Paired drone-based systems and methods for conducting a modified inspection of a delivery vehicle

• US 10,657,485 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2017
• Issued: 05/19/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Federal Express Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Federal Express Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Inventors: Burch, V, Reuben F., Doyle, David A., Popp, Brian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewandroski, Sara J
• Application Number:
  US15/711,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20180089611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 971 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 47/08 Arrangements of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/222 for storing aircraft, e.g. in hangars
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/14 with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/60 Tethered aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/17 for detecting, disrupting or countering communications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/26 for manufacturing, inspections or repairs
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/60 for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• 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 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/19 using electrically powered motors
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/37 Charging when not in flight
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/82 Airborne vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 : Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 : Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 : specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 : for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

Drone-based systems and methods for conducting a modified inspection of a delivery vehicle are described. A system has a delivery vehicle transceiver and an inspection drone paired to the vehicle that aerially inspects the vehicle. The delivery vehicle transceiver has a user interface and a wireless radio, while the paired inspection drone has a housing, onboard controller, memory storage, lifting engines, and a communication interface. The drone'"'"'s onboard controller is operative to identify different existing delivery vehicle inspection points from an inspection profile record; receive an inspection update message from the communication interface; update the existing delivery vehicle inspection points with additional inspection points to yield a targeted inspection points corresponding to respective parts of the delivery vehicle; and conduct the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle by gathering the detected sensor-based inspection information related to each of the targeted inspection points.

Claims

1. A drone-based system for conducting a modified inspection of a delivery vehicle, comprising:

an inspection drone paired to the delivery vehicle and operative to aerially inspect the delivery vehicle, the paired inspection drone further comprising;

a main housing,

an onboard controller disposed within the main housing,

a memory storage coupled to the onboard controller and maintaining an inspection profile record corresponding to the delivery vehicle,

a plurality of lifting engines coupled with respective lifting rotors, each of the lifting engines being fixed to a different portion of the main housing and responsive to flight control input generated by the onboard controller as part of maintaining a desired flight profile,

at least one sensor coupled to the onboard controller, the sensor being operative to (a) detect sensor-based inspection information while the paired inspection drone is airborne, and (b) provide the detected sensor-based inspection information to the onboard controller, and

a communication interface coupled to the onboard controller, the communication interface being operative to receive an inspection update message related to the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle; and

a delivery vehicle transceiver comprising

a user interface for accepting input that identifies at least one or more additional inspection points related to the delivery vehicle, and

a wireless radio operative to transmit the inspection update message to the communication interface of the paired inspection drone, the inspection update message identifying the at least one or more additional inspection points accepted as input on the user interface; and

wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is operative to

access the memory storage to identify a plurality of existing delivery vehicle inspection points from the inspection profile record stored in the memory storage,

receive the inspection update message from the communication interface,

update the existing delivery vehicle inspection points with the at least one or more additional inspection points to yield a plurality of targeted inspection points corresponding to respective parts of the delivery vehicle, wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is operative to update the existing delivery vehicle inspection points by being further operative to generate a modified inspection profile record that identifies the targeted inspection points as a first plurality of designated inspection areas specific to the delivery vehicle as the existing delivery vehicle inspection points and identifies a second plurality of designated inspection areas specific to the delivery vehicle as the one or more additional inspection points, and

conduct the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle by gathering the detected sensor-based inspection information related to each of the targeted inspection points.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is further operative to autonomously send flight control input to the lifting engines to cause the paired inspection drone to traverse respective aerial positions proximate each of the targeted inspection points as part of conducting the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is further operative to:

automatically identify an inspection condition about at least one of the targeted inspection points when the sensor-based inspection information for the at least one of the targeted inspection points is outside of an acceptable range related to the at least one of the targeted inspection points; and

