Unmanned aerial vehicle beacon pod

• US 9,881,506 B1
• Filed: 03/12/2015
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gentry, Nicholas Kristofer
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan Q
• Application Number:
  US14/656,537
• Time in Patent Office: 1,055 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3, 701 2, 701 16, 244114 R
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• 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 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Beacon pods that provide location information to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The beacon pods may emit location information, which may replicate global positioning system (GPS) satellite information, provide a homing signal, provide access to a mobile telephone network as a signal repeater or booster, and/or provide other information and/or connectivity to a UAV, which may aid navigation and/or other operations of UAVs. The beacon pods may be configured for use in a residential location, which may enable a beacon pod to connect to residential power and computing networks. The beacon pods may establish secure data communication with UAVs and may log events related to UAVs, which may be used for various purposes.

Claims

1. A beacon pod to provide navigational information to a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the beacon pod comprising:

a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to determine, at a first time, a latitude and longitude of a location that is associated with the beacon pod;

memory to store at least;

the determined latitude and longitude to be transmitted to the UAV at a second time,

a unique identifier of the beacon pod, the unique identifier further indicating a classification of the location that is associated with the beacon pod, and

an authentication protocol to enable authentication of the UAV;

a transceiver to receive authentication information from the UAV;

a processor to execute the authentication protocol to authenticate the UAV based at least in part on the authentication information; and

a location information transmitter to emit location signals to the UAV, the location signals including at least the unique identifier, a current time, and the determined latitude and longitude of the location associated with the beacon pod.

2. The beacon pod as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a network communication device to establish communications with a command station, the command station to control at least some operations of the UAV,

wherein the transceiver further establishes communications between the UAV and the command station via the network communication device based at least in part on the authenticating the UAV, the communications including instructions provided by the command station to the UAV.

3. The beacon pod as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

homing antennas to transmit homing signals to the UAV, the homing signals including a dipole flux pattern that enables the UAV to determine an approximate location and distance between the UAV and the beacon pod.

4. The beacon pod as recited in claim 1, wherein the classification of the location includes a designation as at least one of a physical residence, an obstacle to avoid, a delivery destination, or a boundary associated with usable airspace for the UAV.

5. The beacon pod as recited in claim 1, wherein the GPS transmitter and the GPS receiver are part of a GPS transceiver assembly.

6. An apparatus comprising:

memory to store at least (i) a latitude and longitude associated with a location of the apparatus, (ii) a unique identifier associated with the apparatus, and (iii) a location classification that describes the location; and

a transceiver to emit location signals to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and receive a parity signal to confirm receipt of the location signals, the location signals including at least the unique identifier, the location classification, a current time, and the latitude and longitude associated with the location of the apparatus.

7. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein the memory further stores an event log, and wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive a UAV identifier from the UAV, the event log to store the UAV identifier and a time associated with receipt of the UAV identifier.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, further comprising one or more antennas to transmit homing signals to the UAV, the homing signals including a pattern that enables the UAV to determine a location and distance between the UAV and the apparatus.

9. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein the memory further comprises an authentication protocol to enable authentication of the UAV, and wherein the transceiver receives authentication information from the UAV, the apparatus further comprising:

a processor to (i) execute the authentication protocol via the transceiver to authenticate the UAV based at least in part on the authentication information and (ii) encrypt at least a portion of the location signals.

10. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

a network communication device to establish communications with a command station, the command station configured to control at least some operations of the UAV, and wherein the transceiver establishes communications between the UAV and the command station via the network communication device, the communications including instructions provided by the command station to the UAV.

11. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the transceiver is a Wi-Fi transceiver or a WiMAX transceiver.

12. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, further comprising a renewable energy source to provide power to at least the transceiver, the renewable energy source including at least one of solar cells or a turbine.

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, further comprising an accelerometer to determine movement of the apparatus.

14. A system, comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); and

a plurality of beacon pods to transmit at least location information to the UAV, a beacon pod of the plurality of the beacon pods including;

memory to store at least a (i) latitude and longitude for a location associated with the beacon pod to be transmitted to the UAV and (ii) a unique identifier of the beacon pod, the unique identifier further indicating a classification of the location that is associated with the beacon pod, and

a global positioning system (GPS) transmitter to emit location signals to the UAV, the location signals including at least the unique identifier, a current time, and the latitude and longitude of the location associated with the at least one beacon pod,

wherein the UAV is configured to navigate, at least partly, by triangulating its position using the location signals received from the at least one beacon pod of the plurality of beacon pods.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the memory further comprises an authentication protocol to enable authentication of the UAV by the beacon pod;

the system further comprising;

a transceiver to receive authentication information from the UAV; and

a processor to execute the authentication protocol to authenticate the UAV based at least in part on the authentication information,

wherein the GPS transmitter transmits the GPS signals after authenticating the UAV.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, further comprising a command station to provide instructions to the UAV, wherein the beacon pod further includes:

a network communication device to enable the beacon pod to exchange data with the command station; and

a transceiver to enable the beacon pod to exchange data with the UAV,

wherein the beacon pod is configured to facilitate data exchange between the command station and the UAV using the network communication device and the transceiver.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the command station determines a reward to be issued to a user associated with the location of the beacon pod, the reward provided to the user in response to operation of the beacon pod.

18. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the beacon pod further includes one or more homing antennas configured to transmit homing signals to the UAV, the homing signals including a pattern that enables the UAV to determine a location and distance between the UAV and the beacon pod.

19. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of beacon pods include a transceiver configured to receive a UAV identifier from the UAV, and wherein the memory further stores an event log to store at least the UAV identifier and a time associated with receipt of the UAV identifier, the transceiver further configured to transmit the event log to a command station.

20. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the UAV provides signals, directly or indirectly, to the beacon pod to calibrate a signal strength associated with the beacon pod.