Methods and apparatus for a conducted electrical weapon

Inventors

Heroor, Siddharth • Nerheim, Magne H.

Assignees

Axon Enterprise Inc

Abstract

A conducted electrical weapon (“CEW”) launches wire-tethered electrodes from multiple cartridges to provide a current through a human or animal target to impede locomotion of the target. The CEW includes a handle and one or more deployment units. A handle and each deployment unit include a processing circuit and memory. The processing circuit of a handle may communicate with the processing circuit of the one or more deployment units. The processing circuit in a deployment unit may confirm receipt of a message from the processing circuit in a handle. A handle may provide operation and usage data to a deployment unit for storage. A handle may receive data from a deployment unit.

Core Innovation

The invention describes a conducted electrical weapon ecosystem that includes a handle with a bay and a processing circuit in communication with the bay, and a deployment unit removably insertable into the bay. The processing circuit detects whether the deployment unit is inserted into the bay, exchanges at least one of first data sent to the deployment unit or second data received from the deployment unit, and authenticates the deployment unit based on the at least one of the first data or the second data. After authentication, the processing circuit marks the bay as containing the deployment unit.

The disclosed system uses bay marking with memory so that the handle records that the bay contains the deployment unit, and it supports later determinations about whether a bay contains an already-used unit. In particular, a fired flag is set in cartridge memory on activation and later used to determine whether a bay contains a deployment unit that has already been used. The handle can lock the fired flag to prevent alteration.

The invention further describes CEW operation in which the handle polls bays to detect inserted deployment units, selects a deployment unit based on the bay mark, and instructs components including a signal generator to provide an electrical signal to the deployment unit. The deployment unit processing circuit exchanges data with the CEW handle when inserted, including receiving first data from the CEW handle and transmitting second data back, where the second data is used for at least one of error detection, error correction, authentication, read messaging or write messaging, identity messaging, or status messaging.

Claims Coverage

The provided material contains three independent claims covering handle-side bay insertion detection, data exchange, authentication, and bay marking; deployment unit-side reciprocal data exchange used for error detection, error correction, authentication, and messaging/status; and a CEW architecture where the handle polls and marks a bay, selects the bay, and instructs a signal generator to provide an electrical signal.

Across the independent claims, the core coverage centers on bay-based insertion detection with read/write data exchange and authentication, reciprocal transmission of second data for error detection, error correction, and messaging/status, and CEW selection control where the handle polls and marks bays and then instructs a signal generator based on the selection to provide an electrical signal to launch an electrode.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications