Drone coordination

• US 10,043,398 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2016
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DoorDash, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Akselrod, Ben Z., Di Loreto, Anthony, McDuff, Steve, Robeson, Kyle D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brushaber, Frederick M
• Application Number:
  US15/080,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20170278406A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0056 in an emergency situation, e.g. hijacking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 9/00 Traffic control systems for craft where the kind of craft is irrelevant or unspecified

Abstract

A system for drone coordination includes logic to detect an adverse weather condition and detect a plurality of drones operating in a region to be affected by the adverse weather condition. The logic can also transmit a request to the plurality of drones, wherein the request indicates that each of the plurality of drones is to return to an emergency landing site to be selected from a set of predetermined emergency landing sites. The emergency landing site for each drone can be based in part on the location of the drone at the time of transmittal of the request.

Claims

1. A computer system for coordinating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) comprising:

a memory storage device storing programming instructions;

a hardware processor, receiving said programming instructions to configure said computer system to;

detect an adverse weather condition;

detect a plurality of UAVs operating in a region to be affected by the adverse weather condition;

generate a communications signal according to a wireless communication protocol;

transmit the communications signal to each of the plurality of UAVs, the signal instructing that each UAV is to return to an emergency landing site to be selected from a set of predetermined emergency landing sites, the emergency landing site for each UAV based on a current location of the UAV at the time of transmittal of the request; and

said hardware processor being further configured to;

determine the emergency landing site is at capacity;

detect a priority value of a UAV is below a threshold value; and

control the UAV to land immediately.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to transmit a warning to non-operational UAVs in the region to wait for a predetermined period of time before operating the non-operational UAVs.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the predetermined period of time corresponds to a length of time for the adverse weather condition to subside in the region.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to transmit a warning to non-operational UAVs in the region to wait for an approval signal before operating the non-operational UAVs.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic is to:

calculate a flight path from a location of each UAV to the emergency landing site corresponding to each UAV; and

transmit the flight path to the each UAV.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the flight path is based in part on a priority value for each UAV and a priority value for each landing site.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the priority value for each UAV is based in part on a battery level, cargo value, or UAV size.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the priority value for each emergency landing site is based in part on a security level of the landing site, condition of the landing site, or proximity of the landing site.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to modify the calculated flight paths from the locations of at least two UAVs to emergency landing sites based in part on collision avoidance data;

and

transmit the modified flight paths to the at least two UAVs.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein characteristics of the plurality of UAVs are registered before operation of the plurality of UAVs.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the UAVs travel by air, water, or land.

12. A computer-implemented method for coordinating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) comprising:

detecting, using a hardware processor, an adverse weather condition;

detecting, using the hardware processor, a plurality of UAVs operating in a region to be affected by the adverse weather condition;

generating, using the hardware processor, a communications signal according to a wireless communication protocol;

transmitting, using the hardware processor, the communications signal to each of the plurality of UAVs, the signal instructing that each UAV is to return to an emergency landing site to be selected from a set of predetermined emergency landing sites, the emergency landing site for each UAV based on a current location of the UAV at the time of transmittal of the request and a priority value corresponding to each UAV; and

determining, using the hardware processor, that the emergency landing site is at capacity;

detecting, using the hardware processor, the priority value of a UAV is below a threshold value; and

controlling the UAV to land immediately.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising transmitting a warning to non-operational UAVs in the region to wait for a predetermined period of time before operating the non-operational UAVs.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined period of time corresponds to a length of time for the adverse weather condition to subside in the region.

15. The method of claim 12, comprising transmitting a warning to non-operational UAVs in the region to wait for an approval signal before operating the non-operational UAVs.

16. The method of claim 12, comprising:

calculating a flight path from a location of each UAV to the emergency landing site corresponding to each UAV; and

transmitting the flight path to the each UAV.

17. A computer program product for coordinating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

detect an adverse weather condition;

detect a plurality of UAVs operating in a region to be affected by the adverse weather condition;

generate a communications signal according to a wireless communication protocol;

modify operation of the plurality of UAVs by transmitting the communications signal to each of the UAVs, the signal instructing that each UAV is to return to an emergency landing site to be selected from a set of predetermined emergency landing sites, the emergency landing site for each UAV based on the location of the UAV at the time of transmittal of the request, a first priority value corresponding to the drone, and a second priority value corresponding to the emergency landing site;

wherein the program instructions further cause the processor to;

determine the emergency landing site is at capacity;

detect the first priority value of the UAV is below a threshold value; and

control the UAV to land immediately.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the UAVs travel by air, water, or land.