SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR HOSTING MISSIONS WITH UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

• US 20170081026A1
• Filed: 09/03/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DroneDeploy, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Infatics, Inc.
• Inventors: Winn, Michael, Millin, Jonathan James
• Application Number:
  US14/844,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20170081026A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• 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: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0008 with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/02 Automatically-operated arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A system for managing a first and second UAV includes a first relay that performs mission management on the first UAV, a second relay that performs mission management on the second UAV, a first conduit, corresponding to a first geographical area, that manages communication between the first UAV and first relay when the first UAV is located in the first geographical area and manages communication between the second UAV and second relay when the second UAV is located in the first geographical area; and a first web server, communicatively coupled to the first and second relay, that enables user interfacing with the first UAV and the second UAV.

Claims

1. A system for managing a first UAV and a second UAV, the system comprising:

a first relay that performs mission management on the first UAV, wherein performing mission management on the first UAV comprises transmitting control data to the first UAV and receiving sensor data from the first UAV;

a second relay that performs mission management on the second UAV, wherein performing mission management on the second UAV comprises transmitting control data to the second UAV and receiving sensor data from the second UAV;

a first conduit, corresponding to a first geographical area, that manages communication between the first UAV and first relay when the first UAV is located in the first geographical area and manages communication between the second UAV and second relay when the second UAV is located in the first geographical area; and

a first web server, communicatively coupled to the first and second relay, that enables user interfacing with the first UAV and the second UAV;

wherein the first UAV is located within the first geographical area.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first web server is located within the first geographical area and enables user interfacing with the second UAV only when the second UAV is within the first geographical area.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a second conduit, corresponding to a second geographical area, that manages communication between the first UAV and first relay when the first UAV is located in the second geographical area and manages communication between the second UAV and second relay when the second UAV is located in the second geographical area; and

a second web server, located within the second geographical area, that enables user interfacing with the second UAV only when the second UAV is within the second geographical area;

wherein the first and second geographical areas are non-overlapping.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first conduit limits a bandwidth of sensor data transmitted by the first UAV in response to a total bandwidth limit and a required control bandwidth;

wherein the required control bandwidth corresponds to bandwidth required for transmission of telemetry data to the first UAV.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a relay manager;

wherein the relay manager creates relays and assigns them to UAVs.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the relay manager can add and remove relays from the system according to demand for UAV missions;

wherein the relay manager controls relay number according to a target demand percentage.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pre-flight planning tap that generates flight parameters for the first UAV when an instance of the pre-flight planning tap is called by the first relay.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the pre-flight planning tap sets a maximum cruising altitude for the first UAV according to a capability set of a camera coupled to the first UAV and a topography map;

wherein the topography map contains topographical information containing to at least a portion of the first geographical area.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an airspace lease tap that receives a planned flight path for the first UAV from the first relay, generates a containing volume from the planned flight path, and requests a lease of externally-controlled airspace from an external airspace management system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the airspace lease tap generates the containing volume by calculating a safety volume from the size of the first UAV and a target speed of the first UAV and sweeping the safety volume along the planned flight path.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the airspace lease tap generates the containing volume by selecting a predefined airspace lease volume from a database of predefined airspace lease volumes.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the airspace lease tap passes user payment information from the first web server to the external airspace management system to provide payment for the lease.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the airspace lease tap calls a pre-flight planning tap to modify the planned flight path in response to an airspace conflict identified by the external airspace management system and transmitted to the airspace lease tap.

14. The system of claim 7, further comprising a pre-flight check tap communicatively coupled to the pre-flight planning tap that produces operational status data for the first UAV when an instance of the pre-flight check tap is called by the first relay;

wherein the pre-flight planning tap generates flight parameters for the first UAV according to the operational status data.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a hole detection tap that detects if sensor data captured by the first UAV meets user requirements when an instance of the pre-flight check tap is called by the first relay;

wherein the hole detection tap modifies a flight path of the first UAV in response to sensor data by the first UAV not meeting user requirements.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the hole detection tap identifies an area in which sensor data captured by the first UAV did not meet user requirements;

wherein the hole detection tap modifies the flight path to cover an area substantially larger than the area in which sensor data did not meet user requirements.

17. The system of claim 3, wherein the second UAV is within the second geographical area;

wherein the first UAV passes communication intended for the second UAV from the first conduit to the first relay, from the first relay to the second relay, from the second relay to the second conduit, and from the second conduit to the second UAV.

18. The system of claim 3, wherein the second UAV is within the second geographical area;

wherein the first UAV passes communication intended for the second UAV from the first conduit to the first relay, from the first relay to the first webserver, from the first webserver to the second webserver, from the second webserver to the second relay, from the second relay to the second conduit, and from the second conduit to the second UAV.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a post-processing tap that stitches digital photographic images captured by the first UAV into an orthorectified geospatially-accurate visual map when an instance of the post-processing tap is called by the first relay.

20. The system of claim 1, further comprising a post-processing tap that stitches digital photographic images captured by the first UAV into a three-dimensional geospatially-accurate point cloud when an instance of the post-processing tap is called by the first relay.