U.S. patent application number 17/450545 was filed with the patent office on 2022-07-14 for unmanned aerial vehicle systems.
The applicant listed for this patent is Warren F. LeBlanc. Invention is credited to Dennis J. Dupray, Frederick W. LeBlanc.
Application Number | 20220223056 17/450545 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | |
Filed Date | 2022-07-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220223056 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Dupray; Dennis J. ; et
al. |
July 14, 2022 |
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE SYSTEMS
Abstract
Various systems, methods, for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are
disclosed. In one aspect, UAVs operation in an area may be managed
and organized by UAV corridors, which can be defined ways for the
operation and movement of UAVs. UAV corridors may be supported by
infrastructures and/or systems supported UAVs operations. Support
infrastructures may include support systems such as resupply
stations and landing pads. Support systems may include
communication UAVs and/or stations for providing communications
and/or other services, such as aerial traffic services, to UAV with
limited communication capabilities. Further support systems may
include flight management services for guiding UAVs with limited
navigation capabilities as well as tracking and/or supporting
unknown or malfunctioning UAVs.
Inventors: |
Dupray; Dennis J.; (Golden,
CO) ; LeBlanc; Frederick W.; (Coconut Creek,
FL) |
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Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
LeBlanc; Warren F. |
Coconut Creek |
FL |
US |
|
|
Appl. No.: |
17/450545 |
Filed: |
October 11, 2021 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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16813487 |
Mar 9, 2020 |
11145212 |
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17450545 |
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15224497 |
Jul 29, 2016 |
10586464 |
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16813487 |
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62198389 |
Jul 29, 2015 |
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International
Class: |
G08G 5/00 20060101
G08G005/00; B64C 39/02 20060101 B64C039/02; G05D 1/10 20060101
G05D001/10; H04B 7/185 20060101 H04B007/185 |
Claims
1-17. (canceled)
18. An unmanned aerial vehicle system for providing a location
service for a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
operating within a predetermined operational area of the unmanned
aerial vehicle system, comprising: a communication station, the
communication station including a communication component for
communicating with the plurality of UAVs and a second communication
component for communicating with a communication point being a
terrestrial communication station, when the communication UAV is
active within the predetermined operational area; wherein the
communication station includes a processor for determining a
location estimate of at least one of the plurality of UAVs using
signal characteristics of communication with the at least one UAV
and the communication station.
19. The unmanned aerial vehicle system of claim 18, wherein one or
more additional location estimates of the at least one UAV are
accessible to the communication station, the one or more location
estimates based on one or more of (a) a location estimate from a
geolocation component of the at least one UAV, (b) a location
estimate provided by a aerial traffic service, and (c) a location
estimate based on tracking data of the at least one UAV from the
UAV system; and wherein the determining by the processor includes
weighting the location estimate and the one or more additional
location estimates based on a reliability of each of the location
estimate and the one or more additional location estimates.
20-28. (canceled)
39. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising: an optical system
for detecting an aerial target within a vicinity of the UAV, when
the UAV is in operation; a processor for determining, based on a
detected flight characteristic of the aerial target by the optical
system that the aerial target maintains a constant azimuth and
elevation relative to the UAV; and a flight control system for
maneuvering the UAV to avoid a collision with the aerial
target.
40. An unmanned aerial vehicle system for providing a surveillance
service of an airspace to a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area of the
unmanned aerial vehicle system, comprising: a communication UAV,
the communication UAV including a first communication component for
communicating with the plurality of UAVs, a second communication
component for transceiving first communication related to the
surveillance service through a first channel, and a second
communication component for transceiving second communication
related to the surveillance service through a second channel, when
the communication UAV is active within the predetermined
operational area; and wherein information related to the first
communication and the second communication are provided by the
communication UAV to the plurality of UAVs through the
communication component in sufficiently real time.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 15/224,497 filed Jul. 29, 2016, pending, which
claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/198,389
filed Jul. 29, 2015, each of which is herein incorporated by
reference.
RELATED FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present application is directed to methods and systems
for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), including Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS), and small UAS (sUAS).
BACKGROUND
[0003] It has been estimated that as many as 30,000 unmanned aerial
vehicles will be flying in America's skies by 2020. UAVs are being
manufactured in over 70 countries around the world. 23 countries
have developed or are developing armed UAVs and/or UASs.
[0004] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted 24
licenses to commercial UAV operators as of Feb. 3, 2015. Over 300
others have applied so far for such licenses. Individual operators
may freely fly UAVs for personal use and enjoyment (non-commercial
use). The following proposed rules have been developed for small
UAV by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Feb. 23, 2015
for public commenting:
Operational Limitations:
[0005] Unmanned aircraft must weigh less than 55 lbs. (25 kg).
[0006] Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) only; the unmanned aircraft must
remain within VLOS of the operator or visual observer. [0007] At
all times the small unmanned aircraft must remain close enough to
the operator for the operator to be capable of seeing the aircraft
with vision unaided by any device other than corrective lenses.
[0008] Small unmanned aircraft may not operate over any persons not
directly involved in the operation. [0009] Daylight-only operations
(official sunrise to official sunset, local time). [0010] Must
yield right-of-way to other aircraft, manned or unmanned. [0011]
May use visual observer (VO) but not required. [0012] First-person
view camera cannot satisfy "see-and-avoid" requirement but can be
used as long as requirement is satisfied in other ways. [0013]
Maximum airspeed of 100 mph (87 knots). [0014] Maximum altitude of
500 feet above ground level. [0015] Minimum weather visibility of 3
miles from control station. [0016] No operations are allowed in
Class A (18,000 feet & above) airspace. [0017] Operations in
Class B, C, D and E airspace are allowed with the required Air
Traffic Control (ATC) permission. [0018] Operations in Class G
airspace are allowed without ATC permission [0019] No person may
act as an operator or VO for more than one unmanned aircraft
operation at one time. [0020] No careless or reckless operations.
[0021] Requires preflight inspection by the operator. [0022] A
person may not operate a small unmanned aircraft if he or she knows
or has reason to know of any physical or mental condition that
would interfere with the safe operation of a small UAV. [0023]
Proposes a micro UAV option that would allow operations in Class G
airspace, over people not involved in the operation, provided the
operator certifies he or she has the requisite aeronautical
knowledge to perform the operation.
Operator Certification and Responsibilities:
[0023] [0024] Pass an initial aeronautical knowledge test at an
FAA-approved knowledge testing center. [0025] Be vetted by the
Transportation Security Administration. [0026] Obtain an unmanned
aircraft operator certificate with a small UAV rating (like
existing pilot airman certificates, never expires). [0027] Pass a
recurrent aeronautical knowledge test every 24 months. [0028] Be at
least 17 years old. [0029] Make available to the FAA, upon request,
the small UAV for inspection or testing, and any associated
documents/records required to be kept under the proposed rule.
[0030] Report an accident to the FAA within 10 days of any
operation that results in injury or property damage. [0031] Conduct
a preflight inspection, to include specific aircraft and control
station systems checks, to ensure the small UAV is safe for
operation.
[0032] In Jun. 21, 2016, the FAA released a further "Summary of
Small Unmanned Aircraft Rules (Part 107). An excerpt of these rules
are as follows: [0033] Unmanned aircraft must weigh less than 55
lbs. (25 kg). [0034] Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) only; the unmanned
aircraft must remain within VLOS of the remote pilot in command and
the person manipulating the flight controls of the small UAS.
Alternatively, the unmanned aircraft must remain within VLOS of the
visual observer. [0035] At all times the small unmanned aircraft
must remain close enough to the remote pilot in command and the
person manipulating the flight controls of the small UAS for those
people to be capable of seeing the aircraft with vision unaided by
any device other than corrective lenses. [0036] Small unmanned
aircraft may not operate over any persons not directly
participating in the operation, not under a covered structure, and
not inside a covered stationary vehicle. [0037] Daylight-only
operations, or civil twilight (30 minutes before official sunrise
to 30 minutes after official sunset, local time) with appropriate
anti-collision lighting. [0038] Must yield right of way to other
aircraft. [0039] May use visual observer (VO) but not required.
[0040] First-person view camera cannot satisfy "see-and-avoid"
requirement but can be used as long as requirement is satisfied in
other ways. [0041] Maximum groundspeed of 100 mph (87 knots).
[0042] Maximum altitude of 400 feet above ground level (AGL) or, if
higher than 400 feet AGL, remain within 400 feet of a structure.
[0043] Minimum weather visibility of 3 miles from control station.
[0044] Operations in Class B, C, D and E airspace are allowed with
the required ATC permission. [0045] Operations in Class G airspace
are allowed without ATC permission. [0046] No person may act as a
remote pilot in command or VO for more than one unmanned aircraft
operation at one time. [0047] No operations from a moving aircraft.
[0048] No operations from a moving vehicle unless the operation is
over a sparsely populated area. [0049] No careless or reckless
operations. [0050] No carriage of hazardous materials.
[0051] The FAA UAV rules will be effective Aug. 29, 2016.
[0052] Present UAV technologies have certain deficiencies, as
follows. UAVs technology offers significant benefits to society in
that UAVs can be flown economically, and in areas not suitable for
larger aircraft. However, UAVs should not be flown into some areas,
such as airports, where a collision can result in loss of human
life or valuable properties. A UAV drawn into an aircraft engine
can cause a total disaster to the aircraft. Moreover, since UAVs
are capable of deploying explosives, chemical agents, and operating
cameras to record information that may be regarded as private, UAVs
can invade an endless variety of areas that could be regarded as
illegal, or a breach of privacy, or create vulnerability to
destruction of property. UAVs can be used to smuggle contraband and
weapons across national borders, into prisons, and capture
proprietary video of copyright sport events.
[0053] Private industry is addressing at least some, but not all,
of these concerns. One such company, No Fly Zone, offers a database
containing GPS coordinates of areas that UAV operators can help
fill with information. The database is then sent to UAV
manufacturers, who implement the database and provide restrictions
on where the UAV can fly. It may be possible that UAV manufacturers
can add or remove features without UAV owner knowledge. Presumably
UAV owners would not be allowed to modify or bypass the "No fly
Zone" capability, which may be considered a type of UAV digital
rights management.
[0054] One UAV manufacturer, DJI of Hong Kong, has agreed to comply
with the FAA's Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) 0/8326, which restricts
unmanned flight around the Washington, DC area, 10,000 other
airports, and prevents flight across national borders. Although the
U.S. President has requested better federal regulations, it is
likely that technology may find a way to defeat regulations.
[0055] In the US all airspace outside of a building is administered
by the FAA. Additionally operations within a building, such as a
stadium, are to a lesser extent controlled by the FAA when
operations potentially affecting public safety are involved, such
as flying over populated areas. FAA requirements generally are
quite similar to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
international standards.
[0056] Flight Rules and Weather Conditions
[0057] Weather is a significant factor in aircraft operations.
Weather conditions determine the flight rules under which aircraft
can operate, and can also affect aircraft separation (physical
distance between aircraft).
[0058] Aircraft are separated from each other to ensure safety of
flight. The required separation varies depending on aircraft type,
weather, and flight rules. Aircraft separation requirements can
increase during poor weather conditions, since it is more difficult
for a pilot to see and/or detect other aircraft. Increased aircraft
separation can reduce airport capacity, since fewer aircraft can
use an airport during a given time interval. Conversely, reduced
aircraft separation can increase airport capacity, since more
aircraft can use an airport during a given time interval.
[0059] Aircraft operate under two distinct categories of
operational flight rules: visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument
flight rules (IFR). These flight rules are linked to the two
categories of weather conditions: visual meteorological conditions
(VMC) and instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). VMC exist
during generally fair to good weather, and IMC exist during times
of rain, low clouds, or reduced visibility. IMC generally exist
whenever visibility falls below 3 statute miles (SM) or the ceiling
drops below 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL). The ceiling is the
distance from the ground to the bottom of a cloud layer that covers
more than 50% of the sky. During VMC, aircraft may operate under
VFR, and the pilot is primarily responsible for seeing other
aircraft and maintaining safe separation.
[0060] Types of Airspace
[0061] In the early days of aviation, aircraft only flew during
VMC, which allows a pilot to maintain orientation (e.g., up/down,
turning, etc.) by reference to the horizon and visual ground
references. Flight through clouds (e.g., an IMC) was not possible,
as the aircraft instruments of the time did not provide orientation
information, and thus a pilot could easily lose orientation and
control of the aircraft. In a visual-only airspace environment, it
was possible to see other aircraft and avoid a collision--and thus
maintain aircraft separation. Flight through clouds became possible
with the use of gyroscopic flight instruments. Because it is not
possible to see other aircraft in the clouds, ATC was established
to coordinate aircraft positions and maintain separation between
aircrafts. Today, maintaining separation between VFR and IFR air
traffic is still a fundamental mission of ATC. The evolution of the
National Airspace System (NAS), and existing ATC procedures, can be
directly tied to this requirement to maintain separation between
aircrafts.
Airspace Classifications
[0062] Aircraft operating under VFR typically navigate by
orientation to geographic and other visual references. During IMC,
aircraft operate under IFR; the ATC exercises positive control
(e.g., separation of all air traffic within designated airspace)
over all aircrafts in controlled airspace, and the ATC is primarily
responsible for aircraft separation. Aircraft operating under IFR
must meet minimum equipment requirements. Pilots must also be
specially certified and meet proficiency requirements. IFR aircraft
fly assigned routes and altitudes, and use a combination of radio
navigation aids (NAVAIDs) and vectors from ATC to navigate.
[0063] Aircraft may elect to operate IFR in VMC; however, the
pilot, and not ATC, is primarily responsible for seeing and
avoiding other aircraft. The majority of commercial air traffic
(including all air carrier traffic), regardless of weather, operate
under IFR as required by Federal Aviation Regulations. In an effort
to increase airport capacity, ATC can allow IFR aircraft to
maintain visual separation when weather permits.
[0064] The FAA has designated six classes of airspace, in
accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
airspace classifications. Airspace is broadly classified as either
controlled or uncontrolled. Airspace designated as Class A, B, C,
D, or E is controlled airspace. Class F airspace is not used in the
United States. Class G airspace is uncontrolled airspace.
Controlled airspace means that IFR services are available to
aircraft that elect to file IFR flight plans; it does not mean that
all flights within the airspace are controlled by ATC. IFR services
include ground-to-air radio communications, navigation aids, and
air traffic (i.e., separation) services. Aircraft can operate under
IFR in uncontrolled airspace; however, the aircraft cannot file an
IFR flight plan for operation in uncontrolled airspace, and IFR
services are not necessarily available. Controlled airspace is
intended to ensure separation of IFR aircrafts from aircrafts using
both IFR and VFR.
[0065] The FAA airspace classifications are as follows: [0066]
Class A Class A airspace encompasses the en route, high-altitude
environment used by aircraft to transit from one area of the
country to another. All aircraft in Class A must operate under IFR.
Class A airspace exists within the United States from 18,000 feet
mean sea level (MSL) to and including 60,000 feet MSL. [0067] Class
B All aircraft, both IFR and VFR, in Class B airspace are subject
to positive control from ATC. Class B airspace exists at 29
high-density airports in the United States for of managing air
traffic activity around these airports. It is designed to regulate
the flow of air traffic above, around, and below the arrival and
departure routes used by airline carriers' aircrafts at major
airports. The ATC can manage aircraft in and around the immediate
vicinity of an airport. Aircrafts operating within this area are
required to maintain radio communication with the ATC. No
separation services are provided to VFR aircraft. [0068] Class C
Class C airspace is defined around airports with airport traffic
control towers and radar approach control. It normally has two
concentric circular areas with a diameter of 10 and 20 nautical
miles. Variations in the shape are often made to accommodate other
airports or terrain. The top of Class C airspace is normally set at
4,000 feet AGL. The FAA has established Class C airspace at
approximately 120 airports around the country. Aircraft operating
in Class C airspace must have specific radio and navigation
equipment, including an altitude encoding transponder, and must
obtain ATC clearance. VFR aircraft are only separated from IFR
aircraft in Class C airspace (i.e., ATC does not separate VFR
aircraft from other VFR aircraft, as this is the respective pilot's
responsibility). [0069] Class D Class D airspace is normally a
circular area with a radius of five miles around the primary
airport. This controlled airspace extends upward from the surface
to about 2,500 feet AGL. When instrument approaches are used at an
airport, the airspace is normally designed to encompass the
aircraft flight control procedures. [0070] Class E Class E airspace
is a general category of controlled airspace that is intended to
provide air traffic service and adequate separation for IFR
aircraft from other aircraft. Although Class E is controlled
airspace, VFR aircraft are not required to maintain contact with
ATC, but are only permitted to operate in VMC. In the eastern
United States, Class E airspace generally exists from 700/1200 feet
AGL to the bottom of Class A airspace at 18,000 feet MSL. It
generally fills in the gaps between Class B, C, and D airspace at
altitudes below 18,000 feet MSL. Federal Airways, including Victor
Airways, below 18,000 feet MSL are classified as Class E airspace.
[0071] Class F Not Applicable within United States [0072] Class G
Airspace not designated as Class A, B, C, D, or E is considered
uncontrolled, Class G, airspace. ATC does not have the authority or
responsibility to manage of air traffic within this airspace. In
the Eastern U.S., Class G airspace lies between the surface and
700/1200 feet AGL.
[0073] There are also many types and areas of special use airspace
administered by the FAA: [0074] Prohibited Areas where, for reasons
of national security, the flight of an aircraft is not permitted
are designated as prohibited areas. Prohibited areas are depicted
on aeronautical charts. For example, a prohibited area (P-56)
exists over the White House and U.S. Capitol. [0075] Restricted In
certain areas, the flight of aircraft, while not wholly prohibited
is subject to restrictions. These designated often have invisible
hazards to aircraft, such as artillery firing, aerial gunnery, or
guided missiles. Aircraft operations in these areas are prohibited
during times when it is "active." [0076] Warning A warning area
contains many of the same hazards as a restricted area, but because
it occurs outside of U.S. airspace, aircraft operations cannot be
legally restricted within the area. Warning areas are typically
established over international waters along the coastline of the
United States. [0077] Alert Alert areas are shown on aeronautical
charts to provide information of unusual types of aerial activities
such as parachute jumping areas or high concentrations of student
pilot training. [0078] Military Operations Area Military operations
areas (MOA) are blocks of airspace in which military training and
other military maneuvers are conducted. MOA's have specified floors
and ceilings for containing military activities. VFR aircraft are
not restricted from flying through MOAs while they are in
operation, but are encouraged to remain outside of the area.
[0079] Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is a next
generation surveillance technology incorporating both air and
ground aspects and can provide the ATC with a more accurate
information of the aircraft's three-dimensional position in the en
route, terminal, approach, and surface environments. It has been
shown to be an efficient and effective mechanism to replace the
classic radar environment currently in use.
[0080] High level features of ADS-B include: [0081]
Automatic--properly-equipped aircraft automatically report their
position, without need for a radar interrogation [0082]
Dependent--ADS-B depends on aircraft having an approved WAAS GPS on
board and an ADS-B Out transmitter [0083] Surveillance--it is a
surveillance technology that allows ATC to watch airplanes move
around [0084] Broadcast--aircraft broadcast their position
information to airplanes and ATC
[0085] ADS-B doesn't need radar to work properly, but it will uses
a network of ground stations to receive aircraft reports and send
them back to ATC. These stations also transmit weather and traffic
information back up to properly-equipped aircraft. This network
currently consists of over 400 stations.
[0086] ADS-B is automatic because no external interrogation is
required. It is dependent because it relies on onboard position
sources and broadcast transmission systems to provide surveillance
information to ATC and other users, such as ATC and nearby aircraft
and pilots.
[0087] ADS-B is made up of two main parts: ADS-B Out and ADS-B In.
ADS-B Out is of interest to controllers, while ADS-B In is mostly
of interest to pilots. ADS-B Out is a surveillance technology for
tracking aircraft--it's what ATC needs to manage traffic. It
reports an aircraft's position, velocity, and altitude once per
second. This transmission is received by ATC and nearby aircraft
and this data makes up the equivalent of a radar display. Most
aircraft will be required to have ADS-B Out by the year 2020. ADS-B
In allows an aircraft to receive transmissions from ADS-B ground
stations and other aircraft. Final ADS-B Out rules were finalized
in 2011. All aircraft will be required to have ADS-B Out equipment
to fly in Class A, B and C airspace, plus Class E airspace above
10,000 feet but not below 2,500 feet, by 2020.
