Patent ID: 11891174
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G  Y | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus comprising an unmanned aerial vehicle and a spray-on repair module coupled to the unmanned aerial vehicle,
wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle comprises:
a body frame;
a plurality of rotor motors mounted to the body frame; and
a plurality of rotors operatively coupled to the respective rotor motors of the plurality of rotor motors, and
wherein the spray-on repair module comprises:
a hood coupled to the body frame of the unmanned aerial vehicle and bounding an interior volume of space, wherein the hood comprises an inner sealing lip comprising a first flexible substrate which bounds a portion of the interior volume of space and an outer sealing lip comprising a second flexible substrate which surrounds the first sealing lip with an inter-lip volume of space therebetween;
a pressurized storage canister mounted to the hood and containing a sealant or a coating material in a liquid state;
a first valve in fluid communication with the pressurized storage canister;
a spray nozzle mounted to the hood and in fluid communication with the first valve, wherein the spray nozzle is configured and located to distribute the sealant or the coating material over an area on a surface of a structure which is covered by the hood;
a first electronic switch for controlling a state of the first valve;
a vacuum pump mounted to the hood;
a hose having one end connected to the vacuum pump and another end connected to the outer sealing lip to enable the vacuum pump to be in fluid communication with the inter-lip volume of space; and
a controller configured to control a switching state of the first electronic switch to cause the first valve to open and distribute the sealant or the coating material from the pressurized storage canister over the area on the surface of the structure, and further configured to control operation of the vacuum pump so that air is removed from the inter-lip volume of space prior to opening of the first valve,
wherein the inner and outer sealing lips have respective bottom edges and the interlip volume of space may be partially evacuated to provide suction when the bottom edges are in sealing contact with the surface of the structure.