US 12,280,822 B2
Solar vehicle navigation
Christopher David Cencula, Roseville, CA (US)
Assigned to Liquid Robotics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Filed by Liquid Robotics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 23, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/340,729.
Application 18/340,729 is a continuation of application No. 16/849,844, filed on Apr. 15, 2020, granted, now 11,731,698.
Prior Publication US 2023/0331299 A1, Oct. 19, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B62D 15/02 (2006.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G01C 21/36 (2006.01)
CPC B62D 15/024 (2013.01) [B60W 60/0011 (2020.02); B60W 60/0025 (2020.02); B62D 15/025 (2013.01); G01C 21/3605 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A solar vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle body;
a steering system mounted to or incorporated within the vehicle body operable to steer the vehicle;
an electronic system mounted to the vehicle body, the electronic system including:
one or more photovoltaic solar arrays,
a geo-positioning system, and
a control system; and
one or more physical components mounted to or forming part of the vehicle body that shade at least a portion of the one or more photovoltaic solar arrays within a shading solar vector range;
wherein the control system is configured to:
obtain a target geographic destination for the vehicle;
obtain configuration data defining a target solar vector relative to a reference frame of the vehicle, wherein the target solar vector resides outside of the shading solar vector range;
identify a current geographic positioning of the vehicle via the geo-positioning system, including a current geographic location and a current geographic orientation of the vehicle;
identify a current solar vector relative to the reference frame of the vehicle; and
during at least a portion of a solar day, operate the steering system to steer the vehicle from the current geographic location toward the target geographic destination along a path that is based, at least in part, on a comparison of the current solar vector to the target solar vector.