METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROL OF MULTIPLE AUTONOMOUS MOBILE NODES BASED ON DYNAMIC SITUATIONAL AWARENESS DATA

• US 20150334768A1
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Published: 11/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EpiSys Science, Inc.
• Original Assignee: EpiSys Science, Inc.
• Inventors: RANASINGHE, Nadeesha Oliver, RYU, Bong Kyun, SHEN, Wei-Min
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/104 involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2433 Single-class perspective, e.g. one-against-all classification; Novelty detection; Outlier detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/29 Graphical models, e.g. Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/295 Markov models or related models, e.g. semi-Markov models; Markov random fields; Networks embedding Markov models
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/84 using probabilistic graphical models from image or video features, e.g. Markov models or Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• 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: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Techniques for autonomously establishing, maintaining, and repairing of a wireless communication network among multiple autonomous mobile nodes (AMN) are provided. The multiple AMNs are flown towards a first node. A tentacle is established with the first node and extended to cover a second node over a distance, thereby establishing a wireless communication network between the first node and the second node via the multiple AMNs. Any damage to the established wireless communication network or tentacle may be autonomously detected and repaired by using spare AMNs. Further, the communication network may be used to enable autonomous detection, tracking of the second node, as well as autonomous detection of a contamination area, based on data received from one or more sensors onboard the AMNs deployed in the air.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

deploying in the air one or more autonomous mobile nodes to establish a wireless communication network between a first node and a second node on the ground, via the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, the wireless communication network comprising a plurality of wireless communication links; and

autonomously establishing the plurality of wireless communication links via the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, based at least in part on data received from the one or more autonomous mobile nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a portion of the wireless communication network has been damaged; and

autonomously repairing the damaged wireless communication network, upon determining that the portion of the wireless communication network has been damaged.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

determining whether a portion of the wireless communication network is damaged comprises determining whether one of the one or more autonomous mobile nodes that are deployed is out of communications; and

autonomously repairing the wireless communication network comprises replacing the autonomous mobile node that is determined to be out of communications, with another autonomous mobile node coupled to the wireless communication network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying in the air one or more autonomous mobile nodes comprises launching the one or more autonomous mobile nodes towards the first node on the ground.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises information on roles of the one or more autonomous mobile nodes in the wireless communication network, signal strength, or quality of signals received from the one or more autonomous mobile nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

autonomously establishing the plurality of wireless communication links comprises navigating the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, based on fields determined from the received data from the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, each field being configured to comprise a field strength component and a velocity component and to result in attraction or repulsion of the one or more autonomous mobile nodes.

7. A method for wireless communications comprising:

autonomously flying an autonomous mobile apparatus towards a first node on the ground;

establishing wireless communications with the first node on the ground; and

autonomously navigating the autonomous mobile apparatus to a location towards a second node on the ground, based at least in part on data received from the first node or data received from one or more autonomous mobile nodes deployed in the air to form a wireless communication network.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining whether there is a tentacle associated with the first node, wherein the tentacle comprises one or more wireless communication links established by the one or more autonomous mobile nodes;

when it is determined that there is a tentacle associated with the first node, navigating the autonomous mobile apparatus along the tentacle towards the location based at least in part on the data received from the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, the data being measurement data received from one or more sensors onboard the autonomous mobile apparatus or the one or more autonomous mobile nodes;

or

when it is determined that there is no tentacle associated with the first node, navigating the autonomous mobile apparatus towards the location, based at least in part on the received data from the first node.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the data comprise field information based on received measurement data from one or more sensors onboard the autonomous mobile apparatus or the one or more autonomous mobile nodes; and

the field information comprises fields, each field configured to comprise a field strength component and a velocity component, and to result in attraction or repulsion of the autonomous mobile apparatus.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether a wireless communication link with a second node on the ground has been established; and

upon determining that the wireless communication link with the second node has been established, establishing the tentacle comprising the wireless communication network between the first node and the second node on the ground via the autonomous mobile apparatus and the one or more autonomous mobile nodes deployed in the air.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether the wireless communication network has been damaged.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the wireless communication network has been damaged comprises:

sending a probe signal to a first adjacent autonomous mobile node in the tentacle; and

in response to the probe signal, receiving a response signal from the first adjacent autonomous mobile node within a period of time set by a timer;

or

in response to the probe signal and upon expiration of the timer, determining that the first adjacent autonomous mobile node is out of communications.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

after determining that the wireless communication network has been damaged, communicating with a second adjacent autonomous mobile node in the tentacle to replace the first adjacent autonomous mobile node with another autonomous mobile node; and

re-establishing the wireless communication network between the first node and the second node via at least the another autonomous mobile node.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the data further comprise information on at least one of:

a role of the autonomous mobile apparatus, roles of the one or more autonomous mobile nodes, signal strength, or quality of signals received from the one or more autonomous mobile nodes.

15. An autonomous mobile apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

navigate the autonomous mobile apparatus toward a first node;

receive measurement data from one or more sensors onboard the autonomous mobile apparatus;

convert the measurement data into field information, the field information comprising fields each being configured to result in an attractive force or a repulsive force;

based on the field information, navigate the autonomous mobile apparatus.

16. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the autonomous mobile apparatus comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

17. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to establish wireless communications with either the first node or another autonomous mobile apparatus.

18. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of:

a radio geo-location sensor, an image sensor, a chemical sensor, or a biological sensor.

19. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine whether there is a tentacle established with the first node, the tentacle being configured to comprise one or more wireless communication links established by one or more autonomous mobile apparatuses;

when it is determined that there is a tentacle established with the first node, navigate the autonomous mobile apparatus along the tentacle to a location based on the field information;

or

when it is determined that there is no tentacle established with the first node, establish a wireless communication link with the first node, thereby forming the tentacle with the first node.

20. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine whether a second node on the ground is within a wireless communications range of the autonomous mobile apparatus; and

upon determining that the second node on the ground is within the wireless communications range of the autonomous mobile apparatus, establish a wireless communications link with the second node on the ground, thereby establishing the tentacle comprising a wireless communication network between the first node and the second node on the ground.

21. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

process the measurement data from the one or more sensors, the one or more sensors being configured to include at least one image sensor;

detect presence of a second node on the ground based on the measurement data; and

transform the measurement data into the field information.

22. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to, upon detecting the presence of the second node on the ground, dynamically track movement of the second node on the ground.

23. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

represent the second node on the ground as a virtual node in determining the attractive and/or repulsive force; and

navigate the autonomous mobile apparatus based on the field information.

24. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

capture a video of the movement of the second node on the ground; and

transmit the captured video to the first node via the tentacle.

25. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

process the measurement data from the one or more sensors, the one or more sensors being configured to include at least one radio frequency (RF) geo-location sensor and the measurement data comprising detection probability of a RF signal emitted by a second node on the ground;

based on the measurement data, determine whether the second node is present on the ground; and

upon determining that the second node is present on the ground, communicate to attract one or more autonomous mobile apparatuses to a location close to the second node on the ground.

26. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit to the first node, via the tentacle, a determined location of the second node on the ground.

27. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

process the measurement data from the one or more sensors, the one or more sensors being configured to include at least one biological or chemical sensor and the measurement data comprising a detected level of a target contaminant material;

determine whether the detected level of the target contaminant material is greater than or equal to a predetermined value;

upon determining that the detected level of the target contaminant material is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, communicate to the first node via the tentacle information on the detected level of the target contaminant material.

28. The autonomous mobile apparatus of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine location of the detected target contaminant material, based on information received from the one or more autonomous mobile apparatuses which detected the target contaminant material.