Ford Pickups Could Get Resilient UAV Landing Platforms

Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for resilient UAV landing platforms that may be used in future Ford pickups, Ford Authority has learned.

The patent was filed on February 8^th, 2023, published on August 8^th, 2024, and assigned serial number 0262546.

The Ford Authority Take

Ford clearly sees unmanned aerial vehicles – or UAVs for short – as a potentially useful compliment to its future vehicles, as the automaker has filed a number of patents outlining ways it may utilize drones or similar aerial models in recent years. That list includes ideas for a moonroof docking system for UAVs, as well as a more traditional type of landing platform. Now, this newly published patent presents us with an idea for a resilient UAV landing platform that may be used in future Ford pickups, specifically.

The reason Ford continues to explore different types of landing pads for UAVs is quite simple – drones face a number of difficulties when trying to take off and land, including wind and other environmental factors, and many are also simply not rugged enough to be able to withstand harder landings. Thus, Ford proposes using a special kind of landing platform that would be mounted on the roof or in the bed of a pickup.

That special platform would use “protuberances” arranged on a base plate that are designed to compensate for hard landings and protect the drone, which wouldn’t necessarily be the case with a traditional flat platform. This could help prevent damage to the drone, and make it possible for users to easily land one in more rugged conditions as well – such as when off-roading, as Ford points out in the patent.

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