[0088] The aircrafts forms the airborne portion of the ADS-B system
as the aircrafts provide ADS-B information in the form of a
broadcast of its identification, position, altitude, velocity, and
other information. The ground portion of the ADS-B system consists
of ADS-B ground stations, which receive such broadcasts from the
aircrafts and direct them to ATC automation systems for
presentation on a controller's display. Aircrafts that are equipped
with ADS-B IN capability can also receive these broadcasts and
display the information to improve the pilot's situation awareness
of other traffic.
[0089] Security Issues
[0090] Since UAVs typically operate via digital wireless signals,
the possibility exists for a malicious individual, bot, UAV or
similar device, to wirelessly install UAV malware, or exploit
software, and backdoor software that exploits (and overrides, or
hacks into) the manufacturers intended operating software. UAVs can
easily be identified via their radio frequency signals emitting
from their transmitter. One such company, Domestic Drone
Countermeasures, LLC, provides a plurality of sensor equipment
that, when positioned in an area of interest, create a custom
wireless mesh network among its sensors, to detect a UAVs' location
using triangulation.
[0091] UAVs are capable of operating without RF communications
(also "links" herein), or lost or jammed links. Typically, a flight
plan is downloaded into the UAV's computing system that provides
all required navigation data. These UAVs use the navigation data to
operate an autopilot on the UAV, thus negating the requirement for
constant radio communication between a UAV and its pilot or other
navigation controller. In order to detect these types of UAV
flights, one company, Droneshield, has a patent-pending acoustic
detection technology to detect UAVs without RF links, such as those
that operate on autopilot. Typical maximum range is on the order of
200 feet with low-wind conditions. The technology includes a
database of common UAV acoustic signatures, to reduce the
likelihood of generating false alarms, such as those from lawn
mowers and leaf blowers.
[0092] Defense contractor, Israel Aerospace Industries, is
designing a radar truck that specifically looks for UAV signatures.
The U.S. Air Force Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System
(JSTARS) is being mounted on a test jet for counter-UAV
exercises.
[0093] A. Moses, M. J. Rutherford, and K. P. Valavanis, individuals
at the University of Denver, Colo., have authored a 2011 paper that
proposes means to detect miniature Air vehicles (<25 kg
rotorcraft): "Radar-Based Detection and Identification for
Miniature Air Vehicles," herein incorporated by reference. This
paper proposes modifying a light weight X band (10.5 GHz) radar
system to scan for Doppler signatures of small air vehicles (UAVs
or drones).
[0094] W. Shi, et al, with the MITRE Corp., wrote a paper,
"Detecting, Tracking and Identifying Airbrone Threats with Netted
Sensor Fence," herein incorporated by reference, using a low-power
pulse-Doppler radar "fence," with a range of about 5 km. Other
methods explored included IR detection with optical sensors, and
acoustic sensors.
[0095] A paper in 2011 by M. Peacock, et al, with the ECU Security
Research Institute (Australia), provided early details of wireless
signal identification and control exploitation: "Towards Detection
and Control of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," herein
incorporate by reference.
[0096] In November, 2014, the DoD issued an RFI called project
Thunderstorm, with the intent to invite technologists to respond to
the need to detecting and countering Commercial Off The Shelf
(COTS) based UAV (Unmanned Aerial systems) with potential WMD
payloads (Spiral 15-3b). Demonstrations are expected to be
performed in Camp Shelby, MS in 2Q2015. Pennsylvania State
University's Applied Research Laboratory (ARL/PSU) will act as the
demonstration director for spiral 15 demonstrations.
[0097] The DoD is interested in remote detection ranges up to 1,000
feet. Beyond detection of target UAVs, the need exists to detect
and identify chemical and/or biological agents and weapons.
Chemical agents include biological warfare agents (e.g., Sarin, and
vegetative cells, spores, and standard G, H and V series chemical
agents), and radiological and nuclear materials The detectors are
expected to be mounted on search UAVs, capable of 30 minute
flights, an autonomous operation (takeoff, surveillance and
landing), as well as utilizing and/or detecting wireless systems
such as Wi-Fi and cellular radio system infrastructure. Location
accuracy should be within +/-10 meters position, and 1 meter
accuracy in altitude.
[0098] In the case of RF wireless controlled UAVs, malicious UAV
software installations can occur quickly and without the knowledge
or permission of UAV owner/manufacturer. In an area of interest,
wireless signals are monitored to find UAV-specific characteristics
(typically MAC addresses). Using standard wireless protocols and
malware exploit software, wireless signal control is re-directed to
a wireless, rogue controller system that assumes control of the
targeted UAV. Once wireless signal control is achieved, other
backdoor capabilities include access to various UAV, or quadcopter
sensors, video feeds and control subsystems.
[0099] A specific UAV malware example is "SkyJack," provided on the
Internet by Samy Kamkar (India). Skyjack is primarily a Perl
application running on a Linux machine that also includes
"aircrack-ng". This program, in communication with a wireless
adapter such as the Alfa AWUS036H wireless card, listens to Wi-Fi
signals and identifies wireless networks and clients. UAV
manufacturers identities can be determined via their MAC addresses
and the IEEE Registration Authority OUI. Once the UAV wireless
network has been identified, such as Parrott, the clients or UAVs,
can be compromised. The program "aireplay-ng," in addition to the
wireless card, supports raw packet injection. This capability is
used to deauthenticate the true owner of the UAV being targeted.
Another program, "node-ar-drone," along with the wireless card,
reauthenticates the targeted UAV with the wireless card associated
with the malicious controller system, thus reconnecting it to the
now free Parrot AR UAV as its new owner. A Java script called
"[node.] s," with the wireless card, is then invoked that assumes
control of the compromised UAV.
[0100] In addition to control, video and sensor data can be
received by the malicious system. After the UAV is hijacked,
backdoor payload program or botnet can be installed into the UAV's
software operating system, such as Rahul Sasi's "Maldrone."
Maldrone provides access to sensors via serial ports, such as: (a)
inertial measurements unit (IMU), (b) 6 Degree Of Freedom
gyroscope, (c) 3 DOF magnetometer, (d) ultrasound sensor (used for
low altitude measurements), (e) a pressure sensor (altitude
measurement at all altitudes, and (f) a GPS sensor. [0101] An
outline of the steps that Maldrone executes includes: [0102] Step
1: Kills the drone program, e.g., program.elf [0103] Step 2: Setup
a proxy serial port for navboard and others. [0104] Step 3:
Redirect actual serial port communication to fake ports [0105] Step
4: Patch program.elf and make it open our proxy serial ports.
[0106] Step 5: Maldrone communicates to serial ports directly
[0107] Now all serial communication to navigation control board
goes via Maldrone. Maldrone, also termed a botnet, can intercept
and modify UAV data on the fly. The botnet uses the wireless UAV
connection to connect to a botserver, operated by a botmaster. One
wireless adapter useful in this regard is the Edimax EW-7811Un
wireless USB adapter, which allows Skyjack to launch its own
network of botserver(s).
[0108] A botmaster is a person who operates the command and control
of botnets for remote execution. Botnets are typically installed on
compromised machines via various forms of remote code
installations. Detecting botnets and their servers are often
difficult, and identities are hidden via proxies. TOR shells
disguise their IP address, thus precluding detection by authorized
investigators and law enforcement.
[0109] The botmaster can next create a man-in-the-middle attack, by
re-establishing a wireless signal authorization request sent to the
original UAV owner's wireless controller. Once wireless
authentication is achieved, the UAV's botnet, in conjunction with
the botserver, can re-direct signals and controls messages between
the UAV and the original owner's wireless control system. This
procedure provides the allusion that no UAV hacking has occurred,
and that no compromises are in effect.
[0110] Other types of UAV malware, such as Dongcheol Hond's
HSDrone, made at SEWORKS, can spread itself automatically to an
entire army of UAVs in a wireless networked area.
[0111] UAV, often being constructed using stealth materials such as
graphite composites, generally evade traditional FAA area
controller, X-band radar. A DJI Phantom quad-copter UAV flew
successfully and without notice onto the white house property, in
January of 2015. Radar systems are designed to only detect larger
objects, such as missiles and airplanes, that operate at higher
altitudes.
[0112] In commercial UAV management, Brian Field-Elliot's PixiePath
startup provides services and tools, or adapters for DJI and
PIXHawk-based UAVs to send telemetry to the cloud, then waits for
positioning commands, to manage whole fleets of UAVs. Dan Patt,
DARPA, is interested in promoting large aircraft that could
air-drop smaller UAVs.
[0113] Last year, 3D Robotics announced its Iris quadcopter UAV.
Like other similar products, it can either be flown manually using
radio remote control, or it can use its onboard GPS to autonomously
fly between a series of preprogrammed waypoints. The company
announced its successor, the Iris +, that includes a Follow Me
function, which allows it to automatically fly along above a moving
ground-based GPS-enabled Android device. This means that when
equipped with, for example, a GoPro actioncam, the UAV can get
tracking footage of a person moving around, such as cycling, skiing
or surfing.
SUMMARY
[0114] The present application is directed to methods and systems
of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
[0115] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing communication service to a plurality of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area
of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a communication
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), where the communication UAV includes
a communication component for communicating with the plurality of
UAVs and a second communication component for communicating with a
communication point, where the communication point including one of
(a) a terrestrial communication station, (b) a communication
satellite, and (c) a second communication UAV, when the
communication UAV is active within the predetermined operational
area, wherein the communication UAV provides the plurality of UAVs
communication with the communication point.
[0116] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing communication service to a plurality of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area
of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes, where a plurality
of communication unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where each of the
communication UAVs includes a first communication component for
communicating with the plurality of UAVs and a second communication
component for communicating with a communication point, the
communication point including one of (a) a terrestrial
communication station, (b) a communication satellite, and (c) a
second communication UAV, when the each communication UAV is active
within the operational area, wherein the plurality of communication
UAVs are arranged spatially for providing a communication coverage
through the first communication component within the predetermined
operational area for the plurality of UAVs, and wherein the
communication UAV provides the plurality of UAVs communication with
the communication point through the second communication component.
In an aspect, the second communication component includes an
orientable directional antenna for accessing a directed
communication signal. In an aspect, one of the communication UAVs
further includes a third communication component, the third
communication component including a second orientable directional
antenna for accessing a second directed communication signal
different from the directed communication signal, where the third
communication component for communicating with at least one other
communication point, and wherein the one communication UAV includes
a flight control component for orientating the one communication
UAV to a position for according sufficient signal strengths to each
of the directed communication signal and the second directed
communication signal. In an aspect, the plurality of communication
UAVs are arranged in a daisy-chain configuration.
[0117] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing communication service to a plurality of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area
of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a communication
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), where the communication UAV
including (A) through (C) following: (A) a first communication
component for communicating with the plurality of UAVs; (B) a
second communication component for communicating with a
communication point, the communication point being one of (a) a
terrestrial communication station, (b) a communication satellite,
and (c) another of the communication UAVs; and (C) a third
communication component for communicating with one other
communication point, when the communication UAV is active within
the predetermined operational area of the unmanned aerial vehicle
system, where a processor for performing a channel bonding
operation with communication with the communication point through
the second communication component and communication with the one
other communication point through the third communication
component, wherein the communication UAV provides the plurality of
UAVs communication with the communication point and the other
communication point. In an aspect, communication with the plurality
of UAVs through the first communication component uses an
unallocated spectrum. In an aspect, the communication through the
second communication component and the communication through the
third communication component each uses a different one of an
allocated spectrum. In an aspect, the communication through the
second communication component and the communication through the
third communication component each uses a same one of an allocated
spectrum.
[0118] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing communication service to a plurality of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area
of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a communication
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), where the communication UAV
including a communication component for communicating with the
plurality of UAVs and a second communication component for
communicating with a communication point, the communication point
being one of (a) a terrestrial communication station, (b) a
communication satellite, and (c) a second communication UAV, when
the communication UAV is active within the predetermined
operational area, wherein the communication point includes a
cellular base station, and wherein cellular communication with the
plurality of UAVs through the communication component is routed
through communication with the cellular base station through the
second communication component.
[0119] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing an aerial traffic service to a plurality of unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational
area of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a communication
station, where the communication station including a communication
component for communicating with the plurality of UAVs and a second
communication component for communicating with a system providing
the aerial traffic service, when the communication station is
active within the operational area, wherein information related to
communications for the aerial traffic service through the second
communication component is provided by the communication station to
the plurality of UAVs through the communication component. In an
aspect, the communication station is a communication unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV). In an aspect, the aerial traffic service
includes one of an air traffic control (ATC) system, aircraft
communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS), traffic
collision avoidance system (TCAS), and automatic dependent
surveillance--broadcast (ADS-B) system. In an aspect, the
communication station further comprises a processor for determining
an applicability of a communication from the system providing the
aerial traffic service to at least one of the plurality of the
UAVs, and wherein, responsive to a determination of the
applicability, information related to the communication is sent to
an operator of the at least one UAV. In an aspect, the
communication station further includes a processor for determining
an applicability of at least one of the plurality of the UAVs to
the system providing the aerial traffic service for a direct
communication between an operator of the at least one UAV and the
system providing the aerial traffic service, and wherein
information for establishing the direct communication is
transmitted to the system providing the aerial traffic service. In
an aspect, the information includes information for establishing a
voice communication over a packet network. In an aspect, the
communication station further comprises a processor for aggregating
communications related to the aerial traffic service from the
plurality of UAVs and wherein the aggregated communications is
transmitted through the second communication component.
[0120] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing a location service for a plurality of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined operational area
of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a communication
station, where the communication station including a communication
component for communicating with the plurality of UAVs and a second
communication component for communicating with a communication
point being a terrestrial communication station, when the
communication UAV is active within the predetermined operational
area, wherein the communication station includes a processor for
determining a location estimate of at least one of the plurality of
UAVs using signal characteristics of communication with the at
least one UAV and the communication station. In an aspect, one or
more additional location estimates of the at least one UAV are
accessible to the communication station, the one or more location
estimates based on one or more of (a) a location estimate from a
geolocation component of the at least one UAV, (b) a location
estimate provided by a aerial traffic service, and (c) a location
estimate based on tracking data of the at least one UAV from the
UAV system, wherein the determining by the processor includes
weighting the location estimate and the one or more additional
location estimates based on a reliability of each of the location
estimate and the one or more additional location estimates.
[0121] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
tracking a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating
within a predetermined operational area of the unmanned aerial
vehicle system includes a plurality of communication stations,
where each of the communication stations including a first
communication component for communicating with at least one of the
plurality of UAVs, when the communication station are active within
the operational area, wherein the plurality of communication UAVs
are arranged spatially for providing a communication coverage
through the first communication component within the predetermined
operational area for the plurality of UAVs; and a station including
a processor for estimating a path of one of the plurality of UAVs
operating in the operational area using one or more previous
location estimates of the one UAV, where the location estimates
based on one or more of (a) signal characteristics of communication
with the at least one UAV and the communication station, (b) a
location estimate from a geolocation component of the at least one
UAV, (c) a location estimate provided by a aerial traffic service,
and (d) a location estimate based on tracking data of the plurality
of UAVs from the UAV system. In an aspect, the one UAV is not
communicating with the plurality of communication stations. In an
aspect, the one UAV has exited the predetermined operational area.
In an aspect, the estimating the path by the processor includes
comparing a previous path of the one UAV with a plurality of flight
patterns of UAVs.
[0122] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
controlling a predetermined operational area of the unmanned aerial
vehicle system for a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
includes a plurality of communication stations, where each of the
communication stations including a first communication component
for communicating with a plurality of UAVs, when the communication
station are active within the predetermined operational area,
wherein the plurality of communication stations are arranged
spatially for providing a communication coverage through the first
communication component within the predetermined operational area
for the plurality of UAVs operating in the predetermined
operational area, wherein the operating area includes an area of
managed operation for the plurality of UAVs by the unmanned aerial
vehicle system through communications between the plurality of
communication stations and the plurality of UAVs. In an aspect, one
or more of location estimates and trajectory estimates are tracked
for the plurality of UAVs based on one or more of (a) signal
characteristics of communications of the plurality of the UAVs and
the plurality of the communication stations, (b) location estimates
from a geolocation component of the plurality of the UAVs, (c)
location estimates provided by one or more aerial traffic services,
and (d) location estimates based on tracking data of the plurality
of the UAVs from the unmanned aerial vehicle system. In an aspect,
a database is accessible by the unmanned aerial vehicle system for
setting a representation of the operational area, the
representation being consistent with the database, the database
including one or more conditions for an acceptability of UAV
operation in one or more geographical areas, and wherein the
unmanned aerial vehicle system, using a processor, compares the one
or more location estimates and trajectory estimates with the
representation for determining an acceptability of operation for
one or more of the plurality of the UAVs. In an aspect,
communication is sent to the one or more UAVs through the plurality
of the communication stations based on the acceptability. In an
aspect, a database is accessible by the UAV system for setting a
representation of the operational area, where the representation
being consistent with the database, the database including
conditions based on one or more rules for acceptability of UAV
operation in one or more geographical areas. In an aspect, the UAV
system, using a processor, determines a travel path for one of the
plurality of the UAVs based on the representation and a
predetermined path of the one UAV, and wherein communication based
on the travel path is transmitted to the one UAV through the
plurality of the communication stations. In an aspect, the UAV
system, using a processor, determines a flow of travel within the
operational area for the plurality of the UAVs based on one or more
conditions of the representation, and wherein communication based
on the flow is sent to the one UAV through the plurality of the
communication stations. In an aspect, the conditions include rules
for airspaces related to the operational area. In an aspect, the
conditions include temporary notices for airspaces related to the
operational area. In an aspect, the conditions includes information
from an aerial traffic service. In an aspect, the communication
includes communication for limiting at least one of the UAVs from
entering the operational area. In an aspect, communication based on
the one or more of the location estimates and the trajectory
estimates are transmitted to an aerial traffic service. In an
aspect, the communication includes an aggregation of the one or
more of the one or more of the location estimates and the
trajectory estimates for at least one of the UAVs. In an aspect,
the unmanned aerial vehicle system receives information related to
an acceptability of operation of the UAVs through communications
from the UAVs through the communication stations. In an aspect, the
information includes information of an entity related to at least
one of the UAVs, and wherein UAV system tracks the operation of the
UAVs in the operational area.
[0123] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes
an optical system for detecting an aerial target within a vicinity
of the UAV, when the UAV is in operation; a processor for
determining, based on a detected flight characteristic of the
aerial target by the optical system that the aerial target
maintains a constant azimuth and elevation relative to the UAV; and
a flight control system for maneuvering the UAV to avoid a
collision with the aerial target.
[0124] In an embodiment, an unmanned aerial vehicle system for
providing a surveillance service of an airspace to a plurality of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating within a predetermined
operational area of the unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a
communication UAV, where the communication UAV including a first
communication component for communicating with the plurality of
UAVs, a second communication component for transceiving first
communication related to the surveillance service through a first
channel, and a second communication component for transceiving
second communication related to the surveillance service through a
second channel, when the communication UAV is active within the
predetermined operational area, and wherein information related to
the first communication and the second communication are provided
by the communication UAV to the plurality of UAVs through the
communication component in sufficiently real time.
[0125] The phrases "at least one," "one or more," and "and/or"
refer to open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and
disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions "at
least one of A, B and C," "at least one of A, B, or C," "one or
more of A, B, and C," "one or more of A, B, or C" and "A, B, and/or
C" means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C
together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.
[0126] The term "a" or "an" entity refers to one or more of that
entity. As such, the terms "a" (or "an"), "one or more" and "at
least one" can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be
noted that the terms "comprising," "including," and "having" can be
used interchangeably.
[0127] The term "automatic" and variations thereof refers to any
process or operation done without material human input when the
process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation
can be automatic, even though performance of the process or
operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is
received before performance of the process or operation. Human
input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the
process or operation will be performed.
[0128] Human input that consents to the performance of the process
or operation is not deemed to be "material."
[0129] The term "computer-readable medium" refers to any tangible
storage and/or transmission medium that participate in providing
instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium may take
many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media,
volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media
includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks.
Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common
forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy
disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other
magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other
optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium
with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a
solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or
cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other
medium from which a computer can read. A digital file attachment to
e-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of
archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a
tangible storage medium. When the computer-readable media is
configured as a database, it is to be understood that the database
may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical,
object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure is
considered to include a tangible storage medium or distribution
medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in
which the software implementations of the present disclosure are
stored.
[0130] The term "module," refers to any known or later developed
hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic,
or combination of hardware and software that is capable of
performing the functionality associated with that element.
[0131] The terms "determine," "calculate," and "compute," and
variations thereof are used interchangeably and include any type of
methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.
