Drone traffic engineering

• US 10,395,542 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2016
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yakan, Medhat Ramzi
• Primary Examiner(s): Cass, Jean Paul
• Application Number:
  US15/083,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20170278405A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,247 Days
• Field of Search: 701120
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• 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 2201/102 adapted for flying in formations
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request for a flight path for a drone, the request including information indicative of a source location within a geographical area and a destination location within the geographical area, modeling the geographical area including a plurality of geographical regions as a data network including a plurality of nodes, determining a network data path from a source node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the source location to a destination node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the destination location, determining a flight path for the drone based on the network data path, and transmitting data indicative of the flight path for the drone.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at an air traffic control system including a non-transitory memory and one or more processors;

receiving a request for a flight path for a drone, the request including information indicative of a source location within a geographical area and a destination location within the geographical area;

modeling the geographical area as a data network of nodes and links, wherein modeling includes representing a plurality of geographical regions as the data network including a plurality of nodes, wherein modeling the geographical area as the data network includes mapping the plurality of geographical regions to the plurality of nodes and mapping boundaries between the plurality of geographical regions to links between the plurality of nodes;

determining a network data path from a source node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the source location to a destination node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the destination location, based on a minimization of cost metrics associated with the links between the plurality of nodes in the modeled geographical regions, the cost metrics including at least a hop count of nodes;

converting the network data path in the modeled geographical area into a flight path for the drone, wherein data network traffic engineering processes are used to determine the flight path for the drone; and

instructing the drone to traverse the geographic area in accordance with the flight path for the drone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for the flight path for the drone is received from the drone and the flight path for the drone is transmitted to the drone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a bandwidth of a link between two nodes in the data network is a function of a measurement of a boundary between two geographical regions that correspond to the two nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network data path is based on capacity of the plurality of nodes corresponding to capacity of the plurality of geographical regions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network data path is based on bandwidth of links between the plurality of nodes corresponding to bandwidth of boundaries between the plurality of geographical regions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network data path is based on a QoS metric corresponding to a priority of the drone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network data path is based on reliability of the plurality of nodes corresponding to likelihood of availability of the plurality of geographical regions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network data path further comprises minimizing a sum of the cost metrics associated with links between the plurality of nodes.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the cost metrics associated with links between the plurality of nodes are further based on at least one of a physical distance, a travel time, or a fuel consumption rating.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing the drone to traverse the geographical area in accordance with the flight path includes transmitting data indicative of the flight path including a series of coordinates corresponding to boundaries between geographical regions corresponding to nodes in the network data path.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing the drone to traverse the geographical area in accordance with the flight path includes transmitting data indicative of the flight path includes indicators of the geographical regions to be traversed along the flight path.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to traverse a boundary between two geographical regions of the flight path;

transmitting a response to the request to traverse the boundary, the response indicating at least one of a permission to traverse, a command to wait, or an updated flight path.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the permission to traverse includes an altitude level at which to traverse the boundary.

14. A system comprising:

a communications interface;

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory memory comprising instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the communications interface, a request for a flight path for a drone, the request including information indicative of a source location within a geographical area and a destination location within the geographical area;

modeling the geographical area as a data network of nodes and links, wherein modeling includes representing a plurality of geographical regions as the data network including a plurality of nodes, wherein modeling the geographical area as the data network includes mapping the plurality of geographical regions to the plurality of nodes and mapping boundaries between the plurality of geographical regions to links between the plurality of nodes;

determining a network data path from a source node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the source location to a destination node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the destination location, based on a minimization of cost metrics associated with the links between the plurality of nodes in the modeled geographical regions, the cost metrics including at least a hop count of nodes;

converting the network data path in the modeled geographical area into a flight path for the drone, wherein data network traffic engineering processes are used to determine the flight path for the drone; and

instructing, via the communications interface, the drone to traverse the geographic area in accordance with the flight path for the drone.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein determining the network data path includes minimizing a sum of the cost metrics associated with links between the plurality of nodes.

16. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

receiving, via the communications interface, a request to traverse a boundary between two geographical regions of the flight path; and

transmitting, via the communications interface, a response to the request to traverse, the response indicating at least one of permission to traverse, command to wait, or an updated flight path.

17. A non-transitory memory storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to:

receive a request for a flight path for a drone, the request including information indicative of a source location within a geographical area and a destination location within the geographical area;

model the geographical area as a data network of nodes and links, wherein modeling includes representing a plurality of geographical regions as the data network including a plurality of nodes, wherein modeling the geographical area as the data network includes mapping the plurality of geographical regions to the plurality of nodes and mapping boundaries between the plurality of geographical regions to links between the plurality of nodes;

determine a network data path from a source node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the source location to a destination node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to the destination location, based on a minimization of cost metrics associated with the links between the plurality of nodes in the modeled geographical regions, the cost metrics including at least a hop count of nodes;

convert the network data path in the modeled geographical area into a flight path for the drone, wherein data network traffic engineering processes are used to determine the flight path for the drone; and

instructing the drone to traverse the geographic area in accordance with the flight path for the drone.

18. The non-transitory memory of claim 17, wherein a request for the flight path for the drone is received from the drone and the flight path for the drone is transmitted to the drone.

19. The non-transitory memory of claim 17 wherein a bandwidth of a link between two nodes in the data network is a function of a measurement of a boundary between two geographical regions that correspond to the two nodes.

20. The non-transitory memory of claim 17, wherein determining the network data path is based on the capacity of the plurality of nodes corresponding to capacity of the plurality of geographical regions.