TRAFFIC AND SECURITY MONITORING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090219393A1
• Filed: 05/21/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Saad, Emad William, Vian, John Lyle, Mansouri, Ali Reza
• Granted Patent: US 8,643,719 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/144
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935

Abstract

A method for monitoring a geographic area that using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles. Each unmanned mobile vehicle may be programmed with an operational plan to cover a specific subregion of said geographic area. Each unmanned mobile vehicle may be used to obtain visual images of its associated said subregion during operation. A surveillance system is also disclosed for monitoring a geographic area. The system includes a plurality of autonomously operated unmanned mobile vehicles. Each vehicle includes an onboard system that executes an operational plan to enable the vehicle to traverse a specific subregion of the geographic area. Each onboard system further includes a monitoring system to obtain visual images of its associated subregion.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a geographic area, comprising:

using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles;

programming each said unmanned mobile vehicle with an operational plan to cover a specific subregion of said geographic area; and

using each said unmanned mobile vehicle to obtain visual images of its associated said subregion during operation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing at least one of said unmanned vehicles to wirelessly transmit said visual images obtained to a centralized monitoring station.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising having each said unmanned vehicle dynamically change its operational plan, in real time, when at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles becomes inoperable, to enable the remaining plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles to cooperatively cover the subregion that would have been covered by said unmanned mobile vehicle that is inoperable.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising enabling an individual to remotely override a dynamically assigned flight plan for at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles, with a different flight plan.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising having a centralized control station monitor operation of said unmanned mobile vehicles and when at least one of said unmanned vehicles becomes inoperable, having said centralized control station inform said remaining plurality of mobile vehicles that said one unmanned mobile vehicle has become inoperable and assign a new flight plan to at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using a plurality of unmanned airborne mobile vehicles.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein using a plurality of unmanned mobile vehicles comprises using an unmanned mobile land vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein using each said unmanned mobile vehicle to obtain visual images comprises using a camera mounted on each said unmanned mobile vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an audio pickup device with at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles to obtain audio information from said subregion being covered by said at least one unmanned mobile vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said images obtained from at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles is wirelessly transmitted to a centralized monitoring station in real time for viewing on a display.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein causing each said unmanned vehicle to wirelessly transmit said images comprises causing each said unmanned vehicle to wirelessly transmit at least one of:

still color images;

still black and white images;

streaming color video;

streaming black and white video;

still infrared images; and

streaming infrared video.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing each said unmanned mobile vehicle to periodically wirelessly transmit a status condition message to at least one of:

a centralized monitoring station; and

all other ones of said unmanned vehicles.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a tracking subsystem on at least of said unmanned mobile vehicles to detect and track at least one of:

a specific object;

a specific target;

and having said unmanned vehicles dynamically change their flight plans if needed to enable at least one of said unmanned mobile vehicles to continuously begin tracking at least one of said detected specific object and said detected specific target, while enabling a remaining quantity of said unmanned mobile vehicles to continuing covering said geographic area.

14. A monitoring method for monitoring a geographic area, comprising:

using a plurality of airborne unmanned mobile vehicles;

programming each said airborne unmanned mobile vehicle with an operational plan to cover a specific subregion of said geographic area; and

using each said airborne unmanned mobile vehicle to obtain visual images of its associated said subregion during operation of said airborne unmanned vehicle; and

causing each said airborne unmanned mobile vehicle to wirelessly transmit said images it obtains to a centralized monitoring station; and

viewing each of said images on a display at said centralized monitoring station.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each said unmanned mobile vehicle dynamically implements a new flight plan when a subquantity of said unmanned mobile vehicles become inoperable, said new flight plans enabling a remaining quantity of said unmanned mobile vehicles to monitor said geographic area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein transmitting said images to a centralized monitoring station comprises transmitting said images to one of a terrestrial based, centralized monitoring station and an airborne centralized monitoring station.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising causing each of said airborne unmanned mobile vehicles to monitor its associated said subregion for audio signals present in said subregion being monitored and transmitting said audio signals to said centralized monitoring station.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising causing each of said airborne unmanned vehicles to wirelessly communicate with one another and to detect when any one of said plurality of airborne unmanned vehicles becomes inoperative.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising causing each of said airborne unmanned vehicles to dynamically change its operational plan without involvement of said centralized monitoring station when a particular one of said airborne unmanned vehicles has become inoperative, so that a remaining plurality of said airborne unmanned vehicles operate to monitor the subregion that would have monitored by said particular one of said airborne unmanned vehicles.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein causing each said airborne unmanned vehicle to wirelessly transmit images comprises causing each said airborne unmanned vehicle to wirelessly transmit at least one of:

still color images;

still black and white images;

streaming color video;

streaming black and white video;

still infrared images; and

streaming infrared video.

21. A surveillance system for monitoring a geographic area, comprising:

a plurality of autonomously operated unmanned mobile vehicles;

each of said unmanned mobile vehicles including an onboard system that executes an operational plan to enable each said unmanned mobile vehicle to traverse a specific subregion of said geographic area; and

each said onboard system further including a monitoring system to obtain at least one of visual images of its associated said subregion and audio signals emanating from its associated subregion.