System and method of collision avoidance in unmanned aerial vehicles
First Claim
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1. A collision avoidance system comprising:
- an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that includes a positional sensor;
a UAV controller coupled to communicate wirelessly with the UAV, wherein the UAV controller receives safety data from the UAV and provides command instructions to control operation of the UAV, wherein the safety data includes positional data associated with the UAV; and
a safety data aggregator coupled to communicate with the UAV controller, wherein the safety data aggregator collects safety data from one or more UAV controllers, stores collected safety data in a safety data buffer, and extracts spatially relevant safety data in response to a request from the UAV controller; and
wherein the UAV controller determines a risk of collision based on calculating geometries representing possible locations of objects identified in the spatially relevant safety data and the safety data provided by the UAV, wherein calculated geometries are represented as three-dimensional cones extending from a present location of each identified object in a direction determined from the received safety data associated with each identified object.
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Abstract
A collision avoidance system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a UAV controller, and a safety data aggregator. The UAV includes a positional sensor, and is coupled to communicate positional data to the UAV controller, and receive commands from the UAV controller. The safety data aggregator is coupled to communicate with the UAV controller, wherein the safety data aggregator collects positional data from one or more UAV controllers, stores collected positional data in a safety data buffer, and extracts spatially relevant positional data in response to a request from the UAV controller.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A collision avoidance system comprising:
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an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that includes a positional sensor; a UAV controller coupled to communicate wirelessly with the UAV, wherein the UAV controller receives safety data from the UAV and provides command instructions to control operation of the UAV, wherein the safety data includes positional data associated with the UAV; and a safety data aggregator coupled to communicate with the UAV controller, wherein the safety data aggregator collects safety data from one or more UAV controllers, stores collected safety data in a safety data buffer, and extracts spatially relevant safety data in response to a request from the UAV controller; and wherein the UAV controller determines a risk of collision based on calculating geometries representing possible locations of objects identified in the spatially relevant safety data and the safety data provided by the UAV, wherein calculated geometries are represented as three-dimensional cones extending from a present location of each identified object in a direction determined from the received safety data associated with each identified object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of aggregating and distributing safety data, the method comprising:
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collecting safety data from a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles, including positional data associated with each of the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles; providing the collected safety data to a safety data aggregator; storing the collected safety data in a geo-spatial database that is searchable to provide spatially relevant positional/safety data; receiving a request from a UAV controller for spatially relevant safety data, wherein the request includes positional data of the UAV associated with the requesting UAV controller; extracting spatially relevant safety data from the geo-spatial database based on the positional data provided in the request from the UAV controller; and providing the spatially relevant safety data to the UAV controller for collision avoidance analysis; and determining a risk of collision based on calculating geometries representing possible locations of objects identified in the spatially relevant safety data and the safety data collected by the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles, wherein calculated geometries are represented as three-dimensional cones extending from a present location of each identified object in a direction determined from the received safety data associated with each identified object. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of providing collision avoidance, the method comprising:
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receiving at an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controller safety data provided by a UAV, wherein the safety data includes positional data related to the position of the UAV; communicating the received safety data to a remotely located safety data aggregator; receiving spatially relevant safety data from the safety data aggregator based on positional data provided to the safety data aggregator; and determining a risk of collision based on a comparison of safety data received from the UAV and spatially relevant safety data received from the safety data aggregator; and wherein determining a risk of collision includes calculating geometries representing possible locations of objects identified in the spatially relevant safety data and the safety data provided by the UAV, wherein calculated geometries are represented as three-dimensional cones extending from a present location of each identified object in a direction determined from the received safety data associated with each identified object. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A safety data aggregator system comprising:
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an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data collection module coupled to receive safety data from one or more UAV controllers, wherein safety data includes at least position data of UAVs controlled by the one or more UAV controllers; a remote sensor network interface module coupled to receive safety data measured by a remote sensor network; a safety data buffer configured to store safety data received by the UAV data collection module and remote sensor network interface module; and a safety data extraction module that receives requests for spatially relevant safety data, wherein the safety data extraction module interacts with the safety data buffer to extract spatially relevant safety data, wherein the spatially relevant safety data is communicated to the UAV controller for which the extracted data is spatially relevant; and wherein the UAV controller determines a risk of collision based on calculating geometries representing possible locations of objects identified in the spatially relevant safety data and the safety data, wherein calculated geometries are represented as three-dimensional cones extending from a present location of each identified object in a direction determined from the received safety data associated with each identified object. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification