SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING AN UNMANNED VEHICLE AND RELEASING A PAYLOAD FROM THE SAME

• US 20190031346A1
• Filed: 01/27/2017
• Published: 01/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Garuda Robotics Pte. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Garuda Robotics Pte. Ltd.
• Inventors: YONG, Chuen-Tze Mark, ONG, Jiin Joo, HON, Jia Jun Nicholas Emmanuel, CHEN, Jax Jiaxin, NG, Yoon Chun Nicholas, TAN, Jun Bei Rex, JAYA, Iryanto
• Application Number:
  US16/073,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20190031346A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/00 Methods of fertilising , sowing or planting
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/005 Following a specific plan, e.g. pattern
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 23/047 Spraying of liquid fertilisers
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/09 Watering arrangements making use of movable installations on wheels or the like
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 7/0042 Field sprayers, e.g. self-propelled, drawn or tractor-mounted
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 15/60 Arrangements for mounting, supporting or holding spraying apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 1/08 the articles being load-carrying devices
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 1/16 Dropping or releasing powdered, liquid, or gaseous matter, e.g. for fire-fighting jettisoning fuel B64D37/26
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 1/18 by spraying, e.g. insecticides spraying apparatus per se B05B
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/32 for handling freight
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/362 Installations for supplying conditioned air to parked aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/40 for agriculture or forestry operations
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/60 for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/104 using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/37 : Charging when not in flight
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/86 : Land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/005 : with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching G01C21/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0016 : characterised by the operator's input device input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00
• 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: G05D 1/0094 : involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0202 : specially adapted to aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 : Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• 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 5/0043 : Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• 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: G08G 5/0082 : for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 : for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 : for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• 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

Abstract

Aspects of the invention include a system for managing an agriculture plantation comprising a plantation information management server operable to send at least one electronic request to manage the agricultural plantation, the at least one electronic request comprises at least one target within the agricultural plantation; a central processor arranged in data communication with the plantation information management server to receive the electronic request to form a first dataset; the first dataset comprises data related to a size, a location and the at least one target within the agricultural plantation; an unmanned vehicle command and control server arranged in data communication with a plurality of base stations to deploy the plurality of base stations at predetermined locations within the agricultural plantation; each of the plurality of base stations arranged in data communication with at least one unmanned vehicle; the unmanned vehicle command and control server further arranged in data communication with the central processor to receive a second dataset related to at least one operation of the at least one unmanned vehicle; and a block segregator arranged to receive the first dataset as input to generate an output, the output comprises data related to the division of the agricultural plantation into a plurality of smaller areas.

Claims

1. A system for managing an agriculture plantation comprising

a plantation information management server operable to send at least one electronic request to manage the agricultural plantation, the at least one electronic request comprises at least one target within the agricultural plantation;

a central processor arranged in data communication with the plantation information management server to receive the electronic request to form a first dataset;

the first dataset comprises data related to a size, a location and the at least one target within the agricultural plantation;

an unmanned vehicle command and control server arranged in data communication with a plurality of base stations to deploy the plurality of base stations at predetermined locations within the agricultural plantation;

each of the plurality of base stations arranged in data communication with at least one unmanned vehicle;

the unmanned vehicle command and control server further arranged in data communication with the central processor to receive a second dataset related to at least one operation of the at least one unmanned vehicle; and

a block segregator arranged to receive the first dataset as input to generate an output, the output comprises data related to the division of the agricultural plantation into a plurality of smaller areas.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first dataset further comprises at least one of the following information related to the agricultural plantation:

terrain, transportation route, planned locations of the plurality of base stations.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the block segregator is configured to optimize the number of smaller areas.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one of the unmanned vehicle is an unmanned aerial vehicle.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of base stations is a mobile base station and at least one of the plurality of base stations is a static base station.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the static base station is deployed within one of the plurality of smaller areas and arranged in data communication with the mobile base station.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the central processor is arranged in data communication with a schedule database, the schedule database operable to store at least one schedule related to the at least one operation of the at least one unmanned vehicle.

8. The system according to claim 4, further comprises an airspace management and air traffic control module arranged in data communication with the plurality of base stations and the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the airspace management and air traffic control module is operable to segregate the region which the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle operates within into a plurality of airspaces.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the plurality of airspaces comprises a first airspace measured from ground level to a reference point plus a first predetermined distance above the reference point.

11. The system according to claim 10, further comprises a second airspace extending by a second predetermined distance above the first airspace.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprises a third airspace extending by a third predetermined distance above the second airspace.

13. The system according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the at least one operation of the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle comprises dropping a payload over an area or an object within the smaller area.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of base stations are operable to receive information relating to the plurality of airspaces to control the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle within the first airspace to drop the payload.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the base station is operable to control the UAV to operate within the second airspace after dropping the payload to return to the base station.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the block segregator is arranged in data communication with at least one of the plurality of unmanned vehicle to receive at least one image relating to the geographical surrounding the unmanned vehicle operates within.