[0132] It shall be understood that the term "means" shall be given
its broadest possible interpretation in accordance with 35 U.S.C.,
Section 112(f). Accordingly, a claim incorporating the term "means"
shall cover all structures, materials, or acts set forth herein,
and all of the equivalents thereof. Further, the structures,
materials or acts and the equivalents thereof shall include all
those described in the summary of the invention, brief description
of the drawings, detailed description, abstract, and claims
themselves.
[0133] Embodiments herein presented are not exhaustive, and further
embodiments may be now known or later derived by one skilled in the
art.
[0134] Functional units described in this specification and figures
may be labeled as modules, or outputs in order to more particularly
emphasize their structural features. A module and/or output may be
implemented as hardware, e.g., comprising circuits, gate arrays,
off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or
other discrete components. They may be fabricated with
Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) techniques. A module and/or
output may also be implemented in programmable hardware such as
field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic,
programmable logic devices or the like. Modules may also be
implemented in software for execution by various types of
processors. In addition, the modules may be implemented as a
combination of hardware and software in one embodiment.
[0135] An identified module of programmable or executable code may,
for instance, include one or more physical or logical blocks of
computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an
object, procedure, or function. Components of a module need not
necessarily be physically located together but may include
disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when
joined logically together, include the module and achieve the
stated function for the module. The different locations may be
performed on a network, device, server, and combinations of one or
more of the same. A module and/or a program of executable code may
be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be
distributed over several different code segments, among different
programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, data or
input for the execution of such modules may be identified and
illustrated herein as being an encoding of the modules, or being
within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and
organized within any suitable type of data structure.
[0136] In one embodiment, the system, components and/or modules
discussed herein may include one or more of the following: a server
or other computing system including a processor for processing
digital data, memory coupled to the processor for storing digital
data, an input digitizer coupled to the processor for inputting
digital data, an application program stored in one or more machine
data memories and accessible by the processor for directing
processing of digital data by the processor, a display device
coupled to the processor and memory for displaying information
derived from digital data processed by the processor, and a
plurality of databases or data management systems.
[0137] In one embodiment, functional block components, screen
shots, user interaction descriptions, optional selections, various
processing steps, and the like are implemented with the system. It
should be appreciated that such descriptions may be realized by any
number of hardware and/or software components configured to perform
the functions described. Accordingly, to implement such
descriptions, various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory
elements, processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables,
input-output devices, displays and the like may be used, which may
carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more
microprocessors or other control devices.
[0138] In one embodiment, software elements may be implemented with
any programming, scripting language, and/or software development
environment, e.g., Fortran, C, C++, C#, COBOL, Apache Tomcat,
Spring Roo, Web Logic, Web Sphere, assembler, PERL, Visual Basic,
SQL, SQL Stored Procedures, AJAX, extensible markup language (XML),
Flex, Flash, Java, .Net and the like. Moreover, the various
functionality in the embodiments may be implemented with any
combination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or
other programming elements.
[0139] In one embodiment, any number of conventional techniques for
data transmission, signaling, data processing, network control, and
the like as one skilled in the art will understand may be used.
Further, detection or prevention of security issues using various
techniques known in the art, e.g., encryption, may also be used in
embodiments of the invention. Additionally, many of the functional
units and/or modules, e.g., shown in the figures, may be described
as being "in communication" with other functional units and/or
modules. Being "in communication" refers to any manner and/or way
in which functional units and/or modules, such as, but not limited
to, input/output devices, computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile
devices, smart phones, modules, and other types of hardware and/or
software may be in communication with each other. Some non-limiting
examples include communicating, sending and/or receiving data via a
network, a wireless network, software, instructions, circuitry,
phone lines, Internet lines, fiber optic lines, satellite signals,
electric signals, electrical and magnetic fields and/or pulses,
and/or the like and combinations of the same.
[0140] By way of example, communication among the users,
subscribers and/or server in accordance with embodiments of the
invention may be accomplished through any suitable communication
channels, such as, for example, a telephone network, an extranet,
an intranet, the Internet, cloud based communication, point of
interaction devices (point of sale device, personal digital
assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, and the like), online
communications, off-line communications, wireless communications,
RF communications, cellular communications, Wi-Fi communications,
transponder communications, local area network (LAN)
communications, wide area network (WAN) communications, networked
or linked devices and/or the like. Moreover, although embodiments
of the invention may be implemented with TCP/IP communications
protocols, other techniques of communication may also be
implemented using IEEE protocols, IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS,
OSI or any number of existing or future protocols. Specific
information related to the protocols, standards, and application
software utilized in connection with the Internet is generally
known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not be
detailed herein.
[0141] In embodiments of the invention, the system provides and/or
receives a communication or notification via the communication
system to or from an end user. The communication is typically sent
over a network, e.g., a communication network. The network may
utilize one or more of a plurality of wireless communication
standards, protocols or wireless interfaces (including LTE, CDMA,
WCDMA, TDMA, UMTS, GSM, GPRS, OFDMA, WiMAX, FLO TV, Mobile DTV,
WLAN, and Bluetooth technologies), and may be provided across
multiple wireless network service providers. The system may be used
with any mobile communication device service (e.g., texting, voice
calls, games, videos, Internet access, online books, etc.), SMS,
MMS, email, mobile, land phone, tablet, smartphone, television,
vibrotactile glove, voice carry over, video phone, pager, relay
service, teletypewriter, and/or GPS and combinations of the
same.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0142] FIG. 1 illustrates a component view of a UAV according to an
embodiment.
[0143] FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of an emergency object avoidance
procedure of a UAV according to an embodiment.
[0144] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary scenario of a performance of
an emergency object avoidance procedure according to an
embodiment.
[0145] FIGS. 4A-4D illustrate exemplary scenario of a payload
delivery system using UAVs according to an embodiment.
[0146] FIG. 5 describes the traditional air-to-air surveillance
methods using the 1090/1030 MHz band RF links to provide other
aircraft information about each other.
[0147] FIG. 6 shows a UAV package delivery flight path corridor and
absolute, "NO-FLY" zones according to an embodiment.
[0148] FIG. 7 shows an allowed flight area consisting of a
horizontal corridor, a "NO-FLY" zone in red, and an accepted
vertical drop-off path according to an embodiment.
[0149] FIG. 8 shows a depiction of package delivery UAVs flying
along a flight corridor according to an embodiment.
[0150] FIG. 9 illustrates how UAV RF communications can be secured
using virtual private networks (VPNs) or tunnels, along with packet
encryption, such as AES, according to an embodiment.
[0151] FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram of a UAT, ADS-B server-based
system for multiple UAVs according to an embodiment.
[0152] FIG. 11 illustrates a UAV flight path corridor system
according to an embodiment.
[0153] FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an
avionics systems for a UAV according to an embodiment.
[0154] FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a distance-based
position determination system for a UAV system according to an
embodiment.
[0155] FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a angle-based
position determination system for a UAV system according to an
embodiment.
[0156] FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a layout of a
general ADS-B system for a UAV system according to an
embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0157] In order to provide a more full disclosure of UAV systems
and methods, the following U.S. Patents are fully incorporated
herein by reference: [0158] (a) U.S. Pat. No. 7,469,183, entitled
"Navigating UAVs in Formation," which is directed to navigating
UAVs in formation, including assigning pattern positions to each of
a multiplicity of UAVs flying together in a pattern; identifying a
waypoint for each UAV in dependence upon the UAV's pattern
position; piloting the UAVs in the pattern toward their waypoints
in dependence upon a navigation algorithm, where the navigation
algorithm includes repeatedly comparing the UAV's intended position
and the UAV's actual position and calculating a corrective flight
vector when the distance between the UAV's actual and intended
positions exceeds an error threshold. The actual position of the
UAV may be taken from a GPS receiver on board the UAV; [0159] (b)
U.S. Pat. No. 7,970,532, entitled "Flight Path Planning to Reduce
Detection of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle," which is directed to
methods and systems for planning, managing, and executing the
flight path of an unmanned aerial vehicle are disclosed. In
particular, the methods and systems are designed to reduce the
likelihood that the UAV will be detected by determining a flight
path based on the proximity of the UAV to a point of interest and
the visual, acoustic, and infrared signatures of the UAV relative
to a point of interest.
[0160] Additionally, the methods and systems enable a UAV operator
to compare a recommend flight path and an altered flight path based
on how the altered flight path changes the proximity of the UAV to
a point of interest, and changes the visual, acoustic, and infrared
signatures of the UAV relative to a point of interest; [0161] (c)
U.S. Pat. No. 8,315,794, entitled "Method and System for GPS-denied
Navigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," which is direct to a
method and system for navigation of one or more unmanned aerial
vehicles in an urban environment is provided. The method comprises
flying at least one GPS-aided unmanned aerial vehicle at a first
altitude over an urban environment, and flying at least one
GPS-denied unmanned aerial vehicle at a second altitude over the
urban environment that is lower than the first altitude. The
unmanned aerial vehicles are in operative communication with each
other so that images can be transmitted therebetween. A first set
of images from the GPS-aided unmanned aerial vehicle is captured,
and a second set of images from the GPS-denied unmanned aerial
vehicle is also captured. Image features from the second set of
images are then matched with corresponding image features from the
first set of images. A current position of the GPS-denied unmanned
aerial vehicle is calculated based on the matched image features
from the first and second sets of images; [0162] (d) U.S. Pat. No.
8,543,265, entitled "Systems and Methods for Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle Navigation," which is directed to systems and methods for
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation are presented. A UAV is
configured with at least one flight corridor and flight path, and a
first UAV flight plan is calculated. During operation of the first
UAV flight plan, the UAV visually detects an obstacle, and
calculates a second UAV flight plan to avoid the obstacle.
Furthermore, during operation of either the first or the second UAV
flight plan, the UAV acoustically detects an unknown aircraft, and
calculates a third UAV flight plan to avoid the unknown aircraft.
Additionally, the UAV may calculate a new flight plan based on
other input, such as information received from a ground control
station; [0163] (e) U.S. Pat. No. 8,798,922, entitled
"Determination of Flight Path for Unmanned Aircraft in Event of
In-flight Contingency," which is directed to an enhanced control
system for an unmanned aerial vehicle adds constraints to the
process of choosing a flight path in the event of an in-flight
contingency, such as engine out or an encounter with jamming, which
forces a diversion or unplanned landing. The constraints are: (1)
ensure communications are available when needed during contingency
operations; and (2) ensure signals from a global positioning system
(or other navigation system) are available when needed during
contingency operations; [0164] (f) U.S. Pat. No. 8,965,679,
entitled "Systems and Methods for Unmanned Aircraft System
Collision Avoidance," which is directed to systems and methods are
operable to maintain a proscribed Self Separation distance between
a UAV and an object. In an example system, consecutive intruder
aircraft locations relative to corresponding locations of a self
aircraft are determined, wherein the determining is based on
current velocities of the intruder aircraft and the self aircraft,
and wherein the determining is based on current flight paths of the
intruder aircraft and the self aircraft. At least one evasive
maneuver for the self aircraft is computed using a processing
system based on the determined consecutive intruder aircraft
locations relative to the corresponding locations of the self
aircraft; [0165] (g) U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010/0224732, entitled
"Wirelessly Controlling Unmanned Aircraft and Accessing Associated
Surveillance Data," which is directed to controlling a UAV may be
accomplished by using a wireless device (e.g., cell phone) to send
a control message to a receiver at the UAV via a wireless
telecommunication network (e.g., an existing cellular network
configured primarily for mobile telephone communication). In
addition, the wireless device may be used to receive communications
from a transmitter at the UAV, wherein the wireless device receives
the communications from the transmitter via the wireless network.
Examples of such communications include surveillance information
and UAV monitoring information. [0166] (h) U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2014/0129059, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Extending the
Operation of An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle," which is directed to a
method of extending the operation of a UAV. The method comprises
detecting that an energy storage device on board the UAV is
depleted below a threshold level, landing the UAV at a base
station, and initiating operation of the base station to cause a
replacement mechanism thereof to remove the energy storage device
on board the UAV from the UAV and to replace this with another
energy storage device. [0167] (i) U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0249693,
entitled "Controlling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as a Flock to
Synchronize Flight in Aerial Displays," which is directed to a
system for flock-based control of a plurality of UAVs. The system
includes UAVs each including a processor executing a local control
module and memory accessible by the processor for use by the local
control module. The system includes a ground station system with a
processor executing a fleet manager module and with memory storing
a different flight plan for each of the UAVs. The flight plans are
stored on the UAVs, and, during flight operations, each of the
local control modules independently controls the corresponding UAV
to execute its flight plan without ongoing control from the fleet
manager module. The fleet manager module is operable to initiate
flight operations by concurrently triggering initiation of the
flight plans by the multiple UAVs. Further, the local control
modules monitor front and back and communication channels and, when
a channel is lost, operate the UAV in a safe mode. [0168] (j) U.S
Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0038501, entitled "Self-Configuring Universal
Access Transceiver," which is directed to techniques that allow
information to be acquired by an ADS-B system of an aircraft
without the installation of ADS-B dedicated flight crew controls or
wired data interfaces in the aircraft. [0169] (k) U.S. Pat. No.
7,469,183, entitled "Navigating UAVs in Formation," which is
directed to navigating UAVs in formation by waypoints and pattern
positions.
[0170] The terms described below are provided for convenience in
understanding at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.
Thus, the term descriptions following do not serve to necessarily
define or limit the scope of these terms in all embodiments
disclosed herein. In general, the term descriptions immediately
below are also referenced in various portions of this disclosure of
which such portions may expand upon these terms.
[0171] An "unmanned aircraft system" (UAS), "unmanned aerial
vehicle" (UAV), "unpiloted aerial vehicle," "remotely piloted
aircraft" (RPA), "aerial drone," "drone," or the like refers to a
system or vehicle capable of directed flight without a human pilot
aboard. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
classifies UASs into two types under Circular 328 AN/190, herein
incorporated by reference: autonomous aircraft, which are currently
considered unsuitable for regulation due to legal and liability
issues, and remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) which are subject to
civil regulation under ICAO and under the relevant national
aviation authority.
[0172] An "airspace" refers to all or a portion of a
three-dimensional volume of the atmosphere above a patch of the
terrestrial surface (including water). The airspace may be a
subdivided by one or more classifications (e.g., classes in
accordance to governmental or civil regulations or protocol), which
may be designated in accordance with one or more terrestrial
features or installations (e.g., airports, cities, military
installations, geographical features such as mountains) or height
level above ground (e.g., flight level, mean sea level (MSL), or
above ground level (AGL)).
[0173] A "controlled airspace" refers to an airspace having some
sort of air traffic control (ATC) therefor, wherein such ATC may
exercise some form of control of vehicles flying in the controlled
airspace, but it is not necessary that the air vehicles flying in
the controlled airspace interact with the ATC.
[0174] An "uncontrolled airspace" refers to an airspace where there
is no authorized ATC for providing air traffic control, but an ATC
may provide advisory information related to air traffic in such
uncontrolled airspace.
[0175] An "object" in or occupying an airspace generally refers to
a solid physical object is in the airspace. As used herein, the
object usually refers to an object of at least a sufficient size,
mass and/or velocity to operationally affect one or more of the
following aspects of a UAV coming in proximity or contact with the
object: (a) the flight path of the UAV, (b) the structural
integrity of the UAV, or (c) the safety of the UAV. An "object" is
usually not air itself, small aerial particulate such as air
particles, moisture, snow, or dust or small flying insects unless
such things operationally affect one or more of the
above-identified aspects. The object may be freely moving through
the airspace, under its own power (e.g., flying animals such as
birds, self-powered aircrafts, missiles), or with no internal power
(e.g., gliders, launched projectiles, falling objects under the
force of gravity such as meteors), or occupying the airspace but
attached to a point on the terrestrial surface (e.g., buildings and
extensions, antenna and cell towers).
[0176] A "device" (also referred to herein as a "component," or
"subcomponent") used in operating a UAV refers to one or a
combination of mechanical, electronic (including software),
structural, or other components that contribute to the operation of
the UAV. The device may be (i) physically located at or connected
to the UAV, (ii) accessible by the UAV (e.g., physically,
electronically, or wirelessly) while the UAV is operational, and/or
(ii) a component integral to the UAV.
[0177] A "communication component" of a UAV refers to one or more
components of the UAV for communicating with a device or system
that is not included in the UAV (e.g., a remote controller, flight
traffic controller, landing port, and flight guidance systems along
the flight path). Because the UAV may be typically configured to be
operational as a vehicle autonomously moving from one location to
another, communication to and from the UAV with an external device
or system is most likely performed wirelessly. For example,
wireless communication may include (a) direct wireless signal
communication between the UAV and the external device or system
such communication including communications via, e.g., free-space
optical communication using visible, or invisible light such as
infrared light, direct radio or spread spectrum signals such as
direct radio, 802.11, or Bluetooth signals, and/or (b) indirect
wireless communication at least routing the communication (or a
portion thereof) between the UAV and the external device or system
through an intermediate server provider or exchange (e.g., through
the Internet or other wide area network (WAN), cellular or personal
communication service (PCS) network, communication satellite,
and/or terrestrial microwave communication network).
[0178] An "orientation component" of a UAV refers to one or more
components that measures the relative position, direction, and/or
alignment of the UAV without needing an external reference point
(e.g., communicating with an external device or system to obtain or
determine the relative position, direction, and/or alignment of the
UAV). Typical orientation components of a UAV may include one or
more of an inertial measurements unit (IMU) (e.g., accelerometer,
magnetometer, and gyroscope), and ultrasound and/or pressure sensor
(for altitude measurement).
[0179] A "geolocation component" of a UAV refers to a component
that provides the UAV with data indicative of (i) an absolute
position (or geographical extent) of the UAV, wherein such position
or extent is provided in a predetermined geographical coordinate
system (e.g., a real-world latitude and longitude geographic
location on Earth and/or together with an altitude measurement),
and/or (ii) a location relative to a certain position or object, of
which the position or object itself may be either fixed (e.g., a
building) or moving (e.g., a moving vehicle) (e.g., the UAV being
at a certain direction and distance, e.g., 200 feet due west and
500 feet above, from the position or object).
[0180] A geolocation component may determine its location without
any real time geolocation communication with or access to a
geographical information device external to the UAV (e.g., the UAV
may be able to calculate or estimate its current position, during
flight, simply by accessing UAV onboard data without requiring UAV
geolocation data, indicative of this current position, being
communicated with any device separate from the UAV). In particular,
UAV onboard data may include: the starting position of the UAV, its
flight path data, (e.g., the time of flight, a record of its speed
and speed changes, orientation and orientation changes through the
various orientation components, and other factors affecting the
flight path such as wind speeds, all of which can be detected or
derived by the various components in the UAV). However, such a
geolocation component may also communicate with or access an
external resource in (near) real time for determining the UAV's
current position. For example, a "geolocation component" may
include a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) unit that
tracks GNSS signals provided by GNSS satellites (such as the Global
Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System
(GLONSS), Galileo, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System
(IRNSS), or BeiDou-2) to calculate the latitude and longitude
position of the UAV. In another example, such a geolocation
component may determine geolocation information by communications
with one or more wireless telecommunication infrastructures as
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,994,591 issued Mar. 31, 2015 (entitled
"Locating a Mobile Station and Applications Therefor"), and/or U.S.
Pat. No. 7,764,231 issued Jul. 27, 2010 (entitled "Wireless
Location Using Multiple Mobile Station Location Techniques"), each
of which is herein fully incorporated by reference.
[0181] A "navigation component" of a UAV refers to one or more
components included in the UAV, wherein for moving the UAV from a
first location to a second location, each such component: (i)
determines or uses information indicative of a route or flight path
for navigating the UAV from the first location to the second
location, (ii) calculates a direction of the UAV to travel for
navigating the UAV from the first location to the second location,
and/or (iii) directs or controls the flight of the UAV using the
information of (i), and/or the direction of (ii). One example of a
navigation component may includes a computational component or
system that determines the UAV's flight path consistent with UAV
flight and/or operation related information, such as stored or
received information related to (a) navigational charts and maps,
(b) flight area limitations (e.g., one or more "no fly zones"), (c)
elevation information including minimum or maximum UAV operating
elevations, (d) governmental regulations or restrictions (e.g.,
federal or local government regulations or ordinances for: noise
abatement, flight speed, or other restrictions based on location,
time of day, or other criteria such as private property access
restrictions), (e) weather conditions along various points of the
UAV flight path, (f) broadcasts from another one or more UAVs
and/or fixed terrestrial installations containing information such
as identification of the broadcast source, environmental
information, UAV distance or direction from such a broadcast
source, or other information) which may assist the UAV in
developing or altering a flight plan for the UAV. Another example
of a navigation component may include a computational component or
system that uses a received flight plan developed at a source
external to the UAV (e.g., by a remote operator or an external
computing system) as a basis for a flight path and making real-time
adjustments to the flight path taking into account the various
flight-related information as discussed above and herein in this
disclosure.