cause the communication interface to responsively transmit an inspection notification message to the delivery vehicle transceiver upon identifying the inspection condition for the at least one targeted inspection point.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the delivery vehicle transceiver is disposed in a control compartment for the delivery vehicle.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the user interface of the delivery vehicle transceiver comprises an interactive display interface in the control compartment for the delivery vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the delivery vehicle transceiver comprises a mobile transceiver device used in support of delivery vehicle operations and physically separate from the delivery vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is operative to update the existing delivery vehicle inspection points by being further operative to modify the inspection profile record to identify the targeted inspection points including the at least one or more additional inspection points;

and store the modified inspection profile record in the memory storage.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one sensor on paired inspection drone comprises a first sensor of a first type and a second sensor of a second type;

and

wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone is operative to conduct the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle by gathering the sensor-based inspection information for a first of the targeted inspection points with the first sensor and gathering the sensor-based inspection information for a second of the targeted inspection points with a second sensor, wherein the modified inspection profile record indicates the type of sensor to use with at least the first of the targeted inspection points and the second of the inspection points.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the additional inspection points are specific to inside of the delivery vehicle.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the additional inspection points comprises a cargo attachment point located within an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the additional inspection points comprises a cargo handling point located within an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft, wherein the cargo handling point facilitates movement of a cargo shipment within the accessible cargo storage area.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the cargo handling point comprises at least one from a group consisting of a roller, a caster, a portion of a roller deck, a roller ball mat, a castor mat, a turntable, and a conveyor.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the additional inspection points comprises an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the additional inspection points are externally exposed on the delivery vehicle.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of the additional inspection points comprises an aircraft component of an aircraft representing the delivery vehicle.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the aircraft component comprises one from the group consisting of a panel, a rivet, a seam, an engine, a flight control surface, a window seal, a closable entry to within the aircraft, aircraft lighting, an antenna, landing gear, and a tire.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of the additional inspection points comprises a first designated inspection area aerially accessible from above the delivery vehicle but that is not visible from a ground level perspective relative to the delivery vehicle.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor on the paired inspection drone comprises an image sensor that captures one or more images relative to at least one of the additional inspection points, where in the captured images correspond to the sensor-based inspection information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the image sensor comprises at least one of a visual imaging sensor, an infrared (IR) imaging sensor, and a thermal imaging sensor.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor on the paired inspection drone comprises a depth measuring sensor that maps a surface related to the delivery vehicle relative to at least one of the additional inspection points, where in the mapped surface corresponds to the sensor-based inspection information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the depth measuring sensor comprises at least one of a LIDAR sensor and a sound transducer.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the delivery vehicle comprises one from a group of an aircraft, a trailer pulled with a motorized vehicle, a marine vessel, and a railroad car.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the paired inspection drone comprises a linked part of the delivery vehicle that travels with the delivery vehicle during a delivery vehicle based shipment operation.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the delivery vehicle based shipment operation comprises an operation to ship one or more items from a first location to a second location within a cargo storage area of the delivery vehicle.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the onboard controller of the paired inspection drone comprises:

a flight controller operative responsible for generating the flight control input and providing the flight control input to the lifting engines to maintain the desired flight profile; and

an onboard inspection processor operative to at least maintain the inspection profile record within the memory storage and update the inspection profile record to reflect the at least one or more additional inspection points related to the received inspection update message.

26. A drone-based method for conducting a modified inspection of a delivery vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, by an inspection drone paired to the delivery vehicle, an inspection update message from a first transceiver, the inspection update message identifying at least one or more additional inspection points associated with the delivery vehicle;

updating, by the paired inspection drone, a plurality of existing delivery vehicle inspection points with the at least one or more additional inspection points to yield a plurality of targeted inspection points corresponding to respective parts of the delivery vehicle, wherein the step of updating the plurality of existing delivery vehicle inspection points further comprises generating a modified inspection profile record that identifies the targeted inspection points as a first plurality of designated inspection areas specific to the delivery vehicle as the existing delivery vehicle inspection points and identifies a second plurality of designated inspection areas specific to the delivery vehicle as the one or more additional inspection points; and

