M. & Rubenstein, S. (Sept. 9, 2020) Apocalyse on their mind: Bay Area awakes to foreboding, orange, smoke-choked skies. San Francisco Chronicle https://tinyurl.com/y4tpj47o

Calima, J. & V. Pavic (photographer) (Sept 9, 2020) The sky is on fire in San Francisco, and we flew a drone through it. The Verge https://tinyurl.com/y4ae6g2s

Martichoux, A. & L. Gee (09-09-2020) Here's why the sky looks so orange, even though Bay Area air quality isn't terrible. https://tinyurl.com/y6kn2xsy

Timonina, D. (July 9, 2020) Time to improve your health: focusing on circadian rhythms. The Buck Intsitute https://tinyurl.com/y6qq8uzu