[0182] A "flight control component" of a UAV refers to one or more
components that affect the flight dynamics (e.g., controlling the
UAV's speed and direction of flight) of the UAV. For example, in a
rotorcraft type of UAV (e.g., quadcopter), the flight control
components includes one or more of each of the rotors and the
respective motor/engine (e.g., where the flight dynamics of the
rotorcraft is provided by spinning and the changing of the
direction and speed of the spin of the individual rotors).
[0183] In another example, the flight control components of a
fixed-wing type of UAV may include one or more of the throttle
(controlling the thrust of the engine), aileron (controlling the
roll and pitch), and the rudder (controlling the yaw).
[0184] A "sensory component" of a UAV refers to one or more
components that receives or captures information within the
physical vicinity of the UAV but that are not directed to the UAV
(like communications to and from external sources with the UAV).
Examples of a sensory component may include one or more of a camera
or a microphone installed on the UAV that captures respectively
video and images and sounds within the vicinity of the UAV. In
another example, a sensory component may include extra-human
sensory components like radar (e.g., for detecting other objects or
obstructions within the vicinity of the UAV for collision avoidance
or other uses) and weather Doppler (e.g., for detecting present
weather conditions within the vicinity of the UAV). Sensory
components may provide the information to other components of the
UAV for further operations of the UAV (e.g., providing video and
audio feeds to the communication components for communicating with
a remote operator and for the remote operator to control and pilot
the UAV, providing such feeds or other information to the
navigation components for automatic navigation and flight
operation).
[0185] A "limit" or "limitation" of a UAV refers to a constraint or
restriction placed on the UAV, either as a result of the intrinsic
limitation of the UAV, such as an operational limit limiting the
performance of the UAV, or by prescribed restriction, such as a
regulatory limit as provided by the government.
[0186] An "operational limit" of the UAV may include one or more of
a safe or emergency operational thresholds of the UAV or one or
more components of the UAV (e.g., the speed, operational ceiling,
maneuverability, or weigh limit of payload of the UAV due to engine
power or other factors, or the range of the UAV due to limitation
on battery power or communication distance).
[0187] A "regulatory limit" of the UAV may include one or more of
public (e.g., federal, state, local) or private (e.g., private
property rights such as overhead flight over a property) law,
regulation, ordinance, rules, or other limitations on one or more
operations of the UAV (e.g., speed, flight level, flight path,
operation in adverse weather, locations of restricted or "do not
fly" areas, etc.).
[0188] An "operating mode" of a UAV refers to any one of a
predetermined set of one or more UAV operating states, wherein for
each state there is associated data for configuring the UAV
components for activating, deactivating, and/or operating UAV
components in accordance with the data. For example, the UAV may
have an operating mode for each of: taking off, landing, hovering,
decoupling from or to a cargo load, avoiding a midair collision,
etc. Note, such operating modes need not be distinct from one
another. For example, an operating mode for use when the UAV is
following a predetermined flight path may activate a hover
operating mode upon detecting upcoming high wind shear.
[0189] In one type of an operating mode referred to as an
"automatic operating mode", the UAV may be operational (e.g.,
navigating and flying) according to pre-defined instructions for
operating states, where the pre-defined instructions is stored
within the UAV without consulting any external source of
instructions for operating the UAV during flight (e.g., for
directions on navigating or flying the UAV). However, a UAV in this
type of automatic operating mode may still be interrupted for other
instructions (e.g., emergency landing/shut-off) or a changing of
the operating mode (e.g., changing to a manual operating mode).
[0190] In one type of a operating mode referred to as an "directed
operating mode", the UAV may be dependent on instructions from an
external source (e.g., a human operator or an external
computer/electronic operator) for operating the UAV (e.g., direct,
navigate, and fly). A UAV in this type of directed operating mode
may still retain the ability to intervene with certain safe
operating instructions/procedures, such as to safety fly, hover, or
land if communication with the external source providing the
instructions is severed or if an emergency situation develops at or
near the UAV and it is determined that the external source operator
may not have the resources or ability to provide adequate
instructions (e.g., limited reaction time or flying skill for
certain automatic maneuvers or limited instruction/command
bandwidth of the communication link which may be due to weak
communication signal).
[0191] In one type of a operating mode referred to as an "hybrid
operating mode", the UAV may be in automatic operating mode for
certain portions (operations) of navigation and/or flight, and
directed operating mode for certain portions (operations) of
navigation and/or flight. For example, a UAV may be in directed
operating mode with a remote human operator responsible for the
direct duty of flying the UAV. However, the flight must be within
certain rules or parameters (e.g., area, speed, or height
restrictions as provided by certain regulatory limits). The UAV may
be pre-programmed to take over the flight in an automatic operating
mode to satisfy such flight rules and overriding the remote human
operator. Further, a UAV in the hybrid operating mode may still
retain the ability to direct certain safe operating
instructions/procedures (e.g., emergency landing or avoidance
procedures) as discussed above and herein with respect to this
disclosure with respect to the manual operating mode.
[0192] FIG. 1 illustrates a component view of an embodiment of a
UAV 100for the present disclosure. The UAV 100 includes one or more
of a UAV control system 110, communication components120 and
geolocation components 130, each coupled to one or more (an array)
of antennas 125, navigation components 140, orientation components
150, sensory components 160, and flight control components 170
(e.g., the flight control components including rotors, motors,
stabilizers, kinetic movement transfer mechanisms, etc.).
[0193] The UAV 100 may be extendable in that additional modules
and/or components (e.g., attachable modules) may be provided.
Examples of such additional modules may include a cargo hold for
transporting a payload (with or without automatic loading and
unloading of the payload), attachable/detachable containers for
water, fertilizer, or other liquids with individual embodiments of
such containers having a controlled release mechanism for
dispensing the container contents. Such a UAV 100 with container
may useful for transferring the container contents to farming,
fire-fighting, or other sites or persons in need of such contents.
In particular, for farming and emergency applications (e.g.,
firefighting) the container contents may be controllably dispensed
at discrete sites (e.g., liquid fertilizer at individual plants, or
fire retardant at discrete fire locations). Of course, various
types of containers may be provided or attached to the UAV 100 for
carrying various types of cargo. Further, the UAV 100 may include
lights, communication beacons, or other components for utilization
by the UAV, e.g., during flight or landing. In one embodiment, the
UAV 100 may also include solar panels or other power sources that
can help power the UAV to extend the range or operation of the UAV,
e.g., before having to return to a service facility for
recharging/refueling. The UAV 100 may also include appendages for
activities (such as grasping, walking, running, climbing, and/or
swimming) in a manner similar to various robots that have been
recently developed for such activities. Moreover, the UAV 100 may
be artificially intelligent in performing particular tasks in that,
e.g., the UAV may generate and perform new or unique sequences of
behaviors when the UAV encounters a situation or environment for
which the UAV has no predetermined technique for addressing.
[0194] One of the issues with UAVs is being able to protect its
components from physical damage or water damage if it falls into a
body of water, being that the components may be high value to the
overall costs of the UAV, and being able to salvage some components
may be a cost-effective value to the users of the UAV. In an
embodiment, except for the flight control components 170, the
remainder of the UAV 100 may be enclosed in a durable material,
waterproof casing(s). If the UAV falls into water, most components
(at least without the waterproof enclosure) may be salvageable.
Further, a waterproof enclosure may help protecting the UAV when
operating in elements such as rain (e.g., avoid exposing the
electronic components to conditions that may lead to malfunctioning
or short-circuiting).
[0195] In another embodiment, the enclosure of the UAV may be
constructed from materials and/or construction methods (e.g.,
Faraday cage) that shields the internal electronics from
electromagnetic (EM) radiation (e.g., from solar activities, cosmic
rays, or other natural or manmade activities). This may help
protect the electronics components of the UAV from malfunctioning
or short-circuiting, or other issues.
Flight and Navigation:
[0196] One important aspect for operating a UAV is the ability to
safely operate the UAV at all times while the UAV is operating in
an area. Safe operation is very important to a UAV because of the
unmanned nature (thus having at least perceived and perhaps real
image that the UAV may at times lack the ability of a human
operator to react to at least some unforeseen circumstances)
combined with the large consequences in the case of malfunction,
error, or other unforeseen circumstances (e.g., potentially UAVs
falling from the sky at high velocity or colliding with other
objects in the sky). One way to minimize such consequences is for
the UAV to have the ability to get to a safest condition (e.g.,
quickly landing and terminating operation or, if quick landing is
not possible, staying in place (hovering) or maneuvering to safe
airspace (to avoid needing to keep make complicated calculations
and decisions in dangerous airspace that may have or expected to
have difficult conditions such as adverse weather, other objects or
obstructions) in the shortest amount of time possible (as the
chance of accident increases with the amount of time left in
dangerous conditions).
[0197] It has been noted, in Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Federal
Actions Needed to Ensure Safety and Expand Their Potential Uses
within the National Airspace System, United States Government
Accountability Office, May 2008, herein incorporated by reference,
that FAA requires UAVs to meet the national airspace system's
safety requirements before they routinely access the system, which
includes and UAV presently do not have the ability to detect,
sense, and avoid other aircraft and airborne objects in a manner
similar to manned aircraft. With an aircraft, the requirements call
for a person operating the aircraft to maintain vigilance so as to
see and avoid other aircraft. Without a pilot on board to scan the
sky, UAVs do not have an on-board capability to directly "see"
other aircraft. Consequently, the UAV must possess the capability
to sense and avoid the object using on-board equipment, or do so
with assistance of a human on the ground or in a chase aircraft, or
by using other means, such as radar. Many UAVs, particularly
smaller models, will likely operate at altitudes below 18,000 ft,
sharing airspace with other objects, such as gliders. Sensing and
avoiding these other objects represents a particular challenge for
UAVs, since the other objects normally do not transmit an
electronic signal to identify themselves and FAA cannot mandate
that all aircraft or objects possess this capability so that UAVs
can operate safely.
[0198] In an embodiment, the UAV would be aware of its immediate
and not-so immediate vicinity. The awareness may be active
regardless of the operating mode that the UAV is presently in
(e.g., automatic operating mode, manual operating mode, or hybrid
operating mode).
[0199] The vicinity of the UAV may be dividing into one or more
zones, which may include the immediate zone A, the operating zone
B, and the observing zone C, explanatory purpose. The vicinity of
the UAV may also include a partial area of the flight path zone D.
Here, it is noted that the zones may change in real-time (or near
real-time) based on the present position (e.g., location, height,
etc.) and operating condition (e.g., speed, atmosphere and weather
condition, etc.) of the UAV.
[0200] It is noted that the other objects (that may occupy a
simultaneous zone as the UAV) may include objects that have the
ability and are relatively dependable to sense and avoid the UAV
(e.g., maneuverable human or computer controlled aerial vehicles,
certain intelligent flying animals) and objects that have no such
ability or dependability (e.g., inanimate objects such as
projectiles, meteor, or the like, certain relatively unintelligent
flying animals). It is further noted that the other objects may
include objects that have an obtainable and expectable flight path
(e.g., human or computer controlled aerial vehicles following a
flight plan and/or ATC instructions, inanimate objects that have no
self-power and follows a predictable path) and objects that have no
such obtainable and expectable flight path (e.g., flying animals,
rogue or malfunctioning aerial vehicles).
[0201] The immediate zone A is the zone presently occupied by the
UAV and the vicinity of which there would be a high probability of
accident (e.g., collision) which another object that is also within
this immediate zone A. For example, the immediate zone A may
include the vicinity of all portions of the UAV (including
extensions of UAV such as tows or antennas) at which the UAV is
currently occupying and/or may be expected to occupy in an
immediate future, even if the UAV would perform maneuvers up to the
limit (either operational or regulatory limits) to move the UAV in
another direction away from the expected occupation vicinity.
[0202] Specifically, if the UAV is flying forward along a flight
path at a certain speed, even if the UAV directs its flight control
to reverse (or redirect in another direction) the flight path,
there will be some time lag between the direction to the flight
control and when the UAV is actually reversed (or redirected)
(e.g., for a quadcopter UAV for example, because the rotors of the
UAV may need to change speed and/or reverse spin and affect the
surrounding air to change direction to negate the forward momentum
of the UAV). In that time lag, the UAV is still moving forward (or
at least one component of the UAV's motion is forward), requiring
additional space. As such, other objects that may occupy this
additional space are in danger of collision with the UAV.
Therefore, it is necessary that the UAV is the only object that is
occupying this immediate zone A.
[0203] It is further noted that some maneuvers and change of
direction may require more space (in some directions) than others.
For example, for a UAV moving forward and a reverse maneuver is
needed, more forward space is needed as compared to a maneuver to
turn in a 90 degrees direction (e.g., turn left or right) because
the reverse maneuver needs to negate the entirety of the forward
momentum of the UAV (thus requiring more time) while the 90 degree
turn transfers at least a portion of the forward momentum into
angular momentum for the turn (thus requiring less time). In a
further example, a UAV that is turning in one direction (e.g., to
the right) may need more space in that same direction to affect a
change of flight path from that direction (e.g., a UAV that is
turning right may have an immediate zone A with a larger right
area/volume than the left area/volume due to the needed additional
space). This is effectively based on a similar reason as the UAV
moving forward needing an immediate zone A with a larger forward
area. In an embodiment, immediate zone A may be defined/calculated
to take into account the maneuvering required (e.g., if it is known
that UAV will only need to perform certain subset of maneuvers at
certain times such as if the UAV is operating at a known site or
environment (e.g., indoor) where it is known that there are no
other objects expected) at a substantially present or immediate
future time.
[0204] In a preferred embodiment, all available maneuvers should be
available to the UAV, and the immediate zone A accordingly. It is
also noted that the maneuvering space needed may depend on
conditions such as the speed of the UAV, weather conditions,
altitude, and other conditions. The immediate zone A may be
defined/calculated accordingly or may be defined as the maximum
maneuvering space needed based on the limits of the UAV for the
most safety (or as required by rules and/or regulations).
[0205] The operating zone B is the next zone of the vicinity of the
UAV extending from (and encompassing) the immediate zone A and
includes a reasonable operating distance for the UAV (in terms of
the distance that would allow the UAV a certain reasonable time to
perform flight maneuver and/or operations). For example, the time
allowance may be on the order of seconds or minutes or more. In
this time allowance, the operating zone B would allow the UAV
enough distance to perform certain flight maneuvers that are
necessary in the short term such as to calculate and execute a
maneuver that could confidently avoid one or more other objects
(and in view of their expected flight paths) or keeping a safe
distance (time) from other objects. Such maneuvers may include one
or more of changing directions of the flight path, speeding up and
slowing down, stopping (hovering), and landing.
[0206] Similar to the immediate zone A, the operating zone B also
may be defined/calculated based on the distance (time) needed to
perform the certain maneuvers based on the present operating state
of the UAV. For example, if the UAV is moving relatively slowly, it
may need less distance to turn or stop (but it may also take more
time to perform a large radius turn since the UAV have less
momentum, which should also be taken into account). Alternatively,
if the UAV is moving relatively fast, it may need more distance to
turn (with a larger radius) or stop (but may perform the turn in
less time due to the higher angular momentum). As such, the size
(distance) operating zone B may be adjusted accordingly to allow
enough distance to perform the maneuver.
[0207] Also similar to the immediate zone A, the operating zone B
may depend on the maneuver or direction of travel presently being
performed by the UAV, because when the UAV is performing a maneuver
in one direction, the UAV may need more distance to compensate for
the added momentum in that direction.
[0208] In an embodiment, the operating zone B may be defined by
rules and/or regulations governing the spacing of UAVs, similar to
present rules and/or regulations on minimum time or spacing between
manned aircrafts.
[0209] The observing zone C is a zone of the vicinity of the UAV
extending from (and encompassing) the UAV to the sensory range
limit of the one or more sensory components of the UAV. In a
preferred embodiment, the observing zone C should be larger and at
least encompassing the immediate zone A and the operating zone B to
ensure that the UAV has at least adequate information regarding the
vicinity for maneuvering.
[0210] In an embodiment, the UAV is configured to observe
(constantly) the observing zone C for other objects using
information provided by the sensory components (e.g., pictures and
videos from an on-board camera, information from an on-board radar)
and other information provided by external sources (e.g.,
information from ATC, terrestrial radar, other information provided
through the communication components, etc.). Other ways of
detecting other objects such as using an antenna and the
communication components to read communications from the other
objects (if they are aerial vehicles) and measuring the position
using geolocation techniques from the communications of the other
objects, using the microphone in picking up the surrounding sound
within the vicinity of the UAV and performing analysis on the sound
signature, sound location, and other analysis. Still other ways of
detecting other objects includes methods as known now or may be
later derived. This information may include one or more of the
other object's location (e.g., a coordinate with respective to the
UAV, or at least some information regarding one or more of an
approximate distance and direction from the UAV) and/or
trajectory/flight path, or the UAV may calculate/project the other
objects' location and/or trajectory/flight path using the
information.
[0211] With the location and/or trajectory/flight path, plans can
be made to steer clear of or avoid the other objects, which may
including changing the flight plan (e.g., if the other objects are
not within an operating vicinity (e.g., the operating zone B) of
the UAV) or emergency maneuvering (e.g., if the other objects are
within an operating vicinity of the UAV). In an embodiment, the
choice of the plans and the maneuvering (including merely informing
a human operator the need to avoid other objects) may depend on the
operating mode of the UAV (e.g., automatic operating mode, manual
operating mode, hybrid operating mode).
[0212] The flight path zone D is a zone encompassing a certain area
of space surrounding an expected route (flight path) of the UAV
from the present position, if the flight path is available. The
flight path zone D may partially overlap with the observing zone C
(where information from sensory components and other external
sources are available) and partially outside the observing zone C
(where information from at least the sensory components would not
be available). However, information of other objects and conditions
(e.g., weather conditions, flight restrictions) may be available
for the portion of the flight path zone D that is outside of the
observing zone C from external sources. In an embodiment,
information regarding the flight path zone D would be used to help
in arranging alternate flight path (e.g., when the flight path zone
D contains heavy traffic of other objects or if the weather is
adverse), if the UAV is in an operating mode that allows the UAV to
make changes to the flight plan.
[0213] In an embodiment, because the information regarding at least
a farther portion of the flight path zone D would come from an
external source, and in some cases more extensive and intensive
calculations may be needed, the calculating and changing of the
flight plan may be performed by an external source (e.g., a UAV
flight operation center/hub), where the UAV may be in consistent
communication with and is able to receive updated flight plans
from. In another embodiment, the UAV may not be in communication
(or may have lost connection) with the external source, and the
calculation of the flight plan may need to be performed on-board,
using public information (e.g., weather radio, ATC, etc.) from
other external sources that do not have the capability (or do not
have the needed control access to the UAV) to provide a changed
flight plan.
[0214] It should be understood from the above and herein in this
disclosure, but specifically noted here, that the zones as
described above need not be spherical (e.g., spheres with the UAV
in the center such that the distance from the UAV to the edge of
each zone is the same at all directions) or other specific shapes
but may depend on the various operational limitations of the
UAV.
[0215] It is also noted that regulatory limitations may affect the
zones. For example, government regulations may forbid a UAV from
certain airspace (e.g., Class A airspace of 18,000 ft and above).
As such, the UAV would be forbidden from occupying that airspace.
Therefore, even if the UAV is in maneuverable closeness to that
airspace, the UAV would not be able to occupy that airspace and
thus the zones would not need to include the areas of that airspace
(e.g., the immediate zone A or the operating zone B because the UAV
would not be occupying that airspace). However, it is noted the
UAVs may still have the ability to enter those airspaces because
the operational limits of the UAV is not related to the regulatory
restrictions. Alternatively stated, the zones are based on the
operational needs and limits (e.g., for maneuvering) of the UAV,
but the regulatory limits also need to be followed. As such, in
effect, the UAV can only operate to a limit (closeness to a
regulatory limitation) such that the operational limits (e.g., the
operating zone B) and the regulatory limit can both be met.
