Unmanned aerial vehicle management system

• US 9,489,852 B1
• Filed: 01/22/2015
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zipline International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Zipline International Inc.
• Inventors: Chambers, Andrew, Wade, Bryan, Drula, Catalin, Halley, David, Napolskikh, Igor, Wyrobek, Keenan, Rinaudo, Keller, Brake, Nicholas, Oksenhorn, Ryan, Patterson, Ryan, Hetzler, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith-Stewart, Demetra
• Application Number:
  US14/603,267
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/20 for use as communications relays, e.g. high-altitude platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/31 for surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/60 for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/64 for parcel delivery or retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/1064 specially adapted for avoiding collisions with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• 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 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft

Abstract

An Unmanned Aerial System configured to receive a request from a user and fulfill that request using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The Unmanned Aerial System selects a distribution center that is within range of the user, and deploys a suitable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to fulfill the request from that distribution center. The Unmanned Aerial System is configured to provide real-time information about the flight route to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during its flight, and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is configured to dynamically update its mission based on information received from the Unmanned Aerial System.

Claims

1. A system for fulfilling a request from a user, comprising a computer server, the computer server configured to:

receive a service request from a remote client device operated by the user, the service request specifying a destination site;

responsive to receiving the service request, select a distribution center, from a plurality of candidate distribution centers, the selection based on a location of the destination site; and

send at least a portion of the service request to the distribution center;

wherein;

at least one of the computer server and the distribution center is configured to;

generate mission data that configures an unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to the destination site;

receive a route refinement selection from the remote client device;

validate the route refinement selection to avoid an error in the mission data; and

communicate the mission data to the unmanned aerial vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the mission data communicated to the unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a skymap, the skymap comprising information about one or more flight corridors; and

the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to navigate to the destination site using the one or more flight corridors.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to:

compute a traversal cost for each of a plurality of flight corridors; and

determine a lowest cost route to the destination site using the computed traversal cost for each of the plurality of flight corridors.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the computer server is further configured to select the distribution center based on a distance between the distribution center and the destination site.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the service request further comprises information specifying a requested payload type;

the distribution center comprises an inventory indicating an availability of the requested payload type; and

the computer server is further configured to select the distribution center based on the availability of the requested payload type.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the computer server is further configured to cause a displayable representation of the geographic area to be displayed on the remote client device; and

the route refinement selection corresponds to trajectory information received from the remote client device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to:

receive route information based on the route refinement selection; and

generate a route to the destination location based on the route information.

8. In a computer system, a method for fulfilling a request from a user, comprising:

receiving a service request from a remote client device, the service request specifying a destination site;

responsive to receiving the service request, selecting a distribution center from a plurality of candidate distribution centers, the selection based on a location of the destination site;

sending at least a portion of the service request to the distribution center;

generating mission data that configures the unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to the destination site;

receiving a route refinement selection;

validating the route refinement selection to verify whether the route refinement selection will introduce errors into the mission data; and

communicating the mission data to the unmanned aerial vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the mission data communicated to the unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a skymap, the skymap comprising information about one or more flight corridors; and

the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to navigate to the destination site using the one or more flight corridors.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

computing a traversal cost for each of a plurality of flight corridors; and

determining a lowest cost route to the destination site using the computed traversal cost for each of the plurality of flight corridors.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

selecting the distribution center based on a distance of the distribution center from the destination site.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the service request further comprises information specifying a requested payload type;

the distribution center comprises an inventory indicating an availability of the requested payload type; and

the method further comprises selecting the distribution center based on the availability of the requested payload type.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving terrain data for a geographic area;

generating a displayable representation of the geographic area; and

sending the displayable representation of the geographic area to the remote client device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating a route to the destination location based on the route refinement selection.

15. In a computer system, a method for determining a route for an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:

receiving a service request from a user operating a remote client device, the service request specifying a destination site within a geographic area, the geographic area associated with stored terrain data in a terrain map database;

generating a displayable representation of the geographic area based on the stored terrain data;

sending the displayable representation of the geographic area to the remote client device;

receiving at least one route refinement selection from the remote client device;

validating the route refinement selection to ensure that an error will not be introduced into the route; and

generating a route within the geographic area for the unmanned aerial vehicle using the at least one route refinement selection from the remote client device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the route refinement selection comprises a point, and generating a route within the geographic area comprises refining a location of the destination site.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the route refinement selection comprises a trajectory, and generating a route within the geographic area comprises incorporating the trajectory into a flight path.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein validating the route refinement selection further comprises:

checking the route refinement selection against the stored terrain data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein checking the route refinement selection against the stored terrain data further comprises:

confirming that a geometry of the route refinement selection does not intersect geometries of objects or terrain in the terrain map database.

20. In a computer system, a method for determining a route for an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:

receiving a service request from a user operating a remote client device, the service request specifying a destination site within a geographic area, the geographic area associated with stored terrain data in a terrain map database;

generating a displayable representation of the geographic area based on the stored terrain data;

causing the displayable representation of the geographic area to be sent to the remote client device;

receiving a route refinement selection including a trajectory from the remote client device; and

generating a route for the unmanned aerial vehicle that is within the geographic area and includes the trajectory.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising validating the trajectory to confirm that the trajectory will not cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to crash.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein validating the trajectory comprises comparing the trajectory against the stored terrain data.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein validating the trajectory further comprises confirming that the trajectory does not intersect a geometry of an object or a terrain in the terrain map database.