SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA BACKUP USING UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV)

• US 20170270314A1
• Filed: 03/21/2017
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MidCap Financial Trust
• Original Assignee: Acronis International GmbH (Acronis AG)
• Inventors: Tsybrovskyy, Yuriy, Protasov, Stanislav S., Beloussov, Serguei M., Shmulevich, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 10,607,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 1/22 Taking-up articles from earth's surface
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/20 for use as communications relays, e.g. high-altitude platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/60 for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/95 Means for guiding the landing UAV towards the platform, e.g. lighting means
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/80 by vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1415 at system level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24561 Intermediate data storage techniques for performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• 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: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 : using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for performing data backup using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). An example method includes in response to detecting a data backup request from a user device, determining a geographic location of the user device and dispatching the UAV to the geographic location; controlling the UAV to obtain user data from the user device; and controlling the UAV to navigate to a data center to back up the obtained user data onto a cloud storage.

Claims

1. A method for performing data backup of a user device to a data center, the method comprising:

in response to detecting a data backup request from a user device, determining a geographic location of the user device and dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the geographic location;

controlling the UAV to obtain user data from the user device; and

controlling the UAV to navigate to the data center to back up the obtained user data onto a cloud storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the UAV to obtain user data includes one of:

storing the user data on a portable data storage media;

uploading the user data onto internal data storage of the UAV using a wireless network connection between the user device and the UAV.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the UAV to obtain user data includes:

compressing and encrypting the user data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the UAV to obtain the user data comprise:

determining flying trajectory and path for the UAV in connection with the geographic location;

controlling a landing of the UAV by hovering the UAV at a selected altitude above the geographic location; and

controlling a winch of the UAV for access to the user device located below the UAV.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the UAV to obtain the user data comprise:

using at least one vehicle for transporting the UAV towards the geographic location; and

launching the UAV from the at least one vehicle responsive to the at least one vehicle reaching a defined range of the geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an alert on a selected user device for indicating the UAV approaching the geographic location.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a guidance target with a barcode to guide the UAV to the geographic location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the geographic location of the user device and dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the geographic location further comprising:

determining a network connectivity metric between the user device and the data center;

dispatching the UAV responsive to determining the network connectivity metric between the user device and the data center does not meet a threshold connectivity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

directing the UAV to destroy the obtained user data responsive to detecting at least one of unauthorized access to the UAV or electromechanical failure of the UAV.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the UAV comprises a sequence of UAVs, and wherein controlling the UAV to navigate to the data center to back up the obtained user data onto the cloud storage comprises:

controlling one UAV in the sequence of UAVs to transfer the obtained user data to a next UAV in the sequence of UAVs in a sequential manner, until a last UAV in the sequence of UAVs transfers the obtained user data to the data center

11. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:

a memory; and

a hardware processor coupled to the memory and being configured to;

responsive to receiving a geographic location of a user device requesting data backup, move the UAV to the geographic location;

obtain and store user data from the user device in the UAV; and

move the UAV to a data center to back up the obtained user data onto a cloud storage.

12. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the processor configured to obtain and store user data from the user device in the UAV is further configured to:

store the user data on a portable data storage media physically retained by the UAV.

13. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the processor configured to obtain and store user data from the user device in the UAV is further configured to:

upload the user data onto the memory of the UAV using a wireless network connection between the user device and the UAV.

14. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the processor configured to move the UAV to the data center to back up the obtained user data onto a cloud storage is further configured to:

transfer the obtained user data to an intermediary UAV, wherein the intermediary UAV is configured to navigate to the data center to back up the user data.

15. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, further comprising:

a winch device configured to enable ground access to the UAV from an elevated position;

wherein the processor is configured to hover the UAV at a selected altitude above the received geographical location and operate the winch device for ground access to the user device below the UAV.

16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the UAV is configured to launch from a base vehicle responsive to reaching a defined range of the geographic location, wherein the base vehicle is configured for transporting the UAV towards the geographic location.

17. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, further comprising:

a camera configured to capture imagery of a guidance target with a barcode;

wherein the processor is further configured to guide the UAV to a landing based on the barcode.

18. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

destroy the obtained user data responsive to detecting at least one of unauthorized access to the UAV or electromechanical failure of the UAV

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing data backup of a user device to a data center, including instructions for:

in response to detecting a data backup request from a user device, determining a geographic location of the user device and dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the geographic location;

control the UAV to obtain user data from the user device; and

control the UAV to navigate to the data center to back up the obtained user data onto a cloud storage.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein instructions for wherein controlling the UAV to obtain user data includes one of instructions for:

storing the user data on a portable data storage media; and

uploading the user data onto internal data storage of the UAV using a wireless network connection between the user device and the UAV.