[0216] In some cases, the UAV may be acting near airspaces that it
is not necessarily restricted to (e.g., regulatory "hard" limits)
but that it is merely not preferred (e.g., regulatory "soft"
limit). For example, if the airspace is private property and
belongs to a private owner, flight into this airspace may be
possible but not preferable (e.g., may have to pay a toll). In this
case, certain preferred zones (similar to the zones as discussed
above) may be defined/calculated when the UAV is operating in the
vicinity of this airspace that "prefers" to not include this
airspace in the preferred zones. For example, a UAV may choose
(prefer) to move at a slower speed such that the resulting
preferred operating zone B would be smaller and would not include
the not preferred airspace when the UAV that is moving at the
normal speed would need to include this airspace in the normal
operating zone B. However, in emergency situations, the UAV would
still have the option to include this airspace under the normal
operating zone B (e.g., and be able to increase the speed to avoid
other objects). In another embodiment, the UAV would have and
operate under the normal operating zone B, which may include this
non-preferred airspace. However, the calculations that controls the
maneuvering may strongly (or weakly) not prefer maneuvering into
this non-referred airspace.
[0217] In the case of landing (or another operating process) of the
UAV, it is necessary that the UAV make contact (a form of
collision) with another object (e.g., the ground, landing pad,
etc.). As such, it is likely the other object would be in the
immediate zone A and/or the operating zone B near the end of the
landing (or another operating process) even though the speed of the
UAV may have slowed enough that the zones would probably be small.
In this case, the UAV may need to know that it expects a contact
(or collision) and adjust or ignore rules regarding other objects
being in the immediate zone A and/or the operating zone B
accordingly. In an embodiment, the UAV may account for an expect
contact to only some portion of the UAV (e.g., the bottom of the
UAV for a landing) but does not adjust or ignore rules regarding
other portions of the UAV (e.g., if another object may collide with
the UAV while during the landing process.
[0218] FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of an emergency object avoidance
procedure of a UAV according to an embodiment.
[0219] In an automatic operating mode, in a preferred embodiment,
the UAV would have a flight path (in accordance to a flight plan)
mapped out ahead of time (e.g., when the destination is outside of
the observing zone C), and the UAV is configured to follow the
flight path unless a new flight path is mapped out, in which case
the UAV would follow the new flight path or the automatic operating
mode is overridden or changed. In a manual or hybrid operating
mode, a flight path may or may not be in place (e.g., the UAV may
be navigated freely by a remote human or computer operator). In any
case, in a preferred embodiment, the UAV would have certain
awareness of its vicinity of other objects and be able to avoid
other object once the UAV gains awareness of the other objects that
appear in its vicinity.
[0220] In a preferred embodiment, the UAV would be able to gain
awareness of other objects that appear within the UAV's vicinity
even though the other objects may not be immediately affecting the
operations of the UAV (e.g., when the other objects are outside of
the operating zone B but are observable because, e.g., they are in
the observing zone C or information is available about these other
objects from other sources, e.g., external sources). In a preferred
embodiment, the UAV is able to plan and/or execute maneuvers that
seek to avoid such objects and/or their anticipated trajectory
while preferably not deviate significantly from the UAV's flight
plan/path, if needed.
[0221] However, there may be situations where the UAV needs to
perform an emergency avoidance of another object because the UAV
was not to detect and/or observe the other object until the object
is in a vicinity of the UAV that may interfere with the UAV's
operation (e.g., the other object appears and occupies a portion of
the operating zone B), the actual location or flight path of the
other object was not as anticipated or predicted (e.g., the
location of the other object has been incorrectly observed or the
calculated anticipated trajectory of the other object is incorrect,
and the other object is now in a vicinity of the UAV, e.g., the
operating zone B, before a new anticipated trajectory can be
calculated and a new flight path adopted, e.g., the other object
flies at a speed beyond the anticipated needed reaction time of the
UAV), or other reasons endangering the operation of the UAV. In
such cases, the emergency object avoidance procedure may be
performed with at least a purpose of safe operation (e.g., to avoid
a collision with the other object).
[0222] In an emergency object avoidance procedure, the UAV may take
into account a number of factors in determining the most acceptable
maneuver or other actions to take. In an embodiment, the UAV may
take into account factors including the location and/or the present
and anticipated trajectory of the other object, the present
operating conditions of the UAV (e.g., speed, heading direction,
present maneuver, e.g., turning, climbing, descending), other
objects in the vicinity of the UAV (e.g., within the operating zone
B or the observing zone C) including their locations and/or the
present and anticipated trajectory, the limits on the UAV including
operational limits (e.g., the performance ability of the UAV in
speeding up, slowing down, turning, climbing, descending, etc.) and
regulatory limits (e.g., limits on moving into restricted airspace,
maximum or minimum speed limits, available choices and preferences
to move or not move to the preferred airspace, etc.), and other
factors.
[0223] A main computational device of the UAV (e.g., the UAV
control system) may be tasked with the computational portions of
the procedure. In one embodiment, at least some portions of the
computational portions of the procedure may be performed by a
computational device closer and/or with a more direct access to the
flight control components for the ability to direct the flight
control components more quickly and directly (e.g., computational
device in the navigation components), but such computational device
may have less computing power than a main computational device of
the UAV and may have less ability to perform more complicated
computations. In another embodiment, the computational devices in
the various components (e.g., the UAV control system, the
navigation components, the communication components, and the
geolocation components) may each perform a portion of the
computation.
[0224] When the emergency object avoidance procedure needs to be
activated/used, the vicinity of the UAV may be scanned for a list
of locations that may have a high (or at least higher than the
present location) probability of safety (e.g., an ability to avoid
the other objects). For example, in a relatively simple case of one
other object occupying at least a portion of the operating space
(e.g., the operating zone B) of the UAV, with no other objects
within the vicinity of the UAV. As such, the UAV would only need to
maneuver to avoid the one other object. Here, the safest location
may be the opposite location from the one other object's location
(or opposite of its anticipated trajectory if the trajectory is
known). However, other locations that are not within a vicinity of
the one other object's location (e.g., the vicinity where if a
location in the vicinity occupied by the UAV, the operating area of
the UAV at that location may still be occupied by the one other
object) may also be safe locations, albeit with a lower probability
of safety than the most opposite location from the one other
object. In practice, a gradation of probable safe locations would
be compiled (e.g., the list of safe locations), with the highest
probability of safety opposite of the one other object and the
lowest probability of safety being closest to the vicinity of the
other object (and locations in the vicinity of the other object
deemed unacceptable). The actual probability (or distribution of
probabilities) for the various locations may be calculated or
assigned based on physical or regression models, lookup tables
based on prior simulations or physical experimentation, other
modeling or estimates, or by other methods of calculations.
[0225] In an embodiment, this list of safe locations (and their
probability of safety) may be modified by the various factors as
listed above. For example, with respect to the present operating
condition of the UAV, the UAV may be travelling forward while the
other object appears at the bottom of the UAV. In this case, while
the safest location is for the UAV to move directly upward (and be
directly opposite of the other object), the climb rate (speed) of
the UAV may be much slower than the forward speed (e.g., being
needing to work against gravity to climb and while the UAV already
has forward momentum that the forward speed may be boosted to a
higher speed more quickly). Here, the UAV may have a preference of
a ratio greater than 1 for moving forward instead of climbing
(based on parameters such as a proportional (ratio) absolute speed
between moving in various directions or other proportions, e.g.,
the relative speed, the absolute speed squared, as may be defined),
which can be expressed as a normalized weight for adjusting the
respective probabilities of the list of the safe locations. It is
noted that other factors (e.g., the rate of turn) may further
adjust the respective probabilities, allowing the calculation to
take into account a multitude of factors. The location with the
best weighted probability may be selected for the maneuver.
[0226] It is noted that the calculations above may be
computationally intensive, as the UAV may be required to consider a
multitude (unlimited numbers of) probable locations, which may
deviate from the next location only by a small amount and may have
little change to the weight probability from the next location
(e.g., two locations very close by each other). As such,
computations of the various locations may be more efficiently
arranged. For example, the UAV may first consider a spread of
locations (e.g., top, bottom, front, back, left, and right) of the
UAV, either from the plane of motion of the UAV or from the plane
of the location (or trajectory) of the other object, or some other
plane. The calculation (for one or more of the probability or the
weighted probability of the location being a safe location) may be
first performed for this spread of locations. Subsequently, similar
calculations can be performed for other points of locations (near
the best location among the spread for precision assuming that the
probability does not vary much or also including other points of
locations picked elsewhere to ensure the low variance) as
needed.
[0227] It is also noted that the calculations based on locations
may be incompatible with the flight control components which is
direction (vector) based. Specifically, the flight control
components controls changing a direction of heading of the UAV, not
to a specific location. As such, further computation may be needed
to translate from a picked location into a direction to that
location, and from the direction to the change in the flight
control components that moves the UAV in that direction, taking
into account that operating conditions (e.g., present motion of the
UAV) and/or the other conditions affecting the motion of the UAV
(e.g., weather, air movement such as wind). For example, a UAV
moving forward at a certain speed and being affected by a
cross-wind of a certain speed may require a different change to the
flight control than a UAV that is hovering (e.g., no forward
motion) and not being affected by any wind.
[0228] In human controlled aircrafts, the human may be experienced
to take into account such factors for a maneuver (or an advanced
flight computer in modern aircrafts may make such calculations). In
a UAV, these calculations may not be available due to inadequate
computing power. In an embodiment, the flight control components of
the UAV may be directed to move the UAV to a general direction
(vector) of the location. For example, if the list of possible
locations are only the locations in the 6 directions (e.g., top,
bottom, front, back, left, and right), each direction may represent
around a quadrant of the space in the vicinity of the UAV. The UAV
may still be able to avoid the other object by moving in the
general direction of the location even though its maneuver flight
path does not take the UAV to the location precisely. In another
embodiment, the UAV's flight control components may employ a
feedback loop while making adjustments if the actual direction of
flight deviates from the target location similar to adjustment that
would be made by a human pilot.
[0229] In an embodiment, if there are multiple other objects that
need to be avoided, calculation of the probabilities may be
performed for each other object, and the calculations may be
correlated to determine the safest location. This may also be
performed more efficiently by techniques such as removing the known
unsafe locations (e.g., locations (or trajectory) within the
vicinity of at least one of the other objects) or by other
techniques as discussed above and herein in this disclosure or
otherwise known now or may be later derived.
[0230] In an embodiment, the emergency object avoidance procedure
may further take into account other objects that are not in the
operating area of the UAV (e.g., in the observing zone C or known
otherwise by the UAV) but may nevertheless be accounted for in
maximizing safety (e.g., if an avoidance maneuver would bring the
UAV to an area with limited options for the next maneuver, if
needed).
[0231] For example, FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary scenario of a
performance of an emergency object avoidance procedure according to
an embodiment. In this scenario, UAV X has an operating zone B, and
object Y is presently also occupying at least a portion of
operating zone B, positioned as illustrated. Building T occupying
some of the airspace is positioned as illustrated. Limit R,
positioned as illustrated, is a regulatory limit of the airspace
(e.g., a class of airspace) for which a UAV (e.g., UAV X) may be
fly below.
[0232] Here, a location in the direction D.sub.1 may have a best
probability of maximizing safety for UAV X to avoid object Y, if
only taking into account the operating area of the UAV X as
discussed above. However, direction D.sub.1 may not be the best
when taking into account that moving to a location in direction
D.sub.1 would limit the next maneuvering options of the UAV X. For
example, if object Y also moves in direction D.sub.1 (where the
trajectory of the object Y is not previously known to the UAV X,
otherwise, a location in the direction D.sub.1 may not had been the
best option), UAV X may choose to do further maneuver in the
direction D.sub.1 until the building T and/or the limit R may
occupy an operational area of the UAV X.
[0233] As such, the other known objects (e.g., building T and limit
R) may be considered even if these objects are not in the
operational area of the UAV X. In an embodiment, the distance of
these objects may be considered as a factor for calculating the
weighted probability. For example, the weight considered may be
inversely proportional to the distance of the object from the UAV,
as farther objects may have a lower probability of affecting the
limitation of options for maneuvering the UAV. However, a swarm of
objects in an area would affect the weighted probability relatively
significantly (e.g., by summing the individual weights) even if the
distance is far; this may be a wanted effect as the UAV may prefer
to maneuver to an area of fewer objects (thus may lead to a higher
probability of safety).
[0234] In another embodiment, the UAV may also take into account
factors such as a clear line of sight (or clear areas of
observation for sensory components that do not need a line of sight
but may nevertheless have areas where it has greater sensibility
for observation) such that the UAV can retain the maximal awareness
possible. For example, in the exemplary scenario, a sensory
component of a camera may not be able to see through the building
T. As such, in the exemplary scenario, the UAV X may calculate that
a location in the direction D.sub.2 may have the best weighted
probability of safety as it avoids getting closer to the building T
and the limit R while having a clear line of sight (and movement)
above the building T. The UAV may also take into account other
factors and/or preference for maneuvering, such maneuvering to move
the UAV closer to a suitable landing site to prepare for possible
landing if the airspace becomes dangerous and uncertain for safe
operation (e.g., if the airspace becomes too crowded).
[0235] In an embodiment, the UAV may further take into account a
combination of maneuvers for avoiding an object or maximizing the
potential maneuvering options. For example, the UAV may decide to
take an indirect path to a location for the maneuver. Alternatively
stated, the UAV may maneuver to the location through one or more
intermediate waypoints. Calculation-wise, this can be viewed as
maneuvering to one or more locations before maneuvering to a final
location. In an embodiment, the UAV may perform the safe
probability calculation for the locations by making the
calculations for a first set of locations, and then a combination
or permutation of the first set of locations moving to a second set
of locations, etc. This set of calculations may be computationally
intensive, and the UAV may use one or more of the techniques as
discussed above and herein in this disclosure or otherwise known
now or may be later derived to improve the efficiency.
[0236] It is recognized that the UAV may not be able to avoid every
other objects in certain situations (e.g., the object intentionally
targeting the UAV such as a missile, the object, e.g., a fast
flying animal, which has an unknown trajectory unintentionally
hitting the UAV that has weak performances and is incapable of
avoiding the animal or if there is just no maneuvers that can avoid
at least one of the other object such as if there are multiple
objects in the vicinity of the UAV that are arranged in a
configuration that is impossible to avoid every one). In such cases
(where there are no safe locations for the UAV to move to), there
may be contingencies that the UAV may employ to minimize danger to
others (e.g., other objects in the air or ground) when it is
inevitable that the UAV will be collided with and possibly
destroyed. In an embodiment, the UAV may perform certain procedures
including moving (to the best of its ability) to a possible
location that is least likely to collide with other objects (in air
and in its path down to the ground) before its impending collision.
In another embodiment, the UAV may contain a self destruct
procedure that performs one or more of breaking up the UAV into
less impactful pieces, scattering the pieces over a wide area, or
other procedures to minimize the impact of a collision with a
non-operational UAV falling to the ground.
[0237] In a preferred embodiment, the UAV may also perform a flight
path planning procedure in typical operating conditions under
certain operating modes (e.g., automatic or hybrid operating mode).
Under the emergency object avoidance procedure, the UAV is
configured to maneuver to avoid other objects that are within the
UAV's operating area. Under the flight path planning procedure, the
UAV is configured to proactively calculate a flight path of the UAV
prior to the other objects appearing within the UAV's operating
area.
[0238] As discussed above, the UAV may maintain observation and/or
knowledge of the various other objects beyond the operating area of
the UAV (e.g., the observing zone C and the flight path zone D). As
discussed above, the other objects that are observed or known by
the UAV may be within one of the categories having a known
trajectory (e.g., through communication with the other objects,
through ATC or other control source communications and/or
instructions, through knowledge of the trajectory gained from other
sources such as from a hub or operation center, a known trajectory
stored in the UAV's database, etc.), an expected and/or anticipated
trajectory (e.g., a fired projectile or objects in free-fall
without self-power and does not have other source affect it would
likely only be affected by gravity and the atmosphere), or an
unknown or difficult to determine trajectory (e.g., aerial vehicles
that are not in communication or not following flight rules, flying
animals).
[0239] In an embodiment, the UAV may continuously (or at least in
certain acceptable frequency) monitor the other objects and
consider the probability that the trajectory or anticipated
trajectory of the other objects would affect the UAV. For objects
with unknown or difficult to determine trajectory, the UAV may take
into account these objects' present operating conditions and/or
known operating ability (e.g., speed, heading, performance ability
such as acceleration and climb rate) and derive a predicted flight
path (trajectory) for the object. For example, if the object can be
observed, determined, or known as a type of aerial vehicle, the
known operating ability of the object can be derived from
tendencies of other similar objects (e.g., information on the
tendencies of a similar model of an aerial vehicle or a type of
flying animal, tendencies of objects of similar size and shape and
within the area where the object is located), as stored in the
UAV's database or from an external source.
[0240] It is noted that the trajectory or anticipated trajectory
may change over time or at a moment's time. As such, in an
embodiment, the UAV may also calculate or keep track of a
confidence value to the probability that each object would affect
the UAV. For example, if the other object is a human controlled
aircraft flying under instrument flight rule (IFR) and has a flight
plan filed, it would be fairly confident (and the aircraft would
have a high confidence value) that the aircraft would stay to its
communicated or known trajectory because the aircraft would be
expected (trusted) to follow the flight plan. In another example,
if the other object is a projectile without self-power, it would
also be fairly confident (and the projectile would have a high
confidence value) that the projectile would stay to its expected or
anticipated trajectory, because it is unlikely that the projectile
can change course unexpectedly, even though its flight path is only
calculated by the UAV. In yet another example, if the other object
is a flying animal (e.g. a bird), the confidence value would be low
that the trajectory can be expected, if the trajectory can be
calculated. For objects with a predicted flight path because an
expected trajectory cannot be determined, the UAV may assign an
inherently low confidence value (as discussed below) to the
respective probability because of the untrustworthiness of the
probability derived from this predicted flight path.
[0241] Under the flight path planning procedure, the UAV may plan a
flight path that has a relatively low probability of being
disturbed by other objects. In an example where the present flight
path would have a high probability of being disturbed by an object
(e.g., if the object's trajectory would cross the flight path at a
time when the UAV is expected to be at that location), the flight
path planning procedure would discourage (or forbid) the flight
path from taking the UAV through the object's expected location. An
alternative flight path may be determined, taking the UAV through
low probability areas while avoiding high probability areas (e.g.,
using pathfinding algorithms such as Dijkstra's algorithm giving
low path weights to low probability areas and high (or unpassable)
path weights to high probability areas or other algorithms as known
now or may be later derived). Also, the flight path planned may
include other flight control directions, such as slowing down or
speeding up, hovering, etc., depending on the need of meeting the
goal of avoiding the other objects.
[0242] In an embodiment, the probability of an object (or an
anticipated trajectory and that location or area) being probable to
disturbed a flight path may be assigned or calculated based on an
expected closeness of the other object to disturbing (intersecting)
a vicinity of the UAV (e.g., the operating zone B of the UAV) at a
time when the UAV is expected to be at the location. In the case
where the flight path and the trajectory cross, the other object
would certainly be disturbing the would be operating area of the
UAV, and thus the probability would be very high or even certain.
In the case where the flight path and the trajectory would not
cross (or effectively move into the operating area of the UAV), the
probability would be very low or even zero. This results in a
bimodal distribution of the probability where the other object
either has a very high or very low probability depending on whether
the trajectory would intersect the flight path (and effectively the
would be operating area of the UAV at the time of the
intersection), but this is only for the cases where the UAV and the
other object can perfectly follow flight path and the trajectory,
respectively).
[0243] In most cases, the UAV (or the other object) may follow a
flight path (or a trajectory) but may have a deviation (e.g., due
to mechanical deviations of the flight control components of the
UAV or the other object, weather or other external conditions such
as wind, and other factors) affecting one or more of the
heading/direction of flight, timing of movement along the flight
path (or trajectory). Such deviation may affect the probabilities
because, for example, some deviation of the trajectory of the other
object may cause it to come within the vicinity of the UAV when in
a perfect trajectory it may not. In an embodiment, the probability
change due to such deviations may be assigned (e.g., a general
outset, which could be based on some factors somewhat positively
correlated with the deviation, such as the characteristics of the
UAV or the other object (size, speed, etc.) and the general weather
condition) or calculated taking into account known deviation models
of the UAV (and the other object) and/or external condition models
(e.g., weather) or by other methods as known now or may be later
derived.
[0244] It is further noted that the deviation is generally larger
when the other object is farther away from the UAV, due to the
effect of the distance having an expanding effect on the deviation.
Effectively, the probability for an object that is closer to the
UAV may have more certainty (e.g., a higher probability for certain
trajectories and lower probability for other trajectories), thus
being closer to the bimodal distribution as discussed above. In
practical terms, there is a better accuracy to knowing which other
object may disturb the UAV when the other object is closer to the
UAV (for better flight path planning).
