DRONE-AUGMENTED EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICES

• US 20170092109A1
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alarm.com Inc. (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Alarm.com Inc. (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Trundle, Stephen Scott, Slavin, Alison Jane
• Granted Patent: US 10,467,885 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/10 Air crafts
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/20 Vehicles specially adapted for children, e.g. toy vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/36 by positioning the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 47/04 the lighting devices being primarily intended to illuminate the way ahead
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/14 with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/31 for surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• 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: G08B 13/1965 the vehicle being an aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 15/00 Identifying, scaring or incapacitating burglars, thieves or intruders, e.g. by explosives
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0423 detecting deviation from an expected pattern of behaviour or schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 : Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 : Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on storage devices, for drone-augmented emergency response services. In one aspect, a monitoring system, comprising: a plurality of monitoring control units, and a monitoring application server, wherein the monitoring application server includes a network interface, one or more processors, and one or more storage devices that include instructions to perform operations. The operations include receiving an emergency event notification from a first monitoring control unit of the plurality of monitoring control units, determining a type of emergency event, and a location associated with the emergency event notification, identifying one or more drones that can be deployed to the location associated with the emergency event, and transmitting an instruction to a monitoring station server associated with a drone base station to deploy the one or more identified drones to the location associated with the emergency event.

Claims

1. A monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of monitoring control units, wherein each respective monitoring control unit is (i) associated with a particular property, and (ii) configured to detect an emergency event based on data received from one or more of a plurality of sensors located throughout the particular property;

a monitoring application server, wherein the monitoring application server includes;

a network interface;

one or more processors; and

one or more storage devices that include instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving an emergency event notification from a first monitoring control unit of the plurality of monitoring control units;

determining, based on the received emergency event notification, (i) a type of emergency event, and (ii) a location associated with the emergency event notification;

identifying, based on (i) the type of emergency event, and (ii) the location associated with the emergency event, at least one drone that can be deployed to the location associated with the emergency event; and

transmitting an instruction to a monitoring station server associated with a drone base station housing (i) the at least one drone that can be deployed to the location of the emergency event, and (ii) at least one charging station for charging the at least one drone, wherein the instruction instructs the monitoring station server to deploy the identified at least one drone to the location associated with the emergency event.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of drones includes a quad-copter drone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of drones includes a helicopter drone, a rolling helicopter drone, or a land-based vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining one or more drone capabilities that are related to the type of emergency event.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein identifying, based on (i) the type of emergency event, and (ii) the location associated with the emergency event, one or more drones that can be deployed to the location associated with the emergency event includes:

identifying one or more drones that are equipped with capabilities to respond to the emergency event.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the identified drones is a drone that is currently deployed.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the identified drones is a drone that is currently housed by the drone base station.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying, based on (i) the type of emergency event, and (ii) the location associated with the emergency event, at least one drone that can be deployed to the location associated with the emergency event includes:

identifying, based on the location associated with the emergency event, one or more drones that are within a threshold distance of the location associated with the emergency event.

9. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

identifying one or more drones that can be deployed based on the state of the monitoring system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the state of the monitoring system is based on (i) the number of emergency event notifications received from the particular property and (ii) the number of emergency event notifications received from properties within a threshold distance from the particular property.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the emergency event notification is based on alarm signal data from one or more sensors indicating an alarm event has been detected in a property where the first monitor control unit is located.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein one or more sensors include one or more of power sensors, smoke sensors, temperature sensors, or water sensors.

13. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving a request to deploy an additional drone from one or more deployed drones; and

in response to receiving a request to deploy an additional drone from the one or more deployed drones, instructing the monitoring station server to deploy one or more additional drones currently based at the drone base station.

14. The system of claim 1,

receiving a request to deploy an additional drone from one or more deployed drones;

and

in response to receiving a request to deploy an additional drone from the one or more deployed drones, instructing one or more currently deployed drones to re-deploy to the location associated with the emergency event.

15. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving a second emergency event notification from a second monitoring control unit of the plurality of monitoring control units;

receiving a third emergency event notification from a third monitoring control unit of the plurality of monitoring control units;

determining, based on the received second emergency event notification, (i) a second type of emergency event, and (ii) a location associated with the second emergency event notification;

determining based on the received third emergency event notification, (i) a third type of emergency event, and (ii) a location associated with the third emergency event notification,

wherein the location associated with the second emergency event is different than the location associated with the third emergency event.

16. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

identifying, based on (i) the second type of emergency event, and (ii) the location associated with the second emergency event, a second set of one or more drones that can be deployed to the location associated with the second emergency event; and

transmitting an instruction to the monitoring station server to deploy the second set of one or more identified drones to the location associated with the emergency event.

17. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

identifying, based on (i) the third type of emergency event, and (ii) the location associated with the third emergency event, a third set of one or more drones that can be deployed to the location associated with the third emergency event; and

transmitting an instruction to the monitoring station server to deploy the third set of one or more identified drones to the location associated with the emergency event.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one drone includes a plurality of drones.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one charging station for charging the at least one drone is deployable.