Unmanned vehicle movement path assignment and management

• US 9,898,932 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2015
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, Jay A., Watson, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaawat, Mussa A
• Assistant Examiner(s): KERRIGAN, MICHAEL V
• Application Number:
  US14/703,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20160327959A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0202 specially adapted to aircraft
• 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: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00
• 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

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for monitoring an area utilizing an unmanned vehicle. These mechanisms identify an area to be monitored by an unmanned vehicle and identify an unmanned vehicle assigned to monitoring the identified area. The mechanisms further generate, for the unmanned vehicle, a travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function to randomize generation of the travel path. Moreover, the mechanisms program the unmanned vehicle to traverse the generated travel path and initiate operation of the unmanned vehicle to collect data about the area while traversing the generated travel path. In addition, the mechanisms monitor the area utilizing the unmanned vehicle based on the data collected by the unmanned vehicle while traversing the generated travel path.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying an area to be monitored by an unmanned vehicle;

identifying an unmanned vehicle assigned to monitoring the identified area;

generating, for the unmanned vehicle, a travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path;

programming the unmanned vehicle to traverse the generated travel path;

initiating operation of the unmanned vehicle to collect data about the area while traversing the generated travel path;

monitoring the area utilizing the unmanned vehicle based on the data collected by the unmanned vehicle while traversing the generated travel path;

generating a new travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using the function or a different function that randomizes generating of the travel path; and

in response to generating the new travel path, re-programming the unmanned vehicle to traverse the new travel path, wherein, in response to the re-programming of the unmanned vehicle, the unmanned vehicle moves to a closest position of the new travel path from a current position of the unmanned vehicle and begins traversing the new travel path, and wherein the new travel path is generated in response to an elapse of a randomly or pseudo-randomly determined time period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path comprises randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting the travel path from a set of predefined travel paths.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing, for the unmanned vehicle, a history of travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle; and

pruning the set of predefined travel paths based on the history of travel paths so as to remove travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle from the set of travel paths prior to selecting the travel path from the set of predefined travel paths.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one travel path in the set of predefined travel paths is a manually generated travel path generated by a user utilizing a graphical user interface to manually draw the manually generated travel path over a depiction of the area.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring operation of the unmanned vehicle while the unmanned vehicle traverses the travel path to detect whether the unmanned vehicle experiences a failure;

in response to detecting that the unmanned vehicle has experienced a failure, retrieving the generated travel path and determining a last known position of the unmanned vehicle along the generated travel path; and

controlling recovery operations for recovering the unmanned vehicle based on the generated travel path and the last known position of the unmanned vehicle along the generated travel path.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to detecting that the unmanned vehicle has experienced a failure, performing operations to adjust scheduling of other unmanned vehicles in a fleet of unmanned vehicles to compensate for the failure of the unmanned vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operation to adjust scheduling of other unmanned vehicles comprises inserting a time interval between scheduling of operations of other unmanned vehicles by randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting schedules of other unmanned vehicles to skip.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path comprises dynamically generating the travel path using a randomly or pseudo-randomly selected mathematical or geographic algorithm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mathematical or geographic algorithm generates a travel path based on surveillance capabilities of the unmanned vehicle, natural and man-made geographic features of the area, and boundaries of the area to be monitored.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the new travel path is generated while the unmanned vehicle is traversing a previous travel path and the re-programming of the unmanned vehicle is performed dynamically while the unmanned vehicle is traversing the previous travel path.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the travel path is specified in three-dimensional space, wherein each point along the travel path has three-dimensional coordinates.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying the area to be monitored further comprises dividing the area into a plurality of regions,

identifying an unmanned vehicle assigned to monitor the identified area comprises assigning, to each region, a different unmanned vehicle from a fleet of unmanned vehicles, and

generating a travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle comprises assigning, to each different unmanned vehicle, a randomly or pseudo-randomly generated travel path.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least two regions in the plurality of regions are associated with different randomly or pseudo-randomly generated travel paths.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein assigning, to each different unmanned vehicle, a randomly or pseudo-randomly generated travel path comprises, for each region in the plurality of regions:

associating with the region a set of predefined travel paths; and

randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting a travel path, for assignment to a corresponding unmanned vehicle, from the set of predefined travel paths associated with the region, wherein a first region in the plurality of regions has a different associated set of predefined travel paths than a second region in the plurality of regions.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the area utilizing the unmanned vehicle based on the data collected by the unmanned vehicle while traversing the generated travel path comprises:

receiving digital images captured by the unmanned vehicle; and

analyzing the digital images for indications of unauthorized trespass into the area.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path comprises:

setting a seed value for the function based on a timestamp value associated with an event previously encountered by the unmanned vehicle during a previous operation of the unmanned vehicle; and

generating the travel path based on an evaluation of the function using the seed value.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

identify an area to be monitored by an unmanned vehicle;

identify an unmanned vehicle assigned to monitoring the identified area;

generate, for the unmanned vehicle, a travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path;

program the unmanned vehicle to traverse the generated travel path;

initiate operation of the unmanned vehicle to collect data about the area while traversing the generated travel path;

monitor the area utilizing the unmanned vehicle based on the data collected by the unmanned vehicle while traversing the generated travel path;

generate a new travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using the function or a different function that randomizes generating of the travel path; and

in response to generating the new travel path, re-reprogram the unmanned vehicle to traverse the new travel path, wherein, in response to the re-programming of the unmanned vehicle, the unmanned vehicle moves to a closest position of the new travel path from a current position of the unmanned vehicle and begins traversing the new travel path, and wherein the new travel path is generated in response to an elapse of a randomly or pseudo-randomly determined time period.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to generate the travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path at least by randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting the travel path from a set of predefined travel paths, and wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

store, for the unmanned vehicle, a history of travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle; and

prune the set of predefined travel paths based on the history of travel paths so as to remove travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle from the set of travel paths prior to selecting the travel path from the set of predefined travel paths.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

identify an area to be monitored by an unmanned vehicle;

identify an unmanned vehicle assigned to monitoring the identified area;

generate, for the unmanned vehicle, a travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path;

program the unmanned vehicle to traverse the generated travel path;

initiate operation of the unmanned vehicle to collect data about the area while traversing the generated travel path;

monitor the area utilizing the unmanned vehicle based on the data collected by the unmanned vehicle while traversing the generated travel path;

generate a new travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using the function or a different function that randomizes generating of the travel path; and

in response to generating the new travel path, re-reprogram the unmanned vehicle to traverse the new travel path, wherein, in response to the re-programming of the unmanned vehicle, the unmanned vehicle moves to a closest position of the new travel path from a current position of the unmanned vehicle and begins traversing the new travel path, and wherein the new travel path is generated in response to an elapse of a randomly or pseudo-randomly determined time period.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to generate the travel path to be traversed by the unmanned vehicle using a function that randomizes generation of the travel path at least by randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting the travel path from a set of predefined travel paths, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

store, for the unmanned vehicle, a history of travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle; and

prune the set of predefined travel paths based on the history of travel paths so as to remove travel paths previously assigned to the unmanned vehicle from the set of travel paths prior to selecting the travel path from the set of predefined travel paths.