[0245] In an embodiment, a UAV may require certain probability of a
trajectory of an object before the UAV will consider avoiding the
object. For example, a UAV may require at least 90% probability
since there may be too many unknown variables that planning for an
object too early (e.g., before it is somewhat certain of the
intersection) may be unnecessary (e.g., the other object may have
changed trajectory in the mean time in any case) at the cost of a
large detour (because the flight path with the lowest probability
is almost always going to be an area where there are no other
object activities, but it is probably a large detour from where the
UAV wants to go to). In some way, this is balanced by the
pathfinding algorithm (e.g., Dijkstra's algorithm) for finding the
shortest path (modified by safety probability). In an embodiment,
the balance between safety and efficient flight planning may be
adjusted according to one or more factors including the use of the
UAV, the area of use, known frequency of activities of the other
object or the probability of danger, and other factors.
[0246] Regarding the confidence value of the trajectories of the
other objects, in an embodiment, the confidence value may be
interpreted as needing a larger variance of the trajectory (e.g.,
the sum of a set of the possible trajectories) in order to have the
same confidence (with the set of the spread of the possible
trajectories) as with a trajectory with higher confidence (or a
group of trajectories with a smaller variance). For example, for a
trajectory with a low confidence value (e.g., a flying animal),
this trajectory may be represented by a set of possible
trajectories (where the set may be distributed by a normal
distribution (or other distributions) with a high variance, e.g., a
large area or space of trajectories). This is in contrast to a
trajectory with a high confidence value (e.g., an aerial vehicle
following flight rules), which may be represented by a set of
possible trajectories that have a variance only because of, e.g.,
the deviation as discussed above (e.g., a small area or space of
trajectories). Effectively and in practical terms, the UAV may plan
a flight path that avoids a larger area of the vicinity of the
trajectory with a low confidence value in order to comfortably
(confidently) avoid the respective object.
[0247] In an embodiment, the flight path planning procedure may
also take into account other factors for determining a suitable
flight path. For example, the flight path planning and calculations
may need to consider certain regulatory limits such as the right of
way of some other objects (e.g., larger aerial vehicles such as
human controlled planes or helicopters being less maneuverable
among other reasons, other aerial vehicles in an emergency or
"mayday" call), where the UAV may need to slow down its flight in
approaching the anticipated cross-path with the other object (or
even stop/hover) to ensure that the other object has passed the
intersection first before continuing.
[0248] In another example, the UAV may prefer certain paths (e.g.,
pre-planned UAV paths ("UAV-ways") or ("UAV corridors") designated
for UAV use or other flight paths such as known airways between VHF
omnidirectional radio range (VOR) that are used by commercial
aircrafts). In one implementation, these and other factors may be
included in the flight path planning procedure by adjusting the
probabilities using a weight similar to as implemented for the
emergency object avoidance procedure discussed above. For example,
to include the right of way factor, the probabilities for these
objects requiring the right of way may be weighted higher than
other objects.
[0249] In another example, to include the path preference factor,
the probability for objects also using the paths may be weighted
lower than other objects not using the paths (but the preference
(weight) may only apply if the other object is a UAV for UAV
corridor because other non-UAV objects may not be following UAV
corridor protocols and may be a danger to safe operation). In
effect, UAVs may follow the preferred paths (e.g., UAV corridor) at
a closer distance with each other than otherwise.
[0250] In an embodiment, a flight path of the UAV may also be
affected by a negotiated flight path between the UAV and another
object that has a flight plan/path and is capable of communicating
on and changing the flight path (e.g., other aerial vehicles) or
negotiated/assigned flight path by some overarching control service
(e.g., an ATC controlling flight paths of aerial vehicles in an
area of the airspace). In one example, the ATC that controls all
flight paths of aerial vehicles in an area may request that the UAV
follows a certain flight path. If the airspace is fully controlled
(by the ATC), the UAV would be obligated to follow the flight path
provided by the ATC and would not need a flight path calculated by
the flight path planning procedure. The UAV may still need to
perform the emergency object avoidance maneuvers when applicable,
as there may still be other objects not controlled by the ATC (or
other control services) in the airspace (analogous to collision
avoidance systems (CAS) in some aircrafts). In an embodiment, the
UAV may still use the flight path planning procedure to calculate a
flight path for approval by the ATC, if allowed.
[0251] If the airspace is not controlled, the UAV and the other
object may communicate to negotiate a flight path, thus giving a
fairly certain knowledge of the flight path/trajectory to each
other. In an embodiment, the right of way of the UAV and the other
object may be first determined (e.g., with the larger aerial
vehicle usually having the right of way). For the entity having the
right of way, it may first plan a flight path (while ignoring the
existence or the trajectory of the other entity, e.g., when
planning the flight path) and request the other entity to plan a
flight path that avoids the entity. Each of the resulting flight
paths may be transmitted to the other entity to ensure that they do
not intersect. In an embodiment where there is no right of way or
if the right of way cannot be determined, each entity may transmit
a proposed flight plan to the other entity and each entity
determines a flight path that avoids the other entity's trajectory,
either simultaneously (e.g., the UAV and the other object both
considers the flight path sent by the other entity simultaneously,
and each entity plans a flight path that avoids the other entity
based on received flight path) or in sequence (e.g., the UAV sends
its flight plan first to the other object, then the other object
plans a flight path that avoids the UAV and transmits that to the
UAV for confirmation). The UAV and the other object may need to
negotiate the flight paths a number of times before the final
flight paths may be settled, especially if the flight paths are
transmitted to the other entity simultaneously.
[0252] In an embodiment, the UAV may use one or more of transmitted
data, synthesized speech (voice), or other formats of encoding
information to communicate and negotiate with the ATC or the other
objects. For example, in the case where the ATC or the other
objects only supports speech (e.g., being human operated), the UAV
may include a translator of the flight path or other information to
speech format (or ATC speech format or other types of formats) and
a speech synthesizer to convert the speech format into audible
voice for transmitting the information to the ATC or the other
objects. The UAV may further include a speech-to-text recognition
system and a text to data translator translating the text received
from the ATC or the other objects to a data format that the UAV may
understand as being flight path or other information.
[0253] Further regarding UAV corridors, in an embodiment, the UAV
may be configured to use paths designated UAV operations. In an
embodiment, these UAV corridor may follow pre-existing airways or
other known or frequently used paths in the air or roadways or
other paths on the ground. Private property owners may also set up
the UAV corridors in private property as an acceptable way for UAV
to move across the property authorized by the owner. In an
embodiment, the UAV corridors may include broadcasts or other
communication devices along the UAV corridors that provide service
or other information to the UAVs, such as the travel and weather
conditions, information regarding other UAVs and objects in the
vicinity, information regarding local navigations (e.g., maps) or
regulatory limits (e.g., speed limits, restricted areas, etc.) and
other information. UAV corridors may also include various service
facilities for the UAVs such as landing sites or service locations
(e.g., for recharging the UAV).
[0254] Other features of the UAV corridors may include the ability
to grant or deny access, including collecting toll for access for
the UAV attempting to access the UAV corridors (e.g., for private
property or government tollways). In an embodiment, UAV includes an
identifier and may include other information such as the owner's
registration or government license, and the UAV is also to transmit
such information to another system (e.g., a toll collection system
or an access grant system set up by the owner of the property or
the government). At the receipt of such information, the other
system may verify the received information (and/or recording the
information for collecting toll) and further communicate with the
UAV (e.g., communicating the grant or denial of access). At this
point, the UAV may update its database to access the UAV corridor
(e.g., a preferred area because access toll has already been paid,
a non-preferred area because toll is calculated by the distance of
the access, or a restricted area if access has not been
granted).
[0255] Regarding landing, it is noted that, with respect to safety,
the UAV is probably at its safest position landed. As such, the UAV
should consider being landed when it encounters situations that it
has no pre-conceived solution for or other unanticipated
situations. Further, the present FAA proposed rules for UAVs does
not allow operation of the UAV in many situations, including
adverse weather conditions. As such, the landing potential of an
area of operation of the UAV is important as the UAV should be
capable and able to land when expected.
[0256] Therefore, the UAV (and both emergency object avoidance
procedure and the flight path planning procedure) should actively
consider the landing potential of the UAV when planning and
executing emergency maneuvers and flight paths. In an embodiment,
the UAV may consider and keep track of a number of suitable landing
locations (e.g., at least an area of flat land for a quadcoptor
UAV) and be ready to execute a controlled landing (e.g., in various
emergency scenarios including a low power/fuel scenario). In an
embodiment, the landing procedure may be separately implemented in
one or more of the navigation components, the orientation
component, the flight control components themselves, or other
components such that the UAV may be able to land even if key
components of the UAV malfunctions (e.g., UAV control system). For
example, if one of the components of the UAV malfunctions, the UAV
should not be operating for maximum safety and should land, and the
UAV is able to land because at least the flight control components
can automatically land the UAV by itself.
[0257] Further regarding landing, in an embodiment, there may be
specific landing sites designated for UAVs. For example, UAVs may
land at hubs that may include service facilities such as for
recharging or fueling or other services. In a commercial or
residential building, landing sites may be located on the roof (for
the collective occupants of the building) or at balconies,
extension areas of the building, or other designated sites (for the
collective or individual occupants of the building). These landing
sites may include payload receiving or loading facilities for
automatically (or manual facilitated) reception or loading of a
payload (package) from and onto the UAV.
[0258] In an embodiment, landing sites may include specific landing
aids (e.g., radio beacon, line of sight signals, or other aids) for
facilitating the landing of UAVs. The UAV may pick up of these
landing aids (e.g., from a distance) as a guide for leading the UAV
to the landing sites. In another embodiment, the landing sites may
also include one or more of an automatic or manual (human
controlled) control center for landing of UAVs. For example, the
landing site may request that direct control of the UAV be passed
to the landing site's control center. In another example, the UAVs
are expected to follow instructions provided by the landing site's
control center (which may be similar to ATC instructions at an
airport for aircrafts). These control or instructions to the UAVs
may include one or more of hovering or flying in circle (to delay
landing for reasons such as if the landing site is not ready to
accommodate the UAV or if the landing site is expected to
accommodate another UAV under emergency or "mayday" call) or other
controls or instructions. In an embodiment, similar procedures and
control may exist for accommodating the release and take-off of the
UAVs from the landing sites.
[0259] In an embodiment, multiple UAVs may be coordinated and/or
controlled in conjunction (e.g., needing one navigation command by
a human or computer operator). For example, two or more UAVs may be
"chained" together electronically. In an embodiment, one of the
plurality of "chained" UAV may be designated as the lead UAV, where
control from the operator (e.g., the human or computer operator)
would directly be controlling the lead UAV. The other "chained"
UAVs may move and be positioned according to a designated formation
(or some designated arrangement or pattern) from the lead UAV. For
example, in an arrangement for "towing" of a number of UAVs (where
the "chained" UAV may be set to follow the lead UAV), the UAVs may
align in an arrangement of a line of UAVs where a second UAV
follows the lead UAV, and a third UAV follows the second UAV and so
on. Other arrangements for the "towing" example may also exist
(e.g., UAVs lined up two abreast, with the second UAV following
next to the lead UAV, and the third and fourth UAV following behind
the lead and second UAV, respectively).
[0260] When the UAVs are in an arrangement, the UAVs may each be in
communication with one or more of the other UAVs. Further with
respect to the "towing" example as discussed above, in an
embodiment, the second UAV may be in communication with only the
UAVs that it is following (e.g., the lead UAV) or is followed by
(e.g., the third UAV), which may save communication bandwidth and
processing. In another embodiment, each UAV may be in communication
with some or all of the other UAVs in the arrangement, leading to a
communication web between the UAVs. In yet another embodiment the
operator or other designated secondary operators may still retain
direct control of the other "chained" UAVs as needed.
[0261] With respect to the communication, each UAV may use the
general communications components (e.g., free-space optical
communication using visible or invisible light such as infrared
light, direct radio or spread spectrum signals such as direct
radio, 802.11, or Bluetooth signals) for communicating with the
other UAVs and/or the operator for the lead UAV. In an embodiment,
the UAVs may include a specific component for "towing" or other
arrangements, such as a component that emits a wireless chain
(e.g., infrared light, laser) or another line of sight signal. The
other UAVs may pick up and follow this wireless chain from the
respective UAV that it is designated to follow or be in a movement
or position in respect to. For example, in an embodiment, the
incident (ray) of the wireless chain may be at an angle with the
emitting UAV, and the UAV picking up and following this wireless
chain would follow the incident of the emitted wireless chain and
be at the same angle with respect to the emitting UAV.
[0262] In operation of a UAV arrangement, the lead UAV is
controlled (e.g., internally by the UAV in automatic operating mode
or by an external human or computer operator in manual operating
mode) for leading the UAV arrangement to a location. The other UAVs
in the arrangement may be configured to move or be positioned with
respect to the lead UAV either directly or indirectly (e.g.,
following another UAV that is directly following the lead UAV. As
such, when the lead UAV moves to a location, the other UAVs would
follow while keeping in the arrangement.
[0263] It is further noted that an arrangement here does not
necessarily mean a static formation (e.g., the UAVs being at
specific distance or heading (or a range of distance or heading).
The arrangement of the UAVs may be dynamically assigned and moved.
In one example, the arrangement of the UAVs may be dynamically
assigned to form a pattern. For example, if the UAVs is configured
to form in a ring arrangement of a certain radius (e.g., for
providing a temporary communication array over a certain area), the
number of UAVs forming the ring may increase or decrease as a
function of the available UAV that can be allocated for the use at
that time. As more or less UAVs join the ring, the distance between
neighboring UAVs may close or widen, respectively. In another
example, the arrangement of each UAV with respect to each other may
also be dynamic. For example, in one arrangement, a UAV may be
configured to move in a circular pattern or other patterns around
or with respect to another UAV.
[0264] In a further embodiment, the other "chained" UAVs may still
be able to operate in operating modes (e.g., the automatic
operating mode) where they may still perform certain maneuvers
(e.g., the emergency object avoidance procedure) as needed, even if
it means the "chained" UAV would have to break the arrangement if
safety requires it. In an embodiment, the "chained" UAV would
attempt to return to the arrangement after performing the needed
maneuvers. The arrangement of the other UAVs may also "wait" for
the broken off UAV to catch back up with the arrangement by slowing
down or stopping (hovering). In another embodiment, it may be
determined that an emergency or an abnormal operation has occurred
affecting the entire arrangement if one or more (or a significant
proportion) of the UAVs of the arrangement has broken off, and may
lead to landing (or other procedure) of the entire arrangement. In
yet another embodiment, the "chained" UAV operation may be part of
an operating mode of the UAV (e.g., where the UAV is in automatic
operating mode and movement and/or position of the "chained" UAVs
with respect the lead UAV would be part of the flight plan).
[0265] In an embodiment, controls of a UAV may be passed to another
operator, whether the UAV is in automatic operating mode, manual
operating mode, or hybrid operating mode. For example, the FAA
presently proposed rule requires a human remote operator to keep a
visual line-of-sight with the UAV the human is operating. As such,
for a UAV in long range operation (or generally out of
line-of-sight operation such as in a city scenario with building
blocking the line-of-sight of the operator), various operators may
be positioned at various vantage points of the flight path of the
UAV such that there is at least one operator having a line-of-sight
view of all portions of the flight path. When the present operator
of the UAV will lose line-of-sight view of the UAV as the UAV is
travelling along the flight path, the next operator having a
line-of-sight view of the continuing flight path may take over the
duty of operating the UAV.
[0266] In another example, even if there is no regulatory limit
requiring the line-of-sight of the human operator (e.g., a human
may control the UAV through transmitted views of the
environment/vicinity of the UAV from the UAV's sensory components
such as an on-board camera), there may still be situations where it
is advantageous to transfer control to another operator. For
example, some operators may have the skills and/or familiarities
with certain specific areas of operation (e.g., a geographical area
or experience in the air traffic of a certain area) or certain
types of weather and/or other external conditions (e.g., high wind,
rain, snow, or other conditions). Also, rules and regulations may
require an operator having a certain specialized qualification
(e.g., flight hours, specialized training such as mountain flight
training, security clearance for flight over a certain area such as
certain national security sensitive areas) in order to operate the
UAV for a certain airspace or area. As such, even if rules and
regulations allow for remote operation of the UAV, operation of the
UAV may need to be handed off to certain specialized operators at
certain times and flight areas for compliance, safety, and other
reasons. Operation of the UAV may return to the original operator
when the specialized operator is no longer needed. In yet another
example, the UAV may be part of a fleet of many UAVs belonging to
the same entity (e.g., part of an international UAV fleet), it may
be of further efficiency if an operator controlling the flight of
the UAV is limited in duration or other factors (e.g., geographic
areas or other specialty as discussed above and herein in this
disclosure). For example, operators may work at various centralized
UAV control centers (e.g., certain UAV hubs) at various
geographical areas and may work in various shifts and time zones. A
UAV in flight may require continuous operator control. As such,
control of the UAV may pass to a more localized operator to the
UAV's present position to allow the original operator time off if
the flight is long. This may also facilitate more reliable
communication between the operator and the UAV, being that the
actual operator would be closer to the UAV.
[0267] In an embodiment, control/operation of the UAV may also be
passed to an external (third party) human or computer operator. For
example, in the landing sites scenario as discussed above, landing
sites request remote control of the UAVs to facilitate landing
arrangements (alternate to the UAV having to follow landing
instructions such as ATC instructions). In an embodiment, UAVs may
implement a common protocol (e.g., over the communication channel
between the UAV and landing sites) that allows the landing sites
(or other third party operators) indirect access to the flight
control components (by using the protocol as implemented by the
UAV). In this way, the UAV may still bypass the control given to
the third party operator (e.g., similar to bypassing one of the
manual or hybrid operating modes back to an automatic operating
mode to perform an emergency object avoidance or other
procedures).
Security:
[0268] Security is recognized as a substantial issue to UAV
operation. Much of the security issues around UAVs deal with
communications between various external sources, especially with
respect to command and control of the UAVs. In terms of
communication, two aspects on the communication are notable on the
security concerns: the uninterrupted communication availability
(e.g., attacks by jamming the communication or by other methods of
severing or interrupting the communication) between the UAV and one
or more of the remote operator, other communicable objects such as
other aerial vehicles, fixed flight guidance or other flight
information installations, and other external sources related to an
operation of the UAV, and the integrity of such communication
(e.g., one or more of intercepting the communication at each of the
origin or the destination of the communication (e.g., by a trojan
or spy software at the UAV or the external source) or in between
the origin or the destination (e.g., when the communication is
through the communication channel and/or at an intermediate relay
such as a router)) and impersonating the communication as being
from the other of the UAV and the external source (e.g., a spoofing
attack). Other security concerns may also include access to the
physical UAV, including the various devices and components of the
UAV (e.g., storage of the UAV that may include private or sensitive
information such as photographs of secured or restricted
areas).
[0269] An uninterrupted communication channel between a UAV and one
or more of a remote operator (either human or an external
computer), other aerial vehicles, fixed flight guidance or other
flight information installations, and other external sources may be
important for a UAV as the UAV may be relying on the vital
communication for command and control, decision making (e.g.,
emergency object avoidance and flight path planning), and other
functions of the UAV. This issue goes directly to an ultimate
safety issue because a UAV that is in flight cannot simply stop
mid-flight and be relatively safe; the UAV must land safely or else
might collide with another object or cause injury to human or
property if it crashes to the ground.
[0270] Further, present UAV operations lack a dedicated and/or
protected radio frequency spectrum for such UAV operations (e.g.,
dedicated and protect radio frequency channels like in the case of
manned aerial vehicles). As such, UAVs may be vulnerable to even
unintentional interferences from other electronics using wireless
technology (e.g., devices that have legitimate and legal use to a
wireless channel), let alone intentional interferences of the UAV's
communication (e.g., an attacker jamming the channel such as when
an attacker is broadcasting with high power on a wireless channel
that the UAV is using for communication, which may still be a legal
use). This is a key security vulnerability for UAVs, because any
interruption to the wireless communication channel, such as by
jamming, can sever the exclusive means of control of the UAV (e.g.,
the remote human of computer operator in a manual operating mode),
as opposed to an aerial vehicle with an onboard (manned) pilot that
has direct and physical control of the aerial vehicle.