17. The system according to claim 6, wherein there comprises a plurality of mobile base stations, each mobile base station operable to data communicate with other mobile base stations.

18. The system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the data communication between the unmanned vehicle command and control server and the plurality of base stations is facilitated via a network operator.

19. The system according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprises a mobile device arranged in data communication with the unmanned vehicle to control the at least one unmanned vehicle near the vicinity of the at least one target.

20. The system according to claim 1, further comprises a target image database to store a plurality of images determined to be visually similar to the at least one target.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the target image database is operable to store a plurality of images determined not to be targets.

22. The system according to claims 20 and 21, wherein the plurality of images determined to be targets and determined not to be targets is fed as an input dataset into a machine-learning algorithm to build an internal model of the target.

23. An unmanned aerial vehicle for use with the system of claim 1, comprising

a propulsion device operable to move the unmanned vehicle,

a communication module operable to facilitate data communication between the unmanned aerial vehicle with at least one of the base stations,

an image capturing device operable to capture image;

a payload storage tank; and

a payload dispensing mechanism.

24. The unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 23, wherein the payload dispensing mechanism is shaped and adapted to dispense at a point target or an area target.

25. The unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 24, wherein the payload dispensing mechanism comprises a plurality of nozzles taking reference to a centre nozzle.

26. The unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 25, wherein the plurality of nozzles are pointed towards the centre nozzle for releasing a fluid payload at the point target.

27. The unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 25, wherein the plurality of nozzles are pointed outwards from the centre nozzle for releasing a fluid payload at the area target.

28. A static base station according to claims 5 or 6 and 7, further comprises a recharging pod, a refill pod, a payload supply, a communication device for data communication with at least one mobile base station and the unmanned vehicle command and control server, and a processor server in data communication with the schedule database.

29. A mobile base station according to claims 5 or 6 and 7, further comprises a recharging pod, a refill pod, a payload supply, a communication device for data communication with at least one unmanned aerial vehicle, and a processor server in data communication with the schedule database.

30. A method for managing an agriculture plantation comprising the steps of:

receiving from a plantation information management server, at least one electronic request to manage the agricultural plantation, the at least one electronic request comprises at least one target within the agricultural plantation;

forming a first dataset;

the first dataset comprises data related to a size, a location, and the at least one target within the agricultural plantation;

generating, based on the first dataset as input, an output, the output comprises data related to the division of the agricultural plantation into a plurality of smaller areas;

sending a second dataset to an unmanned vehicle command and control server, the second dataset related to at least one operation of at least one unmanned vehicle; and

deploying, via the unmanned vehicle command and control server, a plurality of base stations at predetermined locations within the agricultural plantation;

each of the plurality of base stations arranged in data communication with at least one unmanned vehicle.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the first dataset further comprises at least one of the following information related to the agricultural plantation:

terrain, transportation route, planned locations of the plurality of base stations, actual location of at least one of the plurality of base station.

32. The method according to claim 30, further comprising the step of optimizing the number of smaller areas.

33. The method according to claim 30, further comprises the step of generating a schedule based on the at least one target within the agricultural plantation, and storing the generated schedule by a schedule database.

34. The method according to claim 33, further comprises an airspace management and air traffic control module arranged in data communication with the plurality of base stations and the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle.

35. The method according to claim 34, further comprising the step of segregating, by the airspace management and air traffic control module, the region which the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle into a plurality of airspaces.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein the plurality of airspaces comprises a first airspace measured from ground level to a reference point plus a first predetermined distance above the reference point.

37. The method according to claim 36, further comprises a second airspace extending by a second predetermined distance above the first airspace.

38. The method according to claim 37, further comprises a third airspace extending by a third predetermined distance above the second airspace.

39. The method according to claim 30, further comprising the step of loading a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles and generating an optimal flight path after the step of deploying the plurality of base stations.

40. The method according to claims 31 and 36, further comprising the step of moving the unmanned aerial vehicle within the first airspace to the at least one target.

41. The method according to claim 40, further comprising the step of locating, by an image capturing device mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle, the at least one target.

42. The method according to claim 41, further comprising the step of releasing a payload on the at least one target.

43. The method according to claim 42, further comprising the step of collecting a status associated with the release of payload.

44. The method according to claims 37 and 43, further comprising the step of moving the unmanned aerial vehicle into the second airspace, and moving away from the target and towards the base station after the step of releasing the payload.

45. The method according to claim 44, further comprising the step of maintaining the unmanned aerial vehicle.

46. The method according to claim 43, further comprising the step of generating and synchronizing collected data to be sent to the base station.

47. The method according to claim 39, wherein the step of generating the optimal flight path comprises utilizing at least one of the following as an objective function:

minimize distance between the unmanned aerial vehicle and the target;

minimize power consumption of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and

subjected to the constraints of no-fly zones and obstacles.