UNMANNED VEHICLE MESSAGE EXCHANGE

• US 20160285863A1
• Filed: 03/27/2015
• Published: 09/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Canavor, Darren Ernest, Gopalakrishnan, Varadarajan, Johansson, Jesper Mikael, McClintock, Jon Arron, Porter, Brandon William, Roths, Andrew Jay
• Granted Patent: US 9,912,655 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/02 characterised by special use
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• 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 1/0027 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: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/00 Traffic control systems for aircraft , e.g. air-traffic control [ATC]
• 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: H04B 7/185 Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systemsH04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/106 Packet or message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Two unmanned vehicles come within communication range of one another. The unmanned vehicles exchange logs of messages each has received. Each of the unmanned vehicles analyzes the messages that it received from the other unmanned vehicle to determine whether any of the received messages warrants changing a set of tasks it was planning to perform. When a message indicates that a task should be changed, the task is updated accordingly.

Claims

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:

a propulsion subsystem configured to propel the unmanned aerial vehicle between locations;

a transceiver configured to receive and transmit messages; and

an on-board computer system including;

one or more processors; and

memory that stores;

a first set of messages received from other unmanned aerial vehicles via the transceiver;

a set of tasks to be completed by the unmanned aerial vehicle; and

instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the on-board computer system to;

detect an ability to communicate with another unmanned aerial vehicle;

provide the first set of messages to the other unmanned aerial vehicle;

receive, from the other unmanned aerial vehicle, a second set of messages;

determine, based at least in part on the received second set of messages, whether to update the set of tasks; and

update the set of tasks as a result of information contained in the second set of messages being applicable to one or more tasks of the set of tasks.

2. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the on-board computer system to verify a digital signature of the second set of messages as a prerequisite to determining whether to update the set of tasks.

3. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the on-board computer system to:

merge the second set of messages into the first set of messages, thereby generating a merged set of messages;

store a result of merging the second set of messages into the first set of messages; and

transmit the merged set of messages to a second unmanned aerial vehicle.

4. The unmanned aerial vehicle 1, wherein fulfilment of at least one task of the set of tasks includes travel to a destination and performing an operation at the destination.

5. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of an on-board computer system of an unmanned vehicle, storing, at the unmanned vehicle, a set of tasks to perform;

receiving, at the unmanned vehicle and from another unmanned vehicle, a plurality of messages;

selecting a task from the set of tasks to perform;

updating the selected task based at least in part on information in at least one of the plurality of messages; and

completing the updated selected task.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising providing a second plurality of messages to the other unmanned vehicle.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a message based at least in part on data from a set of sensors of the unmanned vehicle; and

adding the generated message to the plurality of messages.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of the plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to the other unmanned vehicle.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of an individual message of the plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to a second unmanned vehicle different from the unmanned vehicle and the other unmanned vehicle.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

merging the plurality of messages with a second plurality of messages locally stored on the unmanned vehicle, thereby generating a merged plurality of messages; and

transmitting the merged plurality of messages to a second unmanned vehicle different from the unmanned vehicle and from the other unmanned vehicle.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the selected task was determined based at least in part on a message received from a second unmanned vehicle that is different from the unmanned vehicle and from the other unmanned vehicle.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein:

the selected task has an associated route for fulfilling the task; and

updating the selected task comprises updating the associated route.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system of an unmanned vehicle, cause the computer system to at least:

store a set of messages received through a transceiver;

detect an ability to communicate with another unmanned vehicle using the transceiver;

exchange messages with the other unmanned vehicle including receiving a plurality of messages from the other unmanned vehicle; and

modify an operational plan for the unmanned vehicle based at least in part on a message in the plurality of messages.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to exchange messages, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to use the transceiver to transmit the set of messages to the other unmanned vehicle.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein at least one message of the set of messages was received from a second unmanned vehicle different from the unmanned vehicle and different from the other unmanned vehicle.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to cryptographically verify authenticity of at least one of the plurality of messages that is applicable to the operational plan.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the unmanned vehicle is an unmanned aerial vehicle.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operational plan comprises a set of tasks to be fulfilled by the unmanned vehicle.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions that cause the unmanned vehicle to modify the operational plan, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to cancel at least one task in the set of tasks.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein:

a message of the plurality of messages has a corresponding digital certificate specific to an unmanned vehicle that generated the message; and

the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to use the digital certificate to verify authenticity of the message.