[0271] In an embodiment, the UAV may employ redundancy in the
wireless communication channels in order to improve the robustness
of the communication between the UAV and the external sources. For
example, a communication may be duplicated on the various wireless
channels such that, if one channel is jammed or otherwise
interfered with, the communication may still be transmitted on the
other wireless channels. This technique would at least help with
the unintentional interferences from other devices as the chance
would be smaller than multiple channels would be simultaneously
used and be interfered with. In a preferred embodiment, the UAV may
use two such wireless channels for redundancy purposes while also
avoiding using too many wireless channels, thereby leading to
inefficient use of the wireless channel resources.
[0272] In another embodiment, channel hopping techniques may be
used to minimize the interferences by continuously hopping to one
or more channels that have minimal noise or other interference.
This may also help with the general security of the communication
as an attacker would need to also know what channel(s) the
communication would be on.
[0273] In another embodiment, the communication may be through one
or more external devices or systems in direct communication with
the UAV. For example, the UAV may be in direct communication with a
human controller through radio wireless channel. The UAV may also
be in direct communication with a base station connected to a
network (e.g., the Internet) that can route such communication to
the human controller also connected to the network. The UAV may
still also communicate with an airspace control service (e.g., an
ATC) through a protected channel, which may act to relay certain
navigation information to the human controller (e.g., through
receiving and listening to the ATC channel for that airspace).
[0274] In additional embodiments, other techniques as known now or
may be later derived may be used in avoiding intentional or
unintentional wireless channel interference or in establishing and
keeping at least one stable communication link between the UAV and
the external sources.
[0275] Also, the UAV may employ certain pre-programmed maneuvers
and procedures in the event that a communication link is severed
between the UAV and the remote operator (e.g., putting the UAV in
some automatic operating mode). For example, the UAV may still be
able to avoid other objects through the emergency object avoidance
procedure, if available. In a preferred embodiment, the UAV may
constantly keep track of suitable landing sites for landing (using
an automatic landing procedure), if the communication link is not
reestablished within some time (e.g., a threshold time) or if it is
determined to be unsafe. In another embodiment, the UAV may
broadcast its status (e.g., a "mayday" signal) and allow other
remote operators, which may be verified remote operators (e.g.,
those authorized as secondary operators or those licensed by a
government or private agency), to control the UAV (for the purpose
of landing or bringing the UAV to a safe environment); such remote
operators may include (and be prioritized to) landing sites nearby
that have capabilities to control the UAV (e.g., for landing).
[0276] With respect to the general interception or impersonation of
the communication link between the UAV and the external sources, in
an embodiment, the UAV and the external sources may establish
secure communication channels through encryption, authentication,
verification (including third party verification from an authority
or other organization), and other secure communication channel
techniques or procedures as known now or may be later derived.
[0277] The UAV may also employ additional security procedures to
minimize the effect of a secure communication breach in case that
the breach does occur. In an embodiment, the UAV may be limited to
setting its flight plan only while it's grounded and/or being in an
authorized ground facility (e.g., a verified hub for the UAV).
Additionally, the flight plan may be transmitted to the UAV through
a secured direct link (e.g., a wired link) between the UAV and the
facility. As such, in an embodiment, when the flight plan of the
UAV is not able to be changed once the UAV is airborne, an
impersonator would not be able to control the UAV for alternate use
even if it was able to gain access to the UAV (e.g., by spoofing
the communication with the UAV as a legitimate controller). In such
UAVs, an acceptable control from a controller may be to land at a
nearby authorized ground facility in order to change the flight
plan, if needed. This arrangement may be preferred for a UAV that
is part of a fleet and would not need deviate from an established
flight plan. In other embodiments, access or change to other parts
of the control by a remote operator may be restricted as
needed.
[0278] In an embodiment, the UAV may also restrict various
components of the UAV from being used or the information obtained
from these components during a flight be accessed by a remote
operator. For example, a UAV may restrict sending images or videos
recorded by the on-board camera to the remote operator (e.g., when
the UAV is expected to fly over certain sensitive areas or private
properties where the UAV has a right to passage but not to film due
to privacy), as such images or videos may be intercepted by a third
party. In such cases, the remote operator may still rely on other
components such as the orientation and the navigation components of
the UAV to operate the UAV through IFR flight. In a further
example, even when the UAV has been transmitting the images or
videos from the on-board camera to the remote operator, the UAV may
be instructed to stop transmitting such information and/or to even
turn off the camera if it will be passing through a sensitive area
with such regulatory limit.
[0279] In an embodiment, the UAV may be required to receive and
carry out instructions by entities (e.g., government agents such as
law enforcement or owners of private properties that the UAV is
flying over and has instruction rights to the UAV when the UAV is
over such properties) that may override the remote operator (e.g.,
as programmed in the UAV). For example, such entities may issue an
order to disable or ground the UAV, either in a broadcast or
through direct communication with the UAV (e.g., in order to check
the UAV for carrying contrabands or drugs). In the case of
cross-border operation of the UAV (e.g., through domestic or
international border), a payload carrying UAV may also communicate
with the appropriate government entity a manifest of the payload
and may be commanded to land for inspection.
[0280] In an embodiment, such entities may want to commandeer the
UAV for further access to the UAV's components or to direct the UAV
for the entities' use or for other purpose. These entities may or
may not have more rights than the remote operator to the components
of UAV depending on the regulatory limits and/or other factors
(e.g., where the remote operator is limited from changing the
flight plan while the UAV is airborne as discussed above).
[0281] In an embodiment, all or selected activities of the UAV may
be logged. Access to such logs may be restricted according to the
accesser (e.g., which may not include the remote operator) and the
conditions of access (e.g., not available through a wireless
communication link while the UAV is airborne). For a human remote
operator, present or future regulations may require flight logs to
be kept and for the human operator to log certain flight hours
(experience) to qualify for certain levels of UAV operations by
certification (e.g., without a flight supervisor, for non-visual
line-of sight (VOL) flights, camera flights, long distance flights,
simultaneous multiple UAV operations, etc.). Such logs may be kept
for other purposes including quality control, investigation, or
other purposes and may be stored in a separate secured and
survivable component of the UAV (e.g., analogous to a black box in
an aircraft).
Payload Delivery and Fleet Management:
[0282] In embodiments, a UAV may be used to carry and delivery a
payload (e.g., a physical package to be delivered from person A to
person B). This is preferable as UAVs could provide low-cost and
convenient of "door-to-door" service without a person leaving a
location or requiring another person to facilitate the delivery
process (e.g., picking-up and delivering the payload).
[0283] For example, referring to FIG. 4A, in a "point-to-point"
delivery scheme, person A wishes to send a payload to person B. If
person A is within the flight range of a UAV (to person B), person
A may load the payload onto the UAV and fly the loaded UAV to
person B (e.g., through human remote control of the UAV in manual
operating mode or through the UAV carrying out a flight plan from
person A to person B in manual operating mode). In manual operating
mode, the UAV may be controlled by a person (e.g., person A or
another person) with visual line of sight of the UAV during the
entire time when the UAV is in flight or through indirect sight
(aided vision) (e.g., one or more or a combination of first person
view of the UAV's flight as provided by the UAV's onboard cameras
and third-person view of cameras along the flight path of the UAV
when the UAV is visible in the visual range of the cameras).
[0284] Extending from the previous example, referring to FIG. 4B,
if person A is outside the range of one UAV (to person B), the
payload may be delivered by a number of consecutive UAVs. Here, the
payload is loaded onto a first UAV from person A and is carried by
the first UAV to an intermediate point (e.g., intermediate point
1). At the intermediate point, which may be a UAV hub, the first
UAV could be serviced (e.g., battery recharged or replaced, quick
inspection, repair, and/or other servicing), or the payload could
be transferred to another UAV for carriage to person B (possibly
through another one or more intermediate points).
[0285] In another example, referring to FIG. 4C, person A wishes to
send a payload to person B, but person A does not have a UAV
available to carry the payload within the vicinity (or does not own
a UAV). Here, person A can request a UAV to be sent to his
location. For example, person A may own the UAV (located at a
different location) and may instruct the UAV to move to person A's
present location (e.g., through a command interface of the UAV).
Person A may also not own a UAV but may borrow or rent one from a
third party (e.g., from a delivery service through a rental
request). In another case, person A may have part ownership of the
UAV (e.g., in a timeshare manner, a number of owners, e.g.,
neighbors, within the immediate vicinity) with a number of other
owners, since a person might not need to use the UAV at all times
(e.g., person A may gain use of the UAV by a schedule or log
tracking the uses the scheduled uses for each owner or authorized
persons or by other managing methods). After the UAV arrives at
person A's location, the payload may be loaded onto the UAV and
sent to person B as discussed above. If person A has used the UAV
from a third party, the UAV may be returned to the third party
automatically (if person B's location is within a controllable
service area of the third party). The third party may further
stipulate that person A may only use the UAV in a controllable
service area as a condition of use.
[0286] In other specific applications of the "point-to-point" UAV
delivery scheme, shops may assume the role of person A in the
examples as discussed above to deliver ordered products to a person
B that is a consumer or other businesses. For example, person B may
have ordered grocery, medicine, or other products (e.g., with a
short shelf life requiring quick delivery) from the shop (e.g.,
online, through a phone, remotely by other methods, or onsite but
could not carry the ordered products back). The shop could use a
UAV to deliver the product to person B in a timely manner.
[0287] In another embodiment, a fleet of UAV may be used as part of
a delivery network. Referring to FIG. 4D, the delivery network may
include the hubs H.sub.1, H.sub.2, and H.sub.3 for servicing
persons A, B, C, E, and F by a fleet of UAVs. It is noted that each
hub (e.g., H.sub.1, H.sub.2, and H.sub.3) may be either a fixed or
mobile installation. For example, hub H.sub.1 may be a fixed
facility at a terrestrial location (e.g., a warehouse location in
town). Other hubs H.sub.2 and H.sub.3 may be mobile (e.g., the hub
itself is movable from one terrestrial location to another in the
form of one or more of a surface vehicle (e.g., a truck), a
floating vehicle (e.g., a cargo ship/carrier), an aerial vehicle
(e.g., a cargo plane).
[0288] In an embodiment, a hub may be configured to store and/or
move (in the case a mobile hub) payloads and may act as a facility
for launching and hosting one or more UAVs. For example, each hub
may contain (host) one or more UAV, facilitating the take-off and
landing of the UAVs (e.g., acting as a landing site for a UAV as
discussed above). In a further embodiment, the hub may contain
facility for automatically loading a UAV with a payload (stored in
the UAV) and launching the UAV for carrying the payload to a
destination (e.g., to person B). At the other end, the hub may be
configured to receive (land) a UAV containing a payload and
automatically unload the payload from the UAV for storage in the
hub (e.g., from person A). The launching and landing site may be at
a place of the hub convenient for such purpose (e.g., the roof of a
fixed facility, truck, or ship or the undercarriage of a
plane).
[0289] In an embodiment, the hub may contain UAVs of varying
payload capacity and weight limit. For example, smaller UAVs may
serve a larger range (e.g., because it has a lower power
requirement) or saves more power (by being lighter), and larger
UAVs may to able to carry larger or heavier payloads. As such, each
payload may be matched to a suitable UAV (one or more UAV combined)
for delivery (e.g., to person B). In a situation where a UAV needs
to go to a site to pick-up a payload and return to the hub (e.g.,
person C), the UAV chosen may be one that is suitable to an
anticipated payload to be recovered. In an embodiment, the
allocation of UAVs for delivery may account for other factors such
as the number of available UAVs of each type, the expected arrival
of other UAVs available for reuse of each type (and their time of
arrival), the availabilities or expected availability and needs of
UAVs of hubs nearby or at longer distances, and other factors.
[0290] In an embodiment, the allocation of the UAVs and payloads
may be distributed across multiple hubs. For example, if hub
H.sub.1 has a present need for a specific type of UAV and hub
H.sub.2 is nearby with an availability for the specific type of
UAV, the UAV may move from H.sub.2 to H.sub.1 to be used by hub
H.sub.1. For payloads, payloads may also be moved around to the
various hubs (carried by the UAVs or physically moved by moving the
hub). For example, even if the hub H.sub.2 is in range to deliver a
payload by one of its smaller UAV (e.g., person C), the hub H.sub.2
may lack such a type of the smaller and may instead move the
payload to hub H.sub.1 for delivery of the payload. Further,
multiple payloads may be carried by a single UAV (e.g., a UAV with
a larger capacity) from one hub to another hub for distribution by
multiple UAVs of the another hub. In an embodiment, a logistic
system may be developed for tracking and arranging the UAV fleet
and the delivery network.
[0291] In an embodiment, the UAVs may be controlled by an operator
(e.g., in manual operating mode) that is stationed within the hub
or through another control facility (that may be at another
hub).
[0292] In a further embodiment, movable hubs may be moving (e.g.,
when the UAVs are launched on an airborne plane) or have moved
after a UAV is launched, and the UAV may not be able to return back
to the same hub (e.g., because the mobile hub may have left the
area and the UAV is unable to catch up with or is out of range of
the hub). In such situations, the UAVs that were launched may stay
at its location (e.g., the payload's location if the UAV is
attempting to pick up a payload until the hub or another hub
returns within range of the UAV). For example, a surface hub (e.g.,
a truck) may be in a vicinity for a daily pickup and delivery pass
once a day. A UAV may be launched by the hub to a location for
pickup of a payload during the pass but the location is out of
range for a same day return of the UAV (same day pickup). As such,
the UAV may wait for the hub's daily pass the next day to return to
the hub with the payload. In another situation, the UAV may move to
another hub (e.g., another mobile or fixed hub) that may be in
range. Alternatively, the another hub may have further launched a
UAV to the location for the pickup of the payload and the UAV
carries the payload to the surface hub for transport. Such
logistics may also be accounted for by the logistics system as
discussed above and herein in this disclosure.
Tracking and On and Off Premise Use:
[0293] In embodiments, one or more of the UAVs may track
individuals (and/or objects) and be put for various uses. In an
embodiment, the UAV may be provided with or have knowledge of
locations of individuals (and/or objects) with methods and systems
as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,181, entitled "Locating A
Mobile Station Using A Plurality of Wireless Networks And
Applications Therefor," herein incorporated by reference, or by
other methods and systems as known now or may be later derived. In
another embodiment, the UAV may track an individual (and/or
objects) directly through its sensory components through methods
such as facial recognition, object tracking, RFID, or other methods
as known now or may be later derived.
[0294] In an embodiment, the UAV may be used for locating a person
for picking up or delivering a payload, either on or off a premise.
For example, in an on premise environment (e.g., a totally indoor
environment such as a building, a mall, a movie theater, etc. or an
outdoor environment that has a set boundary (which may have some
indoor environments) such as an amusement park, ski resort, etc.),
the UAV may be asked to deliver a payload to a tracked individual
or to approach a tracked individual to pick up a payload. For a
tracked individual, the UAV would be able to plan a flight path to
the individual if the individual is still on premise. If the
location of the individual is not presently accessible to the UAV
(e.g., behind closed doors), the UAV may move to a location as
close as possible to the individual and wait until the individual
goes to an accessible location.
[0295] For an off premise environment (or if the individual went
off premise from an on premise environment) and an in premise
environment with weak locationing technology, the UAV may rely on
locating methods and information tracking the individual off
premise (if the configuration of the UAV allows it to move off
premise) or off the on premise locationing grid. The UAV may also
need to decide if it can reasonably reach the individual (e.g.,
within the range of the UAV and perhaps able to return to a hub) or
if the tracking of the individual is reliable or can continue to be
reliable (e.g., in an area where there is an adequate method for
locating the individual). The UAV may decide the task to be
unreasonable or impossible and abort.
[0296] In an embodiment, the individuals may be tracked on premise
even if the identity of the individual is relatively unknown. For
example, in some locationing methods, an individual may be tracked
based on the electronic signatures of the devices the individual is
carrying (e.g., an electronic identifier of a handset). In an
example, an individual may have been tracked at a store at a mall
after making a purchase, but the individual has either forgotten or
otherwise did not pick up the purchase. The UAV may be able to
deliver the purchase to the individual as the individual has been
tracked when it made the payment at the register, even without
knowing other identifying information regarding the individual.
[0297] In an embodiment, the UAV may be used to deliver on-the-spot
information or other materials to a tracked individual, such as
broadcasts or announcements (e.g., from the UAV carrying a mobile
display, speakers, etc.) or other materials or content.
[0298] In an embodiment, one or more UAVs may be configured to
follow and/or operate within a vicinity of a tracked
individual.
[0299] For example, the UAV may be configured to carry certain
payloads while following an individual. Effectively, the UAV acts
as a "mule" carrying payloads for the individual (e.g., carrying
tools and/or equipments for workers, sportsman, tourists/visitors).
In one specific example, a worker working in a high attitude
environment (e.g., an antenna service man) can rely on the UAV to
carry the needed equipments obviating the need to carry the
equipments himself.
[0300] In another example, one or more UAV may be configured to
follow and/or operate within a vicinity (e.g., an arrangement of
the UAV as discussed above and herein in this disclosure), carrying
various components and modules for various purposes. For example, a
number of UAVs may be arranged to take photographs of an individual
at various positions and angles (e.g., at a ski slope where the
individual skiing down at a high speed). For another example, the
UAVs may be in position to provide lights and cameras at a movie
set (e.g., a high speed car chase scene) at various positions and
angles. For yet another example, the UAVs may carry displays and
speakers at various positions and angle for theatric or other
performance effects.
Service Deployment Platform:
[0301] In an embodiment, one or more UAVs may be used (and may be
in an arrangement as discussed above and herein in this disclosure)
for deploying a needed service to an area.
[0302] For example, in various military or civilian applications,
services such as a communication network may need to be deployed to
an area. In an arrangement, UAVs (having a communication module)
may set up a communication network (e.g., an ad-hoc wireless
network) over a certain area. For example, the UAVs may be arranged
in a line pattern extending the communication range to the end of
the line. In a further example, the UAVs may eventually form a net
pattern providing redundancy to network covered by the UAVs once
enough UAV is available to form the communication net.
[0303] Also, once the communication network is available or in
conjunction with the setup of the communication network (or some
other communication method is available such as through a
satellite), other UAVs may be able to operate within the area
providing other resources, such as light, communication (e.g.,
wireless communication through the network or visual and audible
communications such as cameras and display and microphone and
speakers) to individuals within the area (e.g., a disaster area
having its preexisting infrastructure destroyed). The other UAVs
may also provide payloads of needed supplies (e.g., food, medicine,
etc.) even if the area is not immediately accessible to humans
outside of the area.
[0304] In another embodiment, the one or more UAVs may be used to
deploy services from a platform (e.g., a vehicle, boat, plane,
human carrier, etc.) within the vicinity of the platform (e.g.,
extending the range of a platform). For example, in detection and
tracking uses, the UAVs may be used for finding games (e.g., using
cameras or other equipments in a hunting use) or finding schools of
fishes (e.g., using sonars or other equipments in a fishing use) in
an extended area. In another example, the UAV may be launched from
a vehicle (e.g., a car) for finding parking spots ahead of the
vehicle reaching the location (e.g., a parking lot).
UAV Long-Felt Needs and Challenges
[0305] The emerging UAV industry can have an enormous, positive
impact on several military strategies and traditional civilian
industries and governments world-wide. For example, in
transportation shipping and delivery, the so-called home delivery
to the "last-mile" has the highest percentage costs. One research
firm estimated that 23 to 78% of the supply-chain delivery cost of
a typical consumer purchased item, results from the delivery
expense to the home or last-mile.sup.1. Particularly in the
Internet-based instant gratification eCommerce industry, home
delivery "is the battlefront in retail"..sup.2 Transportation costs
will likely rise in the future. Municipalities struggle to improve
roads, traffic and congestion while attempting to lower taxes, to
an increasingly dense population
[0306] Ideally at the point of ordering and sales, the retailer's
ordering systems should have the means to dynamically offer a
variety of delivery options, based on, for example, knowledge of
available transport route capacity, customer package delivery
acceptance times and dates, delivery route driver drop density,
road and traffic congestion. In addition it should be possible to
identify alternative, suitable drop-off locations such as
non-related business offices, parks, open fields, and
brick-and-mortar businesses (to name a few). Alternative package
drop-off locations could be proposed based on knowledge of the
customer's typically frequented traveling places, such as trusted
neighbors, office(s) of friends and family members, shopping areas
and the like.
