Aerial robotics network management infrastructure

• US 9,965,962 B1
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Skyward IO, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: X, Evans, Jonathan, McCollough, Andrew, Maher, Dana, Nylund, Jake, Miller, Eric, Fiedler, Chase
• Primary Examiner(s): Heinle, Courtney D
• Application Number:
  US14/940,143
• Time in Patent Office: 908 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• 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: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• 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 5/0069 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

An Aerial Robotics Network (ARN) Management Infrastructure (MI) (also referred to as ARNMI) that provides a mechanism for the management of aerobots.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

managing, by a device, human-in-the-loop operations for at least one aerobot,

the human-in-the loop operations comprising at least one of;

at least one individual operator piloting an aerobot,

control of aerobots using a mixture of human control and autonomy, or

fully-autonomous management of aerobots with human oversight and override;

collecting, by the device, aircraft data from a telemetry module,

the aircraft data comprising at least one of;

velocity,

location, or

altitude;

collecting, by the device, flight information through a common interface module,

the common interface module providing an interface in which a human may manually enter, review, or enter and review information, and

the flight information comprising at least one of;

hours flown,

faults found,

aerobot configuration,

standard aircraft logbook information, or

maintenance tracking information;

generating, by the device, geospatial information,

the geospatial information comprising a tile grid of a plurality of tessellated structures; and

implementing, by the device, management of multiple networks of aerobots based on the geospatial information, the flight information, and the aircraft data,

the multiple networks of aerobots including the at least one aerobot.

2. The method of claim 1, where the tessellated structures comprise a plurality of adjacent shapes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sensing at least one of;

a hazard,

a weather condition,

a hazard marking,

a feature marking,

aircraft tracking,

deployment of an enroute navigational aid, or

deployment of a terminal navigational aid.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining image information for generating a three-dimensional model of at least one route for use by the at least one aerobot,

where the three-dimensional model is used to determine whether the at least one route is sufficiently free of obstacles for GPS navigation of the at least one aerobot.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, in real time, at least one aerobot not in the multiple networks of aerobots using an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system.

6. The method of claim 1, where collecting the aircraft data comprises:

collecting the aircraft data for use in at least one of;

offline analysis,

data mining, or

non-real-time applications.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

procuring insurance through the common interface module.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

manage human-in-the-loop operations for at least one aerobot,

the human-in-the loop operations comprising at least one of;

at least one individual operator piloting an aerobot,

control of aerobots using a mixture of human control and autonomy, or

fully-autonomous management of aerobots with human oversight and override;

collect aircraft data from a telemetry module,

the aircraft data comprising at least one of;

velocity,

location, or

altitude;

collect flight information through a common interface module,

the common interface module providing an interface in which a human may manually enter, review, or enter and review information, and

the flight information comprising at least one of;

hours flown,

faults found,

aerobot configuration,

standard aircraft logbook information, or

maintenance tracking information;

generate geospatial information,

the geospatial information comprising a tile grid of a plurality of tessellated structures; and

implement management of multiple networks of aerobots based on the geospatial information, the flight information, and the aircraft data,

the multiple networks of aerobots including the at least one aerobot.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the tessellated structures comprise a plurality of adjacent shapes.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

sense at least one of;

a hazard,

a weather condition,

a hazard marking,

a feature marking,

aircraft tracking,

deployment of an enroute navigational aid, or

deployment of a terminal navigational aid.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

obtain image information for generating a three-dimensional model of at least one route for use by the at least one aerobot,

where the three-dimensional model is used to determine whether the at least one route is sufficiently free of obstacles for GPS navigation of the at least one aerobot.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

track, in real time at least one aerobot not in the multiple networks of aerobots using an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to collect the aircraft data, cause the one or more processors to:

collect the aircraft data for use in at least one of;

offline analysis,

data mining, or

non-real-time applications.

14. A device, comprising:

one or more processors to;

manage human-in-the-loop operations for at least one aerobot,

the human-in-the loop operations comprising at least one of;

at least one individual operator piloting an aerobot,

control of aerobots using a mixture of human control and autonomy, or

fully-autonomous management of aerobots with human oversight and override;

collect aircraft data from a telemetry module,

the aircraft data comprising at least one of;

velocity,

location, or

altitude;

collecting, by the device, flight information through a common interface module,

the common interface module providing an interface in which a human may manually enter, review, or enter and review information, and

the flight information comprising at least one of;

 

hours flown,

 

faults found,

 

aerobot configuration,

 

standard aircraft logbook information, or

 

maintenance tracking information;

generate geospatial information,

the geospatial information comprising a tile grid of a plurality of tessellated structures; and

implement management of multiple networks of aerobots based on the geospatial information, the flight information, and the aircraft data,

the multiple networks of aerobots including the at least one aerobot.

15. The device of claim 14, where the tessellated structures comprise a plurality of adjacent shapes.

16. The device of claim 14, where the one or more processors are further to:

sense at least one of;

a hazard,

a weather condition,

a hazard marking,

a feature marking,

aircraft tracking,

deployment of an enroute navigational aid, or

deployment of a terminal navigational aid.

17. The device of claim 14, where the one or more processors are further to:

obtain image information for generating a three-dimensional model of at least one route for use by the at least one aerobot,

where the three-dimensional model is used to determine whether the at least one route is sufficiently free of obstacles for GPS navigation of the at least one aerobot.

18. The device of claim 14, where the one or more processors are further to:

track, in real time, at least one aerobot not in the multiple networks of aerobots using an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system.

19. The device of claim 14, where the one or more processors, when collecting the aircraft data, are to:

collect the aircraft data for use in at least one of;

offline analysis,

data mining, or

non-real-time applications.

20. The device of claim 14, where the one or more processors are further to:

procure insurance through the common interface module.