Unmanned vehicle message exchange

• US 9,912,655 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2015
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Canavor, Darren Ernest, Gopalakrishnan, Varadarajan, Johansson, Jesper Mikael, McClintock, Jon Arron, Porter, Brandon William, Roths, Andrew Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Application Number:
  US14/671,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20160285863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/02 characterised by special use
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• 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: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/00 Traffic control systems for aircraft , e.g. air-traffic control [ATC]
• 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: H04B 7/185 Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systemsH04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/106 Packet or message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Two unmanned vehicles come within communication range of one another. The unmanned vehicles exchange logs of messages each has received. Each of the unmanned vehicles analyzes the messages that it received from the other unmanned vehicle to determine whether any of the received messages warrants changing a set of tasks it was planning to perform. When a message indicates that a task should be changed, the task is updated accordingly.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

storing, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a set of aerial tasks to perform including a flight path;

receiving, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle and directly from a second unmanned aerial vehicle, a plurality of messages;

selecting an aerial task from the set of aerial tasks to perform including a task that is based at least in part on the flight path;

updating the selected aerial task, including updating the flight path, based at least in part on information in at least one of the plurality of messages; and

completing the updated selected aerial task.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the first aerial vehicle, a second plurality of messages directly to the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a message based at least in part on data from a set of sensors of the second unmanned aerial vehicle; and

adding the generated message to the plurality of messages.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of the plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of an individual message of the plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

merging the plurality of messages with a second plurality of messages locally stored on the first unmanned aerial vehicle, thereby generating a merged plurality of messages; and

transmitting the merged plurality of messages to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and from the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selected aerial task was determined based at least in part on a message received from a second unmanned aerial vehicle that is different from the unmanned aerial vehicle and from the other unmanned aerial vehicle.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the selected aerial task has an associated aerial route for fulfilling the aerial task; and

updating the selected aerial task comprises updating the associated aerial route.

9. A first unmanned aerial vehicle comprising an on-board computer system configured to:

store, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a set of aerial tasks to perform including a flight path;

receive, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a first plurality of messages directly from a second unmanned aerial vehicle;

select an aerial task from the set of aerial tasks to perform including a task that is based at least in part on the flight path;

modify the selected aerial task, including modifying the flight path, based at least in part on information in at least one of the plurality of messages; and

perform the updated selected aerial task.

10. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9, further comprising sending a second plurality of messages to the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

11. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a message based at least in part on data from a set of sensors of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and

adding the generated message to the second plurality of messages.

12. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of the first plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to the second aerial vehicle.

13. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9, further comprising cryptographically verifying authenticity of an individual message of the first plurality of messages using cryptographic material specific to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

14. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9, further comprising:

merging the first plurality of messages with a second plurality of messages locally stored on the unmanned aerial vehicle, thereby generating a merged plurality of messages; and

transmitting the merged plurality of messages to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and from the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

15. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9, wherein the selected aerial task is selected based at least in part on a message received from a third unmanned aerial vehicle that is different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and from the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9,

wherein the selected aerial task has an associated aerial route for fulfilling the aerial task;

and

wherein modifying the selected aerial task comprises modifying the associated aerial route.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, if executed by one or more processors of a computer system of a first unmanned aerial vehicle, cause the computer system to at least:

store, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a set of aerial tasks to perform including a flight path;

receive, at the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a first plurality of messages directly from a second unmanned aerial vehicle;

select an aerial task from the set of aerial tasks to perform including a task that is based at least in part on the flight path;

modify the selected aerial task, including modifying the flight path, based at least in part on information in at least one of the plurality of messages; and

perform the updated selected aerial task.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to cryptographically verify authenticity of one or more messages of the first plurality of messages using cryptographic material corresponding to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to:

merge the first plurality of messages with a second plurality of messages locally stored on the unmanned aerial vehicle, thereby generating a merged plurality of messages; and

communicate the merged plurality of messages to a third unmanned aerial vehicle different from the first unmanned aerial vehicle and from the second unmanned aerial vehicle.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17,

wherein the selected aerial task defines an aerial route for fulfilling the aerial task;

and

wherein modifying the selected aerial task comprises modifying the aerial route for fulfilling the aerial task.