[0307] Coupling the location of the customer's potential pickup
locations for package receipt, with a continuously optimized retail
delivery supply chain model, would provide more variety and
efficiency in managing the home delivery costs and optimizing
customer experience and repeat-business loyalty. Smartphone and
Internet-based web applications with data access to the purchase
transaction and delivery data and alternatives, could be designed
that provide the customer and retailer with better choices,
delivery times, and dynamic location tracking and routing of the
package, with respect to the customer's current location and/or
alternate delivery location. [0308] 1 ChainLink Research, Ann
Grackin, "The Year of the Last Mile", pub. Dec. 11, 2014, Website
URL:
http://www.clresearch.com/research/detail.cfm?guid=3283C1FB-3048-79ED-999-
E-536DD384B656, herein incorporated by reference [0309] 2 ibid,
ChainLink Research, Bill McBeath article, "Home Delivery", 2013,
website: http://www.chainlinkresearch.com/homedelivery/index.cfm,
herein incorporated by reference
[0310] The notion of same-day delivery of medicines is a critical
adjunct to telemedicine applications such as video-based doctor
visits using, for example, Skype video and sound communications.
Moreover, patient connected health-sensor devices, could relay
their data to the patient's smartphone via, for example Bluetooth.
A smartphone application could then relay the medical data, along
with a live video stream of the patient, to the doctor, for
diagnosis and treatment. Since the timely dispensing of
pharmacological drugs from the doctor to the patient can be
critical in certain life-or death situations, having a reliable and
robust home delivery means for timely patient drug delivery can
result in saving lives. Amazon is requesting that the FAA allow
Amazon drones/UAV to deliver patient medicine to the patient having
a smartphone. The patient would acknowledge the acceptance of the
medical package with a visual siting of the drone/UAV, then the
drone props the package to the patient with the smartphone.
A. Uav Landing Stations (for Re-Charing Package Re-Distribution,
Uav Repair,
[0311] As UAV cannot remain airborne for significant periods of
time, and may carry relatively heavy packages, a means to improve
range and reliability includes a plurality of UAV stations for
in-route landing and take-off. These UAV landing station(s) may
include means for automatic, semi automatic, or manual UAV battery
replacement, UAV repair, and package re-routing and temporary
storage. Relatedly, US Patent Publication No. US20120078451 A1,
"Automatic Taking-Off and Landing System", pub. Mar. 29, 2012,
herein incorporated by reference, describes a means to manage the
physical take-off and landing of a flying object. These claims are
directed to UAV landing-takeoff of the UAV repair, battery and
other subsystem replacement means, and package receipt, relay and
forwarding. Several means can be used to implement a physical
wiring connection and disconnection between electrical devices on a
UAV and a landing--Takeoff Station (LTS). A physical inverted cone
consisting of small rods, are used to physically guide the UAV
along a near-vertical path onto the center of LTS. At the center of
the UAV landing point, an electrical connector mates into a
similar, but opposite gender electrical connector located on the
UAV. A slight vibration, either on the UAV or the LTS connector,
along with the weight of the UAV, is used to seat or mate the two
electrical connectors onto each other. The connector design may be
of an existing design, such as a universal serial bus (USB), or a
USB-like connector, or a customized connector design for this
application. The LTS connector provides power and data connectivity
to the UAV subsystems. An electrical or optical sensor can
optionally be used to verify that a suitable physical connection
has been achieved. If such connection has not be achieved, the UAV
can be instructed to lift off, and re-attempt to land again onto
the LTS electrical connector. This process may have to been
repeated until an adequate electrical connection has been achieved.
A customized USB may consist of, for example, the arrangement of
four USB connectors in a slotted cone design, such that the UAV
connector easily mates with the LTS connector, via remote control
and airborne flight maneuvering. Optionally, one or more magnets
may be used to further improve the mating connection of the two
connectors.
[0312] Optionally a holder having a plurality of surfaces that are
shaped to contact a plurality of outer surfaces of an electronic
device, and to secure the UAV onto the UAV landing position, the
UAV electronic device including a wireless power receive element(s)
configured in a cone shape, coupled to the UAV power and/or data
circuits, and a resonant, cone shaped circuit contained within the
LTS landing point area, said resonant circuit including a coil
antenna that is tuned to a frequency and configured to, when in
operation, receives power or transfers bi-directional data from a
nearby wireless field generated by a LTS transceiver system. This
scheme would not require a physical electrical connection, to
recharge the UAV battery(s). A UAV having modular components, and a
LTS having a mechanized gripping device, it is possible to arrange
a computing machinery-controlled, or manual means, to repair UAV
components. For example robotic arms on the LTS can be used to
remove and replace various UAV components, such as the rotor
assembly, rotor arms, cameras, gyroscopes, and related
assemblies.
[0313] Often UAV may include a mechanized grabbing or holding
device, to carry a package/container. The device may include, for
example, converging opposed cylinder or solenoid-operated finger
arrangements which pivot together to close about a package or
similar container for gripping and open to release said package or
container. The said UAV-LTS connection may include data
interchanges, such as digital messages from a computing system
connected to the LTS, to cause the UAV grabbing device to release,
or pickup, an existing or new package/container.
B. Uav Group Routing, Uav Re-routing, Package Temp. Storage,
Re-Delivery
[0314] A conveyor belt other physical package movement system,
positioned below the UAV LTS, could be used to collect and move
away, a UAV dropped package, or to provide a new package/container
to the UAV, for its pickup. The new package may be a re-routed
package due to a change in scheduled delivery, a return package,
temporary safe storage of the package, rain or other flight
restriction delays, or similar situations. UAV LTS may be
positioned on top of moving or vehicles, buildings, cleared areas
in trees, antenna towers, cliffs, boats, ships, balloons, other
aircraft, etc. Ideally the UAV LTS is near a source of power,
although alternatively solar and/or wind power could be used to
provide electrical energy to operate the UAV LTS and recharge the
UAV.
[0315] Numerous situations may require that a UAV change its flight
path from an intended or scheduled path, to an emergency or
alternative path. In certain cases, for example, a UAV may become
excessively hot, low on battery power, subject to RF jamming, or
sensors may detect that it is under attack, or a UAV may encounter
a control message to change flight path, or to return to a safe
base (i.e., LTS), recharge it's battery, change packages, etc.
Ideally a fleet of UAV travel in a coordinated manner, along paths
such that any given UAV is within landing distance of a LTS. Having
a plurality of LTS provides improved safety, and reliability of
UAV, delivery services, and other related benefits to successfully
carry out a given UAV mission plan.
C. Security Updates
[0316] Hijacking, of UAV radio communications, denying digital
service, and jamming principles are well-known in the UAV art.
Significant adversarial countermeasures include: [0317] 1.) Use of
a plurality of separate RF and/or optical wireless communications
(OWC) bands, including Wi-Fi, cellular and private RF bans, and
free space optics (F SO), in particular, ultraviolet communication
(UVC). Although OWC requires gumball-mounted, highly focused
antenna systems, several companies now offer light weight
hardware-software solutions to dynamically position antennas to
support FSO and UVC. One example of a vendor product for airborne
Long-Range Laser optics communications is Aoptics' Laser Comms
system. A particularly light weight quantum cascade laser (QCL)
system suitable for UAV OWC applications is Pranalytica's Model
1101-XX-QCW-YYYY-EGC-UC-PF, fixed frequency Laser system using the
3.8 um to 12 um wavelength Mid-infrared range (MIR) band, with up
to 1 Watt of continuous power. This MIR, QCL power, weight
technology combination is well-suited to provide robust ultra-high
speed data communications with UAV(s) and their corresponding
control and data collection antenna(s), across a wide variety of
distances (several km) and adverse atmospheric conditions.sup.3. In
contrast, CO.sub.2-based lasers require more power (and thus added
weight to the UAV), and also scatter the beam more so than the QCL
MIR technology. The longer wavelength, MIR [0318] 3 "Corrigan,
Paul, Martini, Rainer, et al, "Quantum Cascade Laswersa nd the
Kruse Model on Free Space Optical Communications", Dept of Physics,
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J., 2008, Optical
society of America, herein incorporated by reference. [0319] QCL
technology is more suited to free space optical communications
because it implements a longer wavelength beam that is much less
affected by fog, particulates and rain. On the UAV(s) and the
operator's computing device(s), a light weight, bandwidth
aggregation router is configured to relay packets, ideally VPN
bonded packets, across separate radio bands, then recombined at the
far-end, endpoint. This network method can provide additional
bandwidth to end-point packets if multiple network paths are
available. Alternatively if several wireless networking paths fail,
end-point packets will be routed across any available mid-point
paths, to improve endpoint reliability. Use of a plurality of radio
and OWC links, provides improved Bandwith aggregation and
communication reliability. Router vendors include, for example,
PepLink, Mushroom Networks, Fusionappliances, D-Link Fuzion
Broadband Aggregation Router, Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation
Services Router, and Patton's Man-portable unit, model BODi rS
BD004. Current bonding/aggregation and balancing technology
typically supports up to seven simultaneous RF channels, including
multi-carrier 3G, 4G/LTE, VSAT and multiple WiFi bands. [0320] 2.)
Full encryption of RF digital communications signals, including
headers and addresses. Examples of digital packet protocols include
Secure Real time Protocol (SRTP), with AES 128 or 256 bit
encryption. One example of a freely available protocol system is
Bitmessage. Bitmessage could be used aboard a UAV and its
end-operator's computing platform, to allow the UAV operator to
securely send and receive messages, and to subscribe to broadcast
messages, using a trustless decentralized peer-to-peer protocol
means, similar to BitCoin. Users need not exchange any data beyond
a relatively short address to ensure security, and would not
require public or private keys. In particular, non-content data,
such as the sender and receiver address details, are masked from
those not involved in the private communication. A public paper by
Jonathan Warren describes the Bitmessage system: "Bitmessage: A
Peer-to Peer Message Authentication and Delivery System", Nov. 27,
2012, herein incorporated by reference. An example of another
secure real-time messaging system is Peter Zimmermann's ZRTP
protocol. It is described in IETF's RFC 6189, "ZRTP: Media Path Key
Agreement for Unicast Secure RTP", Apr. 11, 2011, herein
incorporated by reference. [0321] 3.) Full encryption of UAV
data-at-rest, stored on, for example, hard disks and solid state
storage devices. An example of a freely available product is
TrueCrypt. The UAV operator specifies a password to the program
which provides real-time encryption for the data residing on the
permanent storage media, used on the UAV and the operator's
computing device. Should the UAV fall into the wrong hands, the
hard disk data would remain encrypted unless the password were
known. Additionally, hidden disk partitions could be deployed for
particularly sensitive data, using a separate password.
[0322] FIG. 5 describes the traditional air-to-air surveillance
methods using the 1090/1030 MHz band RF links to provide other
aircraft information about each other. Another newer band, 978 MHz,
is also used for this purpose, in a Universal Access Transceiver
(UAT). Typically the weight of such systems has been significant,
thus lightweight UAV may not be very effective in carrying an
individual ABD-S surveillance system.
[0323] FIG. 6 shows a UAV package delivery flight path corridor
(labeled A and B) and absolute, "NO-FLY" zones (labeled C). There
are in fact many constraints that will likely restrict package
delivery UAV, thus giving rise to the need to develop UAV
flight-corridor path management solutions.
[0324] FIG. 7 shows an allowed flight area (labeled C) consisting
of a horizontal corridor, a "NO-FLY" zone, and an accepted vertical
drop-off path (labeled B).
[0325] FIG. 8 shows a depiction of package delivery UAVs flying
along a flight corridor.
[0326] FIG. 9 illustrates how UAV RF communications can be secured
using virtual private networks (VPNs) or tunnels, along with packet
encryption, such as AES.
[0327] FIG. 11 illustrates a UAV flight path corridor system
according to an embodiment. [0328] 1.) A commercial UAV flight
corridor system is defined for major metro communities or other
geopolitical areas, that capture agreements between various
end-users (package receipt customers), military, governments
(local, county, federal), safety issues, landowner constraints,
etc. These agreed-to UAV flight corridors need to be managed, and
UAVs within them, to avoid collisions inside the corridor. [0329]
2.) Each corridor link or path leg, between landing/takeoff pads
has the notion of UAV density. New UAVs that enter the 3D UAV
flight path Corridor system must be managed, and have flight paths
that do not conflict with the current traffic flow within a
corridor or link/leg. Obviously a corridor could fill to capacity,
thus adding new UAVs to a high density corridor/leg would introduce
unsafe flying conditions. the density may change unexpectedly over
time, due to various uncontrollable abnormalities such as birds,
unidentified aircraft, sudden unacceptable wind conditions, etc.
[0330] 3.) Keeping the density below some threshold is good,
because it may be required to stop an entire flight corridor
segment/leg/path, to allow for a flock of birds to pass, to allow
for other aircraft to pass safely, or to reverse the entire flight
corridor to account for dangerous windy conditions or some
new/unplanned social/legal/military constraint set (E.G., NFL
football/military operation in the area, etc.). [0331] 4.) Tiered
UAV flight planning and management: Since the agreed-to UAV package
flight corridors constrain UAVs to fly within a relatively tight
area, each UAV within the flight corridor path needs individual,
fined-tuned flight management. Each UAV, as a minimum, needs
sensors and radio telemetry electronics and radios for RF mesh/cell
tower data communication. However due to weight and power
constraints it is unreasonable for each UAV to have a significant
amount of on-board control and management electronics, UAT
transponders, etc. It is reasonable to have one or more `dynamic
control ship(s), or DCS` UAV, within a flock of UAVs, to include no
payload delivery packages, but to have a UAT aircraft surveillance
transponder server, as well as local flight management computing
server that micro-manages a small flock of UAVs. Each UAV may have
per-defined flight path instructions pre-programmed, prior to
launch, but dynamic conditions need management control instructions
that must take priority. Notions exist for overall path trip
planning and management, consisting of collections of flight
corridors. At another tier, flight control is needed within a
corridor, to maintain individual UAV flight safety, maintain UAV
flight within the corridor, and keep density below some defined
threshold, to allow for orderly and optimized flight. [0332] 5.)
The need exists to halt or even reverse UAV in flight corridors, to
create an open space for unplanned aircraft or birds/other flying
objects. In this case, a DCS UAV, nearby, so that strong RF links
would not be required, is an ideal means to provide local control
RF messages to nearby package UAV. The DCS would also have
higher-powered RF systems to facilitate longer-range
communications, perhaps also using FLIR lasers to sense and manage
package UAV, and to communicate with ground base stations. [0333]
6.) The need exists to manage corridor density to optimize overall
delivery time, and to balance with various constraints such as
time, battery remaining, UAV refueling, etc. [0334] 7.) UAV
Landing/Takeoff Pads: these could be maintained by building owners
or other third parties. Landing/takeoff pads can be used to repair
UAV, replace batteries, charge batteries, Accept and receive
packages for alternate and/or supplemental delivery means, such as
local bicycle couriers. Pads may be constructed with complex
electronics/sensors to guide the last few flight meters of distance
and location to an exact landing/takeoff location spot on the
landing pad. Alternatively the landing pad may incorporate
electromechanical, or purely mechanical means to facilitate the
easy landing and takeoff of a UAV, without the requirement for
advanced electronics/sensors for the last few flight meters. Pads
might use cone-like structures to allow easy flight controls to
drop the UAV into the cone structure, for easier battery
replacement, recharging, package receipt and submission, and
similar functions. The pad could also be a modified U.S. Post box
with a top that opens to allow for a UAV to drop a package into the
U.S. mail box. A means to weigh its contents, then relay that info
via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other means, back to a user's Ethernet
network, would allow customers to learn that new mail, or a package
has arrived in their mail box.
Communication UAV System:
[0335] FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an
embodiment of the avionics system 1200 for a UAV (which may be an
embodiment of the UAV 100).
[0336] Referring to FIG. 12, the avionics system 1200 that includes
one or more of a flight management system 1210, a mission data
subsystem 1212, a control and telemetry radio 1214, a GPS receiver
1216, a VHF air band radio 1218, an ATC transponder 1220, a ADS-B
subsystem 1222, an attitude reference unit 1224, an alternate
navigation receiver 1226, an autopilot subsystem 1228, and an
alternate navigation sensor subsystem 1230. With reference to FIG.
1, the avionics system 1200 may have analogs in the various
components of the UAV 100 as one of ordinary skill in the art can
appreciate. For example, the flight management system 1210 may be
analogous to or included in the control system 110 (the UAV control
system 110 may also include the mission data subsystem 1212 and the
autopilot subsystem 1228 in the flight control components 170). In
one embodiment, the control and telemetry radio 1214, the VHF air
band radio 1218, and the ATC transponder 1220 may be analogous to
or included in the communications components 120). In one
embodiment, the GPS receiver 1216 may be analogous to, or included
in, the geolocation components 130. In one embodiment, the ADS-B
subsystem 1222 and the alternative navigation receiver 1226 may be
analogous to the navigation components 140. In one embodiment, the
alternate navigation sensor subsystem 1230 may be analogous to, or
included in, the sensory components 160. In one embodiment, the
attitude reference unit 1224 may be analogous to, or included in,
the orientation components 150.
[0337] In an embodiment of an UAV having the avionics system 1200
such a UAV may be used as a specialized communications station for
communicating with and/or relaying communication to and/or from
other UAVs or stations within an operational area of the UAV having
the avionics system 1200. As discussed above, UAVs and other
airborne vehicles in general each have a payload (or cargo) weight
limitation (e.g., the amount of weight the UAV can carry while in
airborne operation). Further, additional payload weight (whether or
not the payload weight limitation is reached) can adversely affect
the fuel or energy or other resource consumption and usage of the
UAV (e.g., a UAV with a heavier payload will use up more energy to
stay airborne and/or move than a similar UAV with a lighter
payload). Additionally, the duration of operation of the UAV may
also be affected by the weight of the payload (e.g., a UAV with a
heavier payload may shortened continuous airborne operation time
compared with a similar UAV with a lighter payload,; thus requiring
the heavier UAV to potentially land to recharge or replace its fuel
or battery more frequently).
[0338] As such, it is desirable to limit the weight of payloads of
a UAV. One way to increase the weight payloads is to limit the
weight of the equipment onboard the UAV. For example, for a UAV
that is used mainly for delivering payloads or packages (e.g., a
UAV as discussed with references to FIGS. 4A-4D), it may be
desirable for the UAV to carry only the necessary equipment for
flight operation such that the acceptable weight for the payloads
is maximized. For example, a delivery UAV may only require the
necessary radio (e.g., a control and telemetry radio) for the
operator controlling the UAV and other flight control components
but would not necessarily need other communication components
(e.g., VHF radio or other high bandwidth communication radio for
carrying other communications). In another example, it may be
desirable for a UAV used for photography or videography (e.g., with
a camera payload) to include a high bandwidth radio to transmit
captured photographs or videos in sufficiently real time in high
quality but since such a high bandwidth radio may not be necessary
for flight, the radio be dispensed with in order to reduce the
weight of the UAV.
[0339] For some environments, it is desirable to have a specialized
communication UAV for communicating and/or relaying communications
with other UAVs, in the operational area of the communication UAV,
in order to allow these other UAVs to perform their designated
tasks (e.g., transport cargo). In an embodiment, the communication
UAV may include a first communication component (e.g., a short
range radio). In an embodiment, the communication component may
operate in an unallocated spectrum (e.g., Wi-Fi, 900 Mhz, or other
unlicensed bands) for receiving and/or transmitting communication
with the other UAVs. The other UAVs may correspondingly have a
similar communication component for the communication. Such radio
communication may be of a relatively short range (less than 1/4
miles or 0.4 kilometers); accordingly, the power requirement and
correspondingly the weight of the communication component may be
reduced. Further, the interference of such radio communication may
be acceptable for operation in the unallocated spectrum.
[0340] In an embodiment of the communication UAV, it may further
include a second communication component for communicating and
relaying communication to a radio receiver (likely a transceiver)
operably wirelessly coupled in a wireless network with
geographically dispersed plurality of network transceivers for
providing wireless communications over a geographic area much
larger than the coverage area of anyone of the network receivers or
transceivers. Such a radio receiver (likely transceiver) is
referred to as a "communication point" herein. Note that such a
communication point may be supported on the ground, airborne, in
space, and further may be mobile, or substantially fixed in its
location. Further, such a communication point may be wirelessly (or
otherwise) connected to a particular network (e.g., the Internet)
for the transmission of communications. For example, such a
communication point may be a cellular fixed location base station
providing a point of presence (POP) to the Internet. Note that the
second communication component may operate in an allocated spectrum
since communication from or to the second communication component
may be longer range and may need more protection from interference.
Also, the second communication component may provide for
directional communication signal to a communication point (e.g., a
directed signal to a terrestrial base station). As such, the second
communication component may include a directional antenna and a
mechanical system for moving the directional antenna (towards the
communication point). Accordingly, such a second communication
component may be relatively heavy in comparison to other UAV
communication components.
[0341] In operation, the UAVs within the operational area of a
communication UAV may effectively relay communication using lighