Enhanced unmanned aerial vehicles for damage inspection

• US 10,102,586 B1
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Marlow, Clint J., Corder, Bryan Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Milef, Elda G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cunningham, II, Gregory S
• Application Number:
  US14/700,440
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 20/40 Modular UAVs
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• 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 2201/104 using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/30 Supply or distribution of electrical power
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing insurance damage inspection by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are provided. A computing device may receive a request to inspect a property, the request comprising a location of the property. The computing device may identify a UAV from a plurality of UAVs that is located closest to the location of the property from other UAVs in the plurality of UAVs. The computing device may instruct the UAV to travel to the location of the property. The computing device may instruct the UAV to collect damage information on the property using one or more onboard sensors of the UAV. The computing device may determine an amount of insurance payout to approve for repairs to the property based on the damage information collected by the UAV.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) including an energy source to power the UAV; and

a server in communication with the UAV via a network, the server including;

a processor; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the server to;

receive, by the server and from a mobile device of a user, a request to inspect a vehicle, the request including a location of the vehicle determined from global positioning data (GPS) associated with one of;

the mobile device and the vehicle and wherein the request to inspect the vehicle is received in response to a determination that the vehicle has been involved in a vehicle collision, and the location of the vehicle corresponds to a location of the vehicle collision;

identify, by the server, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a plurality of UAVs that is located closest to the location of the vehicle from other UAVs in the plurality of UAVs;

generate, by the server, a flight trajectory to autonomously transport the UAV from a current location to the location of the vehicle;

transmit, by the server, the generated flight trajectory to the UAV;

instruct, by the server, the UAV to autonomously travel to the location of the vehicle along the generated flight trajectory;

instruct, by the server, the UAV to collect damage information on the vehicle using one or more onboard sensors of the UAV;

receive, by the server and from the UAV, collected damage information;

determine, by the server, that the vehicle collision is in a vicinity of a traffic intersection from the vehicle location;

responsive to determining that the vehicle location is in the vicinity of the traffic intersection, instruct, by the server, the UAV to monitor a traffic light at the traffic intersection to collect traffic light timing information;

receive, by the server and from the UAV, the traffic light timing information;

determine, by the server, that at least one vehicle involved in the vehicle collision committed a traffic violation from the traffic light timing information; and

determine, by the server, an amount of insurance payout to approve for repairs to the vehicle based on the damage information collected by the UAV.

2. The system of claim 1, further including instructions that, when executed, cause the server to:

receive, by the server and from the UAV, the damage information for the vehicle; and

identify, by the server, one or more repairs that the vehicle needs from the damage information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the amount of insurance payout to approve further comprises:

determining, by the server, an insurance account with which the vehicle is associated;

identifying, by the server, an insurance policy coverage of the insurance account with respect to the vehicle; and

determining, by the server, which repairs are covered by the insurance policy coverage by examining the damage information collected by the UAV.

4. The system of claim 1, further including instructions that, when executed, cause the server to:

instruct the UAV to collect a plurality of different types of information at the location of the vehicle collision using the one or more onboard sensors of the UAV, wherein the plurality of different types of information collected by the UAV comprises optical image data, infrared image data, hyperspectral image data, LIDAR data, thermal sensor data, chemical sensor data, event data recorder data, and audio data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server instructs the UAV to perform at least one insurance claims adjuster function.

6. The system of claim 1, further including instructions that, when executed, cause the server to:

receive, from the UAV, additional information indicating that one or more safety features of the vehicle were activated in a vehicle collision; and

adjust the amount of insurance payout based on the additional information.

7. A system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising one or more onboard sensors and an energy source to power the UAV;

at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

determine that a vehicle needs to be inspected;

generate a flight trajectory to autonomously transport the UAV from a current location to a location of the vehicle;

transmit the generated flight trajectory to the UAV;

instruct the UAV to autonomously travel to the location of the vehicle along the generated flight trajectory;

instruct the UAV to collect information about a condition of the vehicle using the one or more onboard sensors of the UAV;

receive, from the UAV, a plurality of different types of information collected by the one or more onboard sensors;

determine an amount of insurance payout to approve for repairs to the vehicle based on the information collected by the UAV;

receive an indication from a policyholder associated with the vehicle that the vehicle has been submitted to a repair shop;

determine, based on the indication from the policyholder, a location of the repair shop;

responsive to determining the location of the repair shop, generate a second flight trajectory to autonomously transport the UAV from a current location to the location of the repair shop;

instruct the UAV to travel to the location of the repair shop along the second flight trajectory to assess damage of the vehicle before the vehicle is repaired;

receive a report from the repair shop identifying the damages that the repair shop claims to have fixed in the vehicle; and

determine that the report from the repair shop is claiming to have fixed one or more damages to the vehicle that is not identified in the information captured by the UAV about the condition of the vehicle before the vehicle was repaired.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:

receive a claims request for the vehicle; and

determine that instructing the UAV to collect the information about the condition of the vehicle is a cost effective option to respond to the claims request.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:

determine the location of the vehicle based on global positioning system data from at least one of;

the vehicle and a mobile device within the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:

determine an insurance account with which the vehicle is associated;

identify an insurance policy coverage of the insurance account with respect to the vehicle; and

determine which repairs are covered by the insurance policy coverage by examining the information collected by the UAV.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to:

receive a claims request for the vehicle;

determine an insurance account with which the vehicle is associated;

identify an insurance policy coverage of the insurance account with respect to the vehicle;

determine at least one aspect of the vehicle for which to capture detailed information based on the insurance policy coverage for the vehicle and the claims request; and

instruct the UAV to use one or more of the onboard sensors to collect the detailed information for the at least one determined aspect of the vehicle.

12. A system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the UAV including;

a plurality of onboard sensors;

an energy source to power the UAV;

a processor; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the UAV to;

receive an instruction to inspect a vehicle, the instruction including a location of the vehicle and a determined flight trajectory to autonomously transport the UAV from a current location to a location of the vehicle;

receive an instruction to collect damage information on the vehicle using one or more onboard sensors of the plurality of onboard sensors of the UAV;

collect damage information on the vehicle using the one or more onboard sensors;

analyzing the collected damage information;

based on the analyzed collected damage information, automatically identify a series of tests to perform;

execute the identified series of tests to collect additional data; and

determine an amount of insurance payout to approve for repairs to the vehicle based on the damage information and additional data collected by the UAV.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instruction to inspect the vehicle is received in response to a determination that the vehicle has been involved in a vehicle collision, and the location of the vehicle corresponds to a location of the vehicle collision.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the UAV to:

receive an instruction to monitor a traffic light at a traffic intersection within a proximity of the location of the vehicle collision; and

monitor the traffic light to collect traffic light timing information.

15. The system of claim 12, further including instructions that, when executed, cause the UAV to:

communicate, via a satellite communication link, with a global positioning system (GPS) satellite;

monitor, based on the communication, a current location of the UAV; and

adjust, based on the monitored current location, a position of the UAV to maintain the determined flight trajectory.