Gary Lavell Whatcott
Engineers in Salt Lake City, UT

5216605, Jun 1, 1993

Oct 29, 1992

7/968555

James V. Yardley - Centerville UT
Gary L. Whatcott - Holladay UT
Bryan A. Bloomfield - Bountiful UT

Eaton-Kenway, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

G05D 103

36442402

An improved accuracy position and direction updating system for use with an automatic guided vehicle that navigates by dead reckoning. Permanent magnets providing detectable position indicators are mounted in the floor and may be at widely spaced locations such as fifty feet apart along the route of the vehicle. A row of Hall sensors is transversely mounted on the vehicle. The sensors detect the lateral location of each floor magnet relative to the vehicle as the vehicle passes over the magnet. Sensors are precalibrated, correcting for errors in sensor null voltage readings due to changes in sensor characteristics due to causes comprising aging and temperature. Data from five sensors that are closest to the magnet are correlated with a stored pattern of magnetic field and their position data are averaged to determine a first estimate of the lateral or first dimensional position of the vehicle. A running average is calculated from sequentially acquired estimates to improve the results. Such precalibration and averaging provides an improved accuracy of the lateral or first dimensional position measurement between the array of Hall sensors and the magnet.

5191528, Mar 2, 1993

Oct 24, 1990

7/602609

James V. Yardley - Centerville UT
Gary L. Whatcott - Holladay UT
Bryan A. Bloomfield - Bountiful UT

Eaton-Kenway, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

G05D 103, G06F 1550

36442402

An improved accuracy position and direction updating system for use with an automatic guided vehicle that navigates by dead reckoning. Permanent magnets providing detectable position indicators are mounted in the floor and may be at widely spaced locations such as fifty feet apart along the route of the vehicle. A row of Hall sensors is transversely mounted on the vehicle. The sensors detect the lateral location of each floor magnet relative to the vehicle as the vehicle passes over the magnet. Sensors are precalibrated, correcting for errors in sensor null voltage readings due to changes in sensor characteristics due to causes comprising aging and temperature. Data from five sensors that are closest to the magnet are correlated with a stored pattern of magnetic field and their position data are averaged to determined a first estimate of the lateral or first dimensional position of the vehicle. A running average is calculated from sequentially acquired estimates to improve the results. Such precalibration and averaging provides an improved accuracy of the lateral or first dimensional position measurement between the array of Hall sensors and the magnet.

4791570, Dec 13, 1988

Jun 11, 1986

6/873032

Leigh E. Sherman - North Wales PA
Gary L. Whatcott - Holladay UT
Richard M. Dicks - Salt Lake City UT
David C. Madsen - Sandy UT

Eaton-Kenway, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

G06F 1548

364436

A guidance system for guiding a plurality of unmanned vehicles along guide wires. A plurality of data communication circuits are provided which form an extensive network. A traffic control computer composes a coded vehicle instruction for assigning tasks and allocates resources to said unmanned vehicles. The traffic control computer polls the status of each vehicle at varying time intervals and receives a response from said vehicle. The network connecting the computer and the communication circuits prevents reception of data transmissions from more than one vehicle at a time. Other messages are temporarily, stored. Data transmitters generate low frequency, low power signals which have a high data transmission rate. Digital data is converted at the transmitters into cosine waveforms of selected frequencies. The cosine waveforms are transposed into sine waveforms at receivers.

5341130, Aug 23, 1994

Jun 26, 1992

7/908691

James V. Yardley - Centerville UT
Gary L. Whatcott - Holladay UT
John A. M. Petersen - Bountiful UT
Bryan A. Bloomfield - Bountiful UT
Vaughn W. Guest - Farmington UT
Rick S. Mottes - Roy UT
Robert K. Forman - Taylorsville UT
L. Bruce Christensen - Kaysville UT
Joseph Zuercher - Brookfield WI
Herman P. Schutten - Milwaukee WI

Eaton-Kenway, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

G06F 1550

34082506

An automated guided vehicle (AGV) control system which is downward compatible with existing guidewire systems providing both guidewire navigation and communication and autonomous navigation and guidance and wireless communication between a central controller and each vehicle. Vehicle steering and control includes autonomous guidance and navigation of the vehicle over paths marked by update markers which may be spaced well apart, such as fifty feet. The control system employs high frequency two-way data transmission and reception capability over the guidewires and via wireless communications. The same data rates and message formats are used in both guidewire and wireless communications systems. Substantially the same communications electronics are used for the central controller and each vehicle. Novel navigation and guidance algorithms are used to select and calculate a non-linear path to each next vehicle waypoint when the vehicle is operating in the autonomous mode.

