UAV routing and data extraction

• US 10,769,568 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2018
• Issued: 09/08/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lim, Ben J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Kito R
• Application Number:
  US15/984,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20180268331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 841 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

This invention relates to a drone based predictive system for detecting and analyzing web and drone based data in order to mitigate potential losses and enhance risk mitigation activities in commercial insurance such as for business owners policies and workers compensation. The drone is able to capture from a plurality of angles and perspective to provide data to effect a variety of insurance based actions.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

one or more data storage devices storing data relating to a plurality of property insurance policies;

one or more computer processors in communication with the one or more data storage devices;

a communications interface in communication with the one or more computer processors and the one or more data storage device; and

a memory, coupled to the one or more computer processors, storing program instructions which, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to;

receive via the communications interface data, other than unmanned aerial vehicle (“

UAV”

) data, indicative of condition of a property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies;

determine, based on one or more data items, and without UAV data, whether collection of data relating to the property via an UAV is applicable in relation to the condition of the property;

responsive to a determination that collection via UAV is not applicable, forward the data indicative of the condition to an insurance workflow subsystem for investigation, without UAV data;

responsive to a determination that collection of data relating to the condition of the property via UAV is applicable, issue instructions for controlling UAV collection of information, the instructions causing an onboard computer of at least one UAV to control the UAV to autonomously navigate to a location of the property;

receive data via the communications interface from the UAV;

process the data from the UAV to determine at least one action; and

communicate via the communications interface with an insurance subsystem to initiate an insurance workflow process.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises data relating to property damage associated with a claim under the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises loss control data.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the action comprises issuing a loss control communication.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the UAV to collect images of a roof of a building.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the received data indicative of the condition of the property relates to an exception condition relating to the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the determining the applicability of UAV data comprises determining the applicability based on a plurality of factors including at least a building type factor and a tree coverage factor.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors of a computer system, via a communications interface of the computer system, data, other than unmanned aerial vehicle (“

UAV”

) data, indicative of a condition of a property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies;

determining, by the one or more computers, based on one or more data items, without UAV data, whether collection of data relating to the property via an UAV is applicable in relation to the condition of the property;

responsive to a determination that collection via UAV would not be applicable, forward the data to an insurance workflow subsystem for investigation, without UAV data;

responsive to a determination that collection of data relating to the property via UAV is applicable, issue instructions for controlling UAV collection of information, the instructions causing an onboard computer of at least one UAV to control the UAV to autonomously navigate to a location of the property;

receive data via the communications interface from the UAV;

process the data from the UAV to determine at least one action; and

communicate via the communications interface with an insurance subsystem to initiate an insurance workflow process.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises data relating to property damage associated with a claim under the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises loss control data.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the action comprises issuing a loss control communication.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the UAV to collect images of a roof of a building.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the received data indicative of the condition of the property relates to an exception condition relating to a business use of the property not covered under a commercial insurance policy of the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the determining the applicability of UAV data comprises determining the applicability based on a plurality of factors including at least a building type factor and a tree coverage factor.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon computer-readable instructions, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive via a communications interface data, other than unmanned aerial vehicle (“

UAV”

) data, indicative of a condition of a property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies;

determine, based on one or more data items, without UAV data, whether collection of data relating to the condition of the property via an UAV is applicable in relation to the condition of the property;

responsive to a determination that collection of data relating to the condition of the property via UAV is not applicable, forward the data relating to the condition of the property to an insurance workflow subsystem for investigation, without UAV data;

responsive to a determination that collection of data relating to the condition of the property via UAV is applicable, issue control instructions for controlling UAV collection of information, the instructions causing an onboard computer of at least one UAV to control the UAV to autonomously navigate to a location of the property;

receive data via the communications interface from the UAV;

process the data from the UAV to determine at least one action; and

communicate via the communications interface with an insurance subsystem to initiate an insurance workflow process.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises data relating to property damage associated with a claim under the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the received data indicative of condition of the property related to at least one of the plurality of insurance policies comprises loss control data.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the action comprises issuing a loss control communication.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the control instructions cause the UAV to collect images of a roof of a building.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the received data indicative of the condition of the property relates to an exception condition relating to the at least one of the plurality of insurance policies.