Ground terminal and UAV beam pointing in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for network access

• US 10,153,829 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2017
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bridgewest Finance, LLC
• Original Assignee: Bridgewest Finance, LLC
• Inventors: Jalali, Ahmad, Filiba, Viktor
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, John J
• Application Number:
  US15/601,749
• Publication Number:
  US 20180034534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• Field of Search: 455419, 455420, 455434, 455515, 455431, 455 6711
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/30 Lighter-than-air aircraft, e.g. aerostatic aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/20 for use as communications relays, e.g. high-altitude platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/21 for providing Internet access
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/31 generated by photovoltaics
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Network access (for example, to the Internet) may be provided by detecting a UAV and fixing one or more beams from one or more ground terminals to the UAV. In one embodiment, the detection of a UAV includes forming and pointing beams from a ground terminal and ground gateways toward the UAV. The ground terminal may be configured to autonomously steer its antenna beam during initial installation to detect the reference signal from a UAV. In one variant, the ground terminals are steered to more finely track the position of the UAV based on a signal quality metric such as received signal strength and the UAV real-time position location coordinates. In one embodiment, the ground terminal antenna is initially manually pointed toward the UAV, and thereafter allowed to automatically steer to track the position of the UAV. In another embodiment the UAV antenna is steered toward a ground terminal using signal qualify received from the ground terminal and real-time position coordinates and orientation of the UAV.

Claims

1. A ground terminal apparatus comprising:

a non-mechanical antenna steering mechanism configured to steer one or more antenna beams toward an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);

a processor apparatus; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store one or more instructions, the one or more instructions when executed by the processor apparatus, are configured to cause the ground terminal apparatus to;

coarse detect a presence of the UAV within a search space;

steer the one or more antenna beams using the non-mechanical antenna steering mechanism toward the detected presence of the UAV within the search space; and

fine track a current position of the UAV within the search space, wherein the fine track of the current position of the UAV is configured to;

define a plurality of search bins around a current bin associated with the current position of the UAV, the plurality of search bins including the current bin;

measure a signal quality for each of the defined plurality of search bins; and

when the measured signal quality of a searched bin exceeds a measured signal quality of the current bin, set the searched bin to an updated current bin for a subsequent fine track iteration.

2. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-mechanical antenna steering mechanism comprises an electronic beam forming apparatus.

3. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-mechanical antenna steering mechanism comprises a phased array apparatus.

4. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-mechanical antenna steering mechanism comprises logic configured to switch to an antenna aperture associated with the searched bin from an antenna aperture associated with the current bin.

5. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of search bins comprise angular search bins.

6. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 5, further comprising an antenna subsystem that utilizes a first angular search bin size to coarse detect the presence of the UAV within the search space.

7. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 6, wherein the antenna subsystem is configured to use a second angular search bin size to fine track the presence of the UAV within the search space, wherein the second angular search bin size is smaller in size than the first angular search bin size in at least one dimension.

8. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 7, wherein the antenna subsystem utilizes the second angular search bin size to fine track the presence of the UAV within the search space, the second angular search bin size is more accurately positioned towards a position of the UAV than the first angular search bin size.

9. The ground terminal apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one dimension is selected from the group consisting of azimuth and elevation.

10. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) apparatus comprising:

an antenna steering mechanism configured to point one or more antenna beams towards a ground terminal;

a processor apparatus; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store one or more instructions, the one or more instructions, when executed by the processor apparatus, configured to cause the UAV apparatus to;

coarse detect a presence of the ground terminal based on one or more position coordinates;

point the one or more antenna beams toward the one or more position coordinates; and

fine track a current position of the ground terminal, wherein the fine track of the current position of the ground terminal is configured to;

define a plurality of search bins around the current position, the plurality of search bins including a current bin;

measure a signal quality for each of the plurality of search bins; and

when the measured signal quality of a searched bin exceeds a current signal quality of the current bin, set the searched bin to an updated current bin for a subsequent fine track iteration.

11. The UAV apparatus of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor apparatus, cause the UAV apparatus to repeat the coarse detection of the presence of the ground terminal when communications with the ground terminal are lost.

12. The UAV apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna steering mechanism comprises an electronic beam forming apparatus with beam forming capability in at least one axis.

13. The UAV apparatus of claim 12, wherein the antenna steering mechanism further comprises logic configured to switch to an antenna aperture associated with the searched bin from an antenna aperture associated with the current bin.

14. The UAV apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna steering mechanism further comprises logic configured to shape the one or more antenna beams into one of the plurality of search bins.

15. The UAV apparatus of claim 14, wherein the plurality of search bins are regularly shaped.

16. The UAV apparatus of claim 14, wherein the one or more antenna beams are irregularly shaped to improve coverage of at least one of the plurality of search bins.

17. The UAV apparatus of claim 16, wherein the one or more antenna beams are irregularly shaped to improve coverage of the searched bin.

18. A method for antenna pointing, the method comprising:

coarse detecting a target terminal within a search space;

steering one or more antenna beams toward the search space; and

fine tracking a current position of the target terminal within the search space by;

defining a plurality of search bins around the current position, the plurality of search bins including a current bin;

measuring a signal quality for each of the plurality of search bins;

when the measured signal quality of a searched bin exceeds a current signal quality of the current bin, setting the searched bin to an updated current bin for a subsequent fine track iteration; and

repeating the coarse detection of the target terminal when the target terminal is lost.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises changing an angular size of at least one bin of the plurality of search bins.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises changing a shape of at least one bin of the plurality of search bins.