CLOUD-BASED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

• US 20160246297A1
• Filed: 02/18/2016
• Published: 08/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Corp. (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corp. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Song, Zhen
• Application Number:
  US15/046,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20160246297A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 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: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A cloud-based system for controlling the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is used as the communication path between a pilot and his/her UAV, eliminating the direct communication between pilot and vehicle. The cloud-based

UAV control system is configured to include both “control apps” associated with the actual flight of a UAV and “mission-specific apps” that include a set of instructions for a specific mission (i.e., performing energy audit of an industrial complex). The control apps preferably include flight regulations (as provided by the FAA, for example) that are used define “no-fly zones”. Other legitimate government (or non-government) agencies may provide “electric fence” control apps to the cloud-based system, thus preventing UAVs from entering protected areas. The UAVs interacting with the control system are intelligent, able to receive specific mission-based applications from the control system, allowing the UAVs to collect a wide variety of useful information.

Claims

1. A system for controlling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) comprising

a UAV for collecting data during a flight, the UAV including a sensor pack for performing data collection and a processor supporting an operating system for controlling the performance of the UAV by executing instructions embodied in one or more mission-specific;

and

a cloud-based control system for interfacing between a piloting device and the UAV, the cloud-based control system receiving commands from the piloting device and transmitting commands and applications to the UAV processor, the cloud-based control system preventing direct communication between the piloting device and the UAV.

2. The system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cloud-based control system comprises

a processor component including a data processing element for evaluating data received from UAVs and a memory element;

control applications modules associated with flight-control for UAVs, stored within the memory element; and

mission-specific applications modules for UAVs, stored within the memory element.

3. The system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cloud-based control system comprises a plurality of protocol interfaces for communicating with UAVs, piloting devices and third parties.

4. The system as defined in claim 3 wherein piloting devices and UAVs communicate with the cloud-based UAV control system through a UAV control protocol.

5. The system as defined in claim 3 wherein government agencies communicate with the cloud-based UAV control system through a UAV regulation protocol.

6. The system as defined in claim 5 wherein government agencies upload control applications to the cloud-based control system that define no-fly zones for UAVs.

7. The system as defined in claim 3 wherein one or more third parties communicate with the cloud-based UAV control system through a UAV data protocol.

8. The system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cloud-based control system further comprises a private data partition for storing data accessible only by authenticated personnel.

9. The system as defined in claim 8 wherein the private data partition includes a database of sensor readings and a private data analytics engine for use by authenticated personnel in analyzing the sensor readings.

10. A intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising

a sensor pack for performing data collection during a flight;

a processor;

a memory containing

an operating system for controlling the performance of the UAV;

a plurality of control applications and mission-specific applications comprising instructions for data collection by the sensor pack; and

program instructions executable by the processor to initiate and control the flight of the intelligent UAV based on the plurality of control applications and mission-specific applications; and

a bidirectional wireless link for communicating with a cloud-based UAV control system, the bidirectional link for downloading selected control applications and mission-specific applications to the UAV memory, and uploading data collected by the UAV to the cloud-based UAV control system.

11. The intelligent UAV as defined in claim 10 wherein the operating system comprises

a runtime kernel for executing mission-specific applications downloaded to a UAV at runtime to program the UAV for a specific flight purpose;

and

an application manager for controlling the utilization of one or more pre-installed control applications and mission-specific applications resident in the UAV; and

12. The intelligent UAV as defined in claim 10, wherein the sensor pack includes one or more sensors selected from the group consisting of:

an IR camera, a stereo camera, video recorder and a chemical/gas sensor.

13. The intelligent UAV as defined in claim 10 wherein the operating system further comprises a failsafe mechanism for landing the UAV upon failure of the bidirectional wireless communication link.

14. A method of controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to perform a specific mission at a cloud-based UAV control system, the method including the steps of:

receiving, at the cloud-based UAV control system, a mission command from a piloting device associated with an identified UAV;

processing the mission command at the cloud-based UAV control system to determine applications stored at the control system and required by the identified UAV to perform the mission;

downloading the determined applications from the cloud-based UAV control system to the identified UAV;

transmitting an initiate flight command from the cloud-based UAV control system to the identified UAV; and

receiving, at the cloud-based control system, data collected by the identified UAV during the flight while performing the mission.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the processing step includes determining both control applications and mission-specific applications required by the identified UAV to perform the mission.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of

at the cloud-based control system, authenticating the piloting device to perform UAV-based missions prior to processing the mission command.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of

at the cloud-based control system, authenticating the identified UAV prior to processing the mission command.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

at the cloud-based control system, processing a plurality of control applications to determine if the mission command violates any restricted air spaces.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

at the cloud-based control system, analyzing the data collected by the identified UAV using data processing analytics resident at the cloud-based UAV control system to generate a set of results information.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of:

transmitting the generated results information from the cloud-based UAV control system to the piloting device.