TOPIC
Drones
Stories containing inventions related to Drones, tracing similar ideas across companies and years through patent drawings.
STORIES
Things · Umbrellas
Umbrellas That Read the Weather: Ten Patents for Reinventing Rain Gear
Let a drone carry it overhead. Wear it on the body. Cover a dog. Deploy it from a wheelchair. Measure rain, show a forecast, light up, spray cooling mist, and even harvest wind. Ten US patent drawings show the umbrella becoming much more than a roof held in one hand.
Companies · Ford
Inside Ford’s Vehicle Patents: Sliding Desks, Folding Steering Wheels and Drones
Seats that face each other, an autonomous-mode theater, a dashboard desk, a tailgate sawhorse, a vehicle-launched drone, delivery-robot assistance, pet mode, outward HUD projection, self-moving repossession, and a tilting steering wheel: ten Ford patent drawings that rethink what a car can become.
Companies · Walmart
Carts Assist, Robots Scan, Drones Deliver: Walmart Patents for a Store That Moves Itself
A cart handle that reads biometrics, a power-assisted cart, an aisle-following unmanned vehicle, shelf-scanning robots, a fully automated store, modular drones, mobile lockers and drone delivery: ten Walmart patent drawings in which retail work starts moving on its own.
Companies · Disney
Walking Characters and Flying Ships: 10 Disney Theme-Park Patents
Walking robot actors, huggable soft robots, pirate ships hiding drones, flying pixels, a blade that extends from a lightsaber hilt, moving floors and images suspended in fog. Ten Disney patents that turn the park itself into part of the show.
Things · Aviation
Ten Flight Patents That Break the Airplane Mold
Jet suits, flapping wings, detachable pods, wing-tip docking and cocoon VTOLs: ten patents that stretch the idea of how people and machines might fly.
Companies · Amazon
A Shipping Label That Becomes a Parachute: 10 Amazon Delivery Patents
Airborne warehouses, drone towers, underground conveyors, parachute labels and package handoffs: ten Amazon patents that imagine delivery without today’s familiar infrastructure.