2007020, Sep 6, 2007

Mar 3, 2006

11/368021

Gary Whatcott - Holladay UT, US
Chris Spencer - Riverton UT, US
Scott Davis - Bountiful UT, US
Ronald Hatch - Orem UT, US
Larry Beardall - Sandy UT, US
Curtis Stimpson - Tremonton UT, US

A61N 5/06

607088000

Systems and methods for providing a light pad configured for light therapy, wherein the light pad is dynamically flexible to conform to curvatures of the human body. The light pad includes a flexible, electrical circuit board configuration, a plurality of light sources coupled to the flexible, electrical circuit board configuration, wherein the plurality of light sources are configured to provide light therapy to a patient, and an electrical circuit comprising the plurality of light sources and electrical interconnections of the flexible, electrical circuit board configuration. In at least some embodiments, the flexible, electrical circuit board configuration comprises a plurality of circuit boards that are interconnected by one or more braided cords. The circuit boards provide increased flexibility of the light pad as bending is allowed between the boards, while the braided cord provides a resilient, long-lasting, electrical connection between the independent boards.

5617320, Apr 1, 1997

Apr 10, 1996

8/628557

John A. M. Petersen - Centerville UT
Gary L. Whatcott - Salt Lake City UT
Paul Carter - Salt Lake City UT

HK Systems, Inc. - New Berlin WI

G01C 2118, G06F 9455

364453

A low-cost solid state replacement circuit for an inertial platform with the resulting consequence of increased resolution, significantly reduced cost, and improved reliability and accuracy. The invention comprises no moving parts and permits the use of a strap-down angular rate sensor system which has a fixed orientation relative to an AGV on which the circuit is used. The invention creatively emulates encoder signals previously emanating from the inertial table through the use of a voltage controlled oscillator, a direction of turn determining circuit and an encoder emulator. Cabling which exists in current inertial tables does not need to be changed and information format previously used remains unchanged.

5281901, Jan 25, 1994

Dec 3, 1990

7/621486

James V. Yardley - Centerville UT
Gary L. Whatcott - Holladay UT
John A. M. Petersen - Bountiful UT
Bryan A. Bloomfield - Bountiful UT
Vaughn W. Guest - Farmington UT
Rick S. Mottes - Roy UT
Robert K. Forman - Taylorsville UT
L. Bruce Christensen - Kaysville UT
Joseph Zuercher - Brookfield WI
Herman P. Schutten - Milwaukee WI

Eaton-Kenway, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

G06F 1550, B62D 128

318587

An automated guided vehicle (AGV) control system which is downward compatible with existing guidewire systems providing both guidewire navigation and communication and autonomous navigation and guidance and wireless communication between a central controller and each vehicle. Autonomous vehicle navigation comprises travel over paths marked by update markers which may be spaced well apart, such as fifty feet Redundant measurement capability comprising inputs from linear travel encoders from the vehicle's drive wheels, position measurements from the update markers, and bearing measurements from a novel angular rate sensing apparatus, in combination with the use of a Kalman filter, allows correction for navigation and guidance errors caused by such factors as angular rate sensor drift, wear, temperature changes, aging, and early miscalibration during vehicle operation. The control system comprises high frequency two-way data transmission and reception capability over the guidewires and via wireless communications The same data rates and message formats are used in both communications systems. Substantially the same communications electronics are used for the central controller and each vehicle.

2007020, Sep 6, 2007

Mar 3, 2006

11/368017

Jay Walther - West Jordan UT, US
Scott Davis - Bountiful UT, US
Ian Brown - Orem UT, US
Scott Mabey - West Bountiful UT, US
Chris Spencer - Riverton UT, US
Larry Beardall - Sandy UT, US
Gary Whatcott - Holladay UT, US

A61H 1/00, A61F 5/00, A61N 5/06, A61H 1/02

602033000, 601015000, 607088000

Systems and methods for providing light therapy traction to a patient. A light therapy device and a traction mechanism provide concurrent, alternating and/or repetitive treatment to a patient. The light therapy device includes one or more light sources configured to deliver light to a patient. The traction mechanism is configured to provide selective separation to a particular location the patient's body, such as a location of the patient's vertebrae. In some embodiments, the light therapy and traction are performed simultaneously. In other embodiments, the light therapy and lumbar traction are performed in treatment cycles to the patient. Embodiments of the present invention embrace the application of light therapy prior to, during, and/or after a cervical and/or lumbar traction treatment.