Unmanned aerial vehicle beacon pod

• US 10,339,819 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2017
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gentry, Nicholas Kristofer
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan Q
• Application Number:
  US15/635,110
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Beacon pods that provide location information to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The beacon pods may emit location information, which may replicate global positioning system (GPS) satellite information, provide a homing signal, provide access to a mobile telephone network as a signal repeater or booster, and/or provide other information and/or connectivity to a UAV, which may aid navigation and/or other operations of UAVs. The beacon pods may be configured for use in a residential location, which may enable a beacon pod to connect to residential power and computing networks. The beacon pods may establish secure data communication with UAVs and may log events related to UAVs, which may be used for various purposes.

Claims

1. A method of operation of a beacon pod for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation, the method comprising:

determining, by a beacon pod, its own location by using at least one of GPS signals, communications with other beacon pods, or signals from mobile telephone network antennas;

storing, at the beacon pod and by the beacon pod, the location of the beacon pod;

establishing, by the beacon pod, a secure communication between a UAV and the beacon pod;

receiving, by the beacon pod and via the secure communication, a request from the UAV for the location of the beacon pod; and

transmitting, by the beacon pod, via the secure communication, one or more of a synthetic Global Positioning System (GPS) signal indicating the location of the beacon pod, or a homing signal to enable the UAV to determine the location of the beacon pod.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the beacon pod further includes accessing a GPS signal received from a GPS sensor at the beacon pod.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the beacon pod further includes performing triangulation using two or more signal sources, each of the two or more signal sources having a known location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the beacon pod is performed in response to detecting movement of the beacon pod.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

identifying the UAV prior to establishing the secure communication between the UAV and the beacon pod;

or

authenticating the UAV prior to establishing the secure communication between the UAV and the beacon pod.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the homing signal in a dipole flux pattern decipherable by the UAV.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a communication link between one or more other beacon pods to create a network of beacon pods.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining, by the beacon pod, its own location comprises using communications with the other beacon pods.

9. A method of operation of a beacon pod for assisting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation, the method comprising:

determining, by a beacon pod, at a first time, a location of the beacon pod using a locating system of the beacon pod and by using at least one of GPS signals, communications with other beacon pods, or signals from mobile telephone network antennas;

storing, by the beacon pod, the location of the beacon pod in an internal memory of the beacon pod; and

broadcasting, by the beacon pod, at a second time, a location signal indicative of the location of the beacon pod.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the location of the beacon pod further includes activating a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor at the beacon pod to determine the location of the beacon pod.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the location of the beacon pod further includes receiving signals from a plurality of sources having known locations and calculating the location of the beacon pod based on the known locations.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting movement of the beacon pod;

determining, at a third time, a current location of the beacon pod using the locating system of the beacon pod;

storing the current location of the beacon pod in the internal memory of the beacon pod; and

broadcasting, at a fourth time, a new location signal indicative of the current location of the beacon pod.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising broadcasting a location identifier indicative of a location type associated with at least one of the beacon pod or the location of the beacon pod.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the determining, by the beacon pod, at the first time, its own location, is by using communications with other beacon pods.

15. A method of operating a beacon pod for assisting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation, the method comprising:

establishing a communication link, by the beacon pod, to a remote communication network;

receiving, by the beacon pod, a request from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to use the communication link;

configuring, by the beacon pod, the communication link for use by the UAV by at least one of boosting a signal of the remote communication network, repeating a signal of the remote communication network, or transmitting a signal of the remote communication network; and

facilitating, by the beacon pod, access by the UAV to the communication link via the beacon pod.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising authenticating the UAV prior to configuring the communication link for use by the UAV.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising terminating the communication link in response to at least one of a termination signal received by the beacon pod or a timeout.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein configuring the communication link for use by the UAV includes the boosting the signal of the remote communication network.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication link is a wired connection between the beacon pod and the remote communication network, and wherein configuring the communication link for use by the UAV includes broadcasting a signal to allow the UAV to communicate with the remote communication network.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication link is a wireless connection between the beacon pod and the remote communication network, and wherein configuring the communication link for use by the UAV includes at least one of repeating the signal of the wireless connection or boosting the signal of the wireless connection.