Patent attributes
An unmanned aerial vehicle including a body and a docking mechanism coupled to the body is provided. The docking mechanism secures a magnetic crawler to the body during flight and during landing on a ferromagnetic cylindrical surface. The docking mechanism includes a docking hook that couples to the magnetic crawler and a linear actuator coupling the docking hook to the body. The docking hook includes passive latches that passively release the magnetic crawler from the docking hook onto the cylindrical surface after the landing, receive the magnetic crawler into the docking hook from the cylindrical surface after the releasing, and secure the magnetic crawler to the body during takeoff from the cylindrical surface after the receiving. The linear actuator lowers the docking hook and coupled magnetic crawler from the body to the cylindrical surface, and raises the docking hook and received magnetic crawler from the cylindrical surface to the body.