conducting, by a sensor on the paired inspection drone, the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle by gathering sensor-based inspection information related to each of the targeted inspection points.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising the steps of:

providing the sensor-based inspection information by the sensor to an onboard processor on the paired inspection drone;

automatically identifying, using the onboard processor on the paired inspection drone, an inspection condition about at least one of the targeted inspection points based upon the sensor-based inspection information, the inspection condition being outside an acceptable range for operation of the delivery vehicle; and

responsively transmitting, by the paired inspection drone, an inspection notification message to a delivery vehicle receiver disposed on the delivery vehicle upon identifying the inspection condition for the at least one targeted inspection point is outside the acceptable range for operation of the delivery vehicle.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the first transceiver is disposed on the delivery vehicle.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the first transceiver is disposed in a control compartment for the delivery vehicle.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the first transceiver comprises a communication interface and a user interface, wherein the user interface that accepts input identifying the one or more additional inspection points associated with the delivery vehicle and the communication interface transmits the inspection update message to the paired inspection drone.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the user interface comprises an interactive display interface in the control compartment for the delivery vehicle.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein the first transceiver comprises a mobile transceiver device physically separate from the delivery vehicle and operative to wirelessly communicate with the paired inspection drone, wherein the mobile transceiver device having at least an interactive display interface that accepts input identifying the one or more additional inspection points associated with the delivery vehicle and a wireless communication interface that transmits the inspection update message to the paired inspection drone based upon the input identifying the additional inspection points.

33. The method of claim 26, wherein the delivery vehicle comprises one from a group of an aircraft, a trailer pulled with a motorized vehicle, a marine vessel, and a railroad car.

34. The method of claim 26, wherein at least a portion of the targeted inspection points are specific to inside of the delivery vehicle.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein at least one of the targeted inspection points comprises an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein at least one of the targeted inspection points comprises a cargo attachment point located within an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein at least one of the targeted inspection points comprises a cargo handling point located within an accessible cargo storage area within an aircraft, wherein the cargo handling point facilitates movement of a cargo shipment within the accessible cargo storage area.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the cargo handling point comprises at least one from a group consisting of a roller, a caster, a portion of a roller deck, a roller ball mat, a castor mat, a turntable, and a conveyor.

39. The method of claim 26, wherein at least a portion of the targeted inspection points are externally exposed on the delivery vehicle.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein at least one of the targeted inspection points comprises a first designated inspection area aerially accessible from above the delivery vehicle but that is not visible from a ground level perspective relative to the delivery vehicle.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the targeted inspection points comprise a plurality of aircraft components of an aircraft representing the delivery vehicle.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the plurality of aircraft components comprises at least two from the group consisting of a panel, a rivet, a seam, an engine, a flight control surface, a window seal, a closable entry to within the aircraft, aircraft lighting, an antenna, landing gear, and tires.

43. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of conducting the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle with the sensor-based inspection information further comprises capturing one or more images relative to at least one of the targeted inspection points using an image sensor as the sensor on the paired inspection drone.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the image sensor comprises at least one of a visual imaging sensor, an infrared (IR) imaging sensor, and a thermal imaging sensor.

45. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of conducting the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle with the sensor-based inspection information further comprises surface mapping relative to at least one of the targeted inspection points using a depth sensor as the sensor on the paired inspection drone.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the depth sensor comprises at least one of a LIDAR sensor and a sound transducer.

47. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of conducting the modified inspection of the delivery vehicle with the sensor-based inspection information further comprises

detecting the sensor-based inspection information for a first of the targeted inspection points with a first type of sensor and

detecting the sensor-based inspection information for a second of the targeted inspection points with a second type of sensor,

wherein the modified inspection profile record indicates the type of sensor to use with at least the first of the targeted inspection points and the second of the inspection points.