Flight condition evaluation and protection for unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely-piloted vehicles

• US 10,049,583 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2016
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: ClearAg, Inc. (TBG AG)
• Inventors: Salentiny, Dustin M., Mewes, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Olszewski, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Foster, Gerrad A
• Application Number:
  US15/012,479
• Publication Number:
  US 20160260331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 925 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/104 involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

A framework for combining a weather risk analysis with appropriate operational rules includes a data initialization component, a rules processing component, and one or more weather risk analysis and assessment tools to evaluate a flight condition. The framework applies current, historical, predicted and forecasted weather data to the one or more operational rules governing a mission, a payload, a flight plan, a craft type, and a location of the mission for aircraft such as an unmanned aerial vehicle or remotely-piloted vehicle, and generates advisories based on the evaluation of flight conditions such as a mission compliance status, instructions for operation of unmanned aircraft, and management advisories. The flight condition advisories include either a “fly” advisory or a “no-fly” advisory, and the framework may also provide a mission prioritization and optimization system.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

ingesting, as input data, weather information, mission-specific flight parameters for performance of a particular mission by an unmanned aircraft, and one or more operational rules for operation of a specific unmanned aircraft in the performance of the particular mission, the weather information including at least one of current weather data, historical weather data, and forecasted weather data for a specific geographic area for a time period coinciding with the performance of the particular mission, the mission-specific flight parameters defining the particular mission at a specific time and including one or more of a payload, a flight plan, a craft type, and a geographical location of the mission;

analyzing the input data in a plurality of data processing modules within a computing environment in which the plurality of data processing modules are executed in conjunction with at least one processor, the data processing modules configured to confirm a validity of a flight certificate of mission authorization for the particular mission, and perform a risk assessment for the particular mission relative to the weather information and the mission-specific flight parameters by

     1) computing one or more mission risk probabilities of an occurrence of both aircraft-based performance incidents and operator-based performance incidents during particular weather conditions in a weather-based statistical analysis,

     2) continually learning a significance of a plurality of variables affecting one or more previous missions that include weather variables, operator experience, aircraft parameters, and payload parameters, and impacting the performance of the particular mission, and assigning weights to each variable in the plurality of variables based on the learned significance and on the particular weather conditions in the weather-based statistical analysis for the performance of the particular mission to determine one or more outcomes for the one or more mission risk possibilities, and

     3) comparing the one or more outcomes of the one or more mission risk probabilities from the weather-based statistical analysis with the operational rules, information from a collection of the previous missions by the specific unmanned aircraft, and actuarial data related to one or both of the specific unmanned aircraft and an operator of the specific unmanned aircraft, to evaluate a flight condition of the unmanned aircraft for the performance of the mission to determine a proceed status, a do not proceed status, or a recovery status for the operation of the specific unmanned aircraft based on the particular weather conditions analyzed; and

generating, as output data, mission compliance status confirming or denying compliance with the one or more operational rules for the operation of the specific unmanned aircraft, and at least one operational instruction for the specific unmanned aircraft.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the forecasted weather data includes weather forecasts for time periods coinciding with the performance of the particular mission.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational instruction is at least one of a fly instruction, a takeoff prevention instruction, a payload instruction, and a recovery interference prevention instruction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the flight condition is at least one of a pre-flight condition, an in-flight condition, and a post-flight condition.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a flight plan by modifying one or more of the mission-specific flight parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the data processing modules are performed by a device embedded on board the specific unmanned aircraft.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering a signed authorization certificate to conduct the particular mission.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating one or more management advisory services from the flight condition evaluation, the one or more advisory services including a plurality of alerts that include at least one of an agricultural operations advisory and a regulatory advisory.

9. A flight advisory system for unmanned aircraft, comprising:

a data ingest and initialization component configured to retrieve, store, and arrange weather information comprised of at least one of current weather data, historical weather data, and forecasted weather data for a specific geographic area for a time period coinciding with performance of a particular mission, mission-specific flight parameters defining performance of the particular mission by a specific unmanned aircraft at a specific time and including one or more of a payload, a flight plan, a craft type, and a geographical location of a mission, and one or more operational rules governing operation of the specific unmanned aircraft in the performance of the particular mission;

a mission analytics component configured to perform a risk assessment for the mission relative to the weather information and the mission-specific flight parameters by

     1) computing one or more mission risk probabilities of an occurrence of both aircraft-based performance incidents and operator-based performance incidents during particular weather conditions in a weather-based statistical analysis,

     2) continually learning a significance of a plurality of variables affecting one or more previous missions that include weather variables, operator experience, aircraft parameters, and payload parameters, and impacting the performance of the particular mission, and assigning weights to each variable in the plurality of variables based on the learned significance and on the particular weather conditions in the weather-based statistical analysis for the performance of the particular mission to determine one or more outcomes for the one or more mission risk possibilities, and

     3) comparing the one or more outcomes of the one or more mission risk probabilities from the weather-based statistical analysis with the operational rules, information from a collection of the previous missions by the specific unmanned aircraft, and actuarial data related to one or both of the specific unmanned aircraft and an operator of the specific unmanned aircraft, to evaluate a flight condition of the specific unmanned aircraft for the performance of the particular mission to determine a proceed status, a do not proceed status, or a recovery status for the operation of the specific unmanned aircraft based on the particular weather conditions analyzed; and

one or more components configured to generate output data as a flight advisory from the flight condition evaluation that includes a mission compliance status confirming or denying compliance with the one or more operational rules for the operation of the specific unmanned aircraft and an operational instruction for the specific unmanned aircraft.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operational instruction is at least one of a fly instruction, a takeoff prevention instruction, a payload instruction, and a recovery interference prevention instruction.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the data ingest and initialization component, the mission analytics components, and the one or more components configured to generate output data are performed by a device embedded on the specific unmanned aircraft.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising a flight control component configured to restrict ground control of the specific unmanned aircraft in response to an operational instruction.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising a flight control component configured to prevent an operator from preventing a return and landing using a predefined recovery path, in response to an operational instruction.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a flight certification module configured to confirm a flight certificate validity and deliver a signed authorization certificate for the specific unmanned aircraft to perform the particular mission.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the output data includes one or more management advisory services from the flight condition evaluation, the one or more advisory services including a plurality of alerts that include at least one of an agricultural operations advisory and a regulatory advisory.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the forecasted weather data includes weather forecasts for time periods coinciding with the performance of the particular mission.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the flight condition is at least one of a pre-flight condition, an in-flight condition, and a post-flight condition.

18. A method of evaluating a flight condition for an unmanned aircraft, comprising:

retrieving and initializing a plurality of inputs, the plurality of inputs including weather information comprised of least one of current weather data, historical weather data, and forecasted weather data for a specific geographic area for a time period coinciding with performance of a particular mission, and including mission-specific flight parameters defining the performance of the particular mission by a specific unmanned aircraft at a specific time and including one or more of a payload, a flight plan, a craft type, and a geographical location of the particular mission;

retrieving one or more appropriate operational rules for operation of the specific unmanned aircraft in performing the particular mission based on the plurality of inputs;

evaluating a flight condition to determine a mission compliance status comprised of a proceed status, a do not proceed status, or a recovery status for the operation of the specific unmanned aircraft by applying one or more weather-based statistical analyses that compute mission risk probabilities based on an occurrence of both aircraft-based performance incidents and operator-based performance incidents during particular weather conditions using the weather information and the mission-specific flight parameters, to continually learn a significance of a plurality of variables affecting one or more previous missions that include weather variables, operator experience, aircraft parameters, and payload parameters, and impacting the performance of the particular mission, and assigning weights to each variable in the plurality of variables based on the learned significance and on the particular weather conditions in the weather-based statistical analysis for the performance of the particular mission to determine one or more outcomes for the one or more mission risk possibilities, and compare the one or more outcomes of the one or more weather-based statistical analyses to the one or more appropriate operational rules, information from a collection of the previous missions by the specific unmanned aircraft, and actuarial data related to one or both of the specific unmanned aircraft and an operator of the specific unmanned aircraft, in a mission risk assessment based on the particular weather conditions analyzed, the flight condition comprising at least one of a pre-flight condition, an in-flight condition, and a post-flight condition; and

issuing a flight advisory representing the mission compliance status to at least one of an operator of the specific unmanned aircraft and to a device embedded on the specific unmanned aircraft.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising adjusting a flight plan by modifying one or more of the mission-specific flight parameters in response to the mission compliance status.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising confirming a validity of a flight certificate of mission authorization, and delivering a signed authorization certificate to conduct the particular mission.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the advisory either confirms or denies compliance with the one or more operational rules for the particular mission.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the advisory is an operational instruction for the specific unmanned aircraft, the operational instruction comprising at least one of a fly instruction, a takeoff prevention instruction, a payload instruction, and a recovery interference prevention instruction to prevent an operator from preventing the specific unmanned aircraft from returning and landing using a predefined recovery path.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising issuing a management advisory service from the flight condition evaluation, the additional advisory service including a plurality of alerts that include at least one of an agricultural operations advisory and a regulatory advisory.