Drone piggybacking on vehicles

• US 10,134,290 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2017
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mikan, Jeffrey, Cenciarelli, Fulvio, Davis, III, John P., Aguirre, Quinn
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby, Richard M
• Application Number:
  US15/833,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20180107204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 349 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/60 for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/25 for recharging batteries; for refuelling
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/86 Land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft

Abstract

A system for providing drone piggybacking on vehicles is disclosed. In particular, the system may enable drones or other unmanned mobile connected devices to piggyback onto various types of hosts, such as vehicles, in a symbiotic fashion. Through the symbiotic relationship created between the drones and hosts, the drones may utilize the hosts as a means for transport, such as while delivering a good to an intended destination, and the hosts may receive certain incentives in exchange for transporting the drones. Drones may be paired with hosts based on any number of factors, such as whether the host is traveling on a route that corresponds with reaching the intended destination, whether the host is capable of recharging the drone, and whether the drone has sufficient power to reach the intended destination. By enabling drones to piggyback with hosts, the required traveling range for a drone may be reduced.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory that stores machine-readable instructions; and

a processor that executes the machine-readable instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving information indicative of an intended destination;

calculating, based on the information, a first route for a drone to travel to the intended destination;

sending, to the drone, instructions associated with traveling of the drone to the intended destination using the first route;

determining whether a portion of a second route associated with a host vehicle, if traveled by the drone, facilitates progress by the drone toward the intended destination; and

according to a result of the determining, causing the drone to piggyback with the host vehicle along the portion of the second route.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the host vehicle is an aerial vehicle and/or an autonomous vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise selecting the drone from a drone inventory based on a type of service provided by the drone.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the type of service comprises a delivery service.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the selecting is further based on a type of a host compatible with the drone, a location of a recharging power supply compatible with the drone, and/or a cost associated with the drone.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

causing the drone to detach from the host vehicle; and

causing the drone to travel toward and reach the intended destination after detaching from the host vehicle.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the causing the drone to travel toward and reach the intended destination comprises causing the drone to travel toward the intended destination by piggybacking with one or more additional host vehicles.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise reducing battery and power consumption of the drone when the drone is piggybacking with the host vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the receiving comprises receiving a request to pick up an object at the intended destination or deliver an object to the intended destination,

the calculating is in response to the request, and

the instructions comprise an indication of the intended destination and the first route.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the drone to travel along the first route, and wherein the operations further comprise:

according to the result of the determining, causing the drone to continue to travel on the first route toward the intended destination.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise sending additional instructions to the drone to indicate a duration for the drone to piggyback with the host vehicle.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving information indicative of an intended destination;

calculating, by utilizing instructions from a memory that are executed by a processor, a first route for a drone based on the intended destination;

initiating traveling of the drone to the intended destination using the first route;

determining whether the drone is to piggyback with a host vehicle during the traveling of the drone to the intended destination; and

according to a result of the determining, causing the drone to travel toward the intended destination by piggybacking with the host vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the initiating comprises sending instructions to the drone to initiate the traveling of the drone to the intended destination using the first route.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the determining comprises determining whether a portion of a second route associated with the host vehicle overlaps with a corresponding portion of the first route; and

the causing comprises causing, if the portion of the second route is determined to overlap with the corresponding portion of the first route, the drone to travel toward the intended destination by piggybacking with the host vehicle along the portion of the second route.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the determining whether the drone is to piggyback with the host vehicle further comprises determining whether a threshold amount of congestion exists on the portion of the second route; and

the causing comprises causing, if the threshold amount of congestion exists, the drone to travel to the intended destination without having the drone piggyback with the host vehicle.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising causing the drone to detach from the host vehicle if the host vehicle veers off the second route by a maximum threshold distance.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining is based on flight regulations en route to the intended destination.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining is based on battery information associated with the drone.

19. A computer-readable device comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving information indicative of an intended destination;

calculating a first route for a drone based on the intended destination;

sending, to the drone, instructions associated with traveling of the drone to the intended destination using the first route;

determining whether a portion of a second route associated with a host vehicle corresponds with reaching the intended destination; and

according to a result of the determining, causing the drone to piggyback with the host vehicle along the portion of the second route.

20. The computer-readable device of claim 19, wherein the host vehicle is an aerial vehicle and/or an autonomous vehicle.