CONTROL AND MONITOR HETEROGENEOUS AUTONOMOUS TRANSPORT DEVICES

• US 20090319096A1
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Pigg, Paul E.R., McEneaney, Kevin E., Halaas, David, Bieniawski, Stefan R., Vian, John L., Saad, Emad W., Clark, Gregory J., Offer, Brad W.
• Application Number:
  US12/110,195
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319096A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• 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

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to methods, computer-readable media, and systems for controlling one or more uninhabited heterogeneous autonomous transport devices. Embodiments of the present invention advantageously reduce costs and improve efficiencies by providing capabilities for a computing device to be able to control and to monitor one or more heterogeneous autonomous transport devices. This occurs by generating a command signal from a computing device and transmitting the command signal to control on-board computing devices of one or more heterogeneous transport devices to execute requirements of a mission. Also, embodiments of the present invention provide ways to start-up, to send commands, and to shut down real or simulated heterogeneous autonomous transport devices.

Claims

1. A method for controlling one or more heterogeneous transport devices comprising:

generating a command signal from a control computing device for the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on capabilities of each transport device and requirements of a mission; and

transmitting the command signal to control on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices to execute the requirements of the mission.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

generating the command signal comprises the control computing device operatively coupled to at least one communication network and configured to compute the command signal;

and

transmitting the command signal comprises transmitting via at least one communication network from the control computing device to a client-side server configured to receive the command signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein transmitting the command signal to the client-side server uses connections of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/an Internet Protocol (IP).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the command signal comprises initiating and providing Command and Control and Health Monitoring (CCHM) on the control computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving operating and health monitoring information from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices and assessing a status and a health condition of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on the received health monitoring information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving feedback from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a response to the command signal.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a status, a position, an orientation, or an attitude of the one more heterogeneous transport devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the command signal from a first control computing device and a second control computing device operatively coupled to at least one communication network and configured to compute the command signal, wherein the first control computing device has priority in generating the command signal over the second control computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transceivers located at each end of a communication link.

10. A computer-readable storage media including computer-program instructions executable by a computing device, the instructions configured to cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

generating a command signal for one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on capabilities of each transport device and requirements of a mission;

transmitting the command signal to control on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices to execute the requirements of the mission; and

receiving feedback from the on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a response to the command signal.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein

generating the command signal comprises initiating and providing Control and Health Monitoring (CCHM) on the control computing device;

and

transmitting the command signal comprises identifying the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a name of a transport device, an internet protocol (IP) address associated with the name of a transport device, or an identification number for a transport device.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, further comprising receiving operating and health monitoring information from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices and assessing a status and a health condition of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on the received health monitoring information.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, further comprising displaying the status and the health conditions of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices in graphs.

14. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, further comprising receiving information from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a position, an orientation, or an attitude of the one more heterogeneous transport devices.

15. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, further comprising shutting down the one or more heterogeneous transport devices when at least one representation occurs due to a failure alert, a control signal is invalid, a command fails, or a connection is not active to a client-side server.

16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, further comprising generating the command signal from a first control computing device and a second control computing device operatively coupled to at least one communication network and configured to compute the command signal, wherein the first control computing device has priority in generating the command signal over the second control computing device.

17. A system for controlling one or more heterogeneous transport devices, the system comprising:

memory;

a processor coupled to the memory configured to perform operations;

a control architecture configured to generate a command signal from a control computing device for the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on capabilities of each transport device and requirements of a mission;

the control architecture configured to transmit the command signal to control on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices to execute the requirements of the mission; and

the control architecture configured to receive feedback from the on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on a response to the command signal.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the control architecture includes a health monitoring component configured to receive health monitoring information from the one or more heterogeneous transport devices, and to assess a health condition of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices based on the received health monitoring information, the control architecture being further configured to determine a corresponding command signal based at least partially on the health monitoring information of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the control architecture includes:

at least one communication network operatively coupled to a position sensing system;

a main processing component operatively coupled to the at least one communication network and configured to compute the command signals; and

one or more control modules operatively coupled to the at least one communication network and configured to receive the command signals from the main processing component, to transmit the command signals into a format suitable for use by the on-board computing devices of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices, and to transmit the command signals to the one or more heterogeneous transport devices.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the control architecture includes:

a communication component configured to receive a position and an attitude from a position sensing system and a status and a health monitoring information from a health monitoring component; and

an onboard processing component positioned on each of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices and configured to send the position and the attitude of the one or more heterogeneous transport devices, the onboard processing component being further configured to receive the command signals and to communicate the command signals to an onboard control system of each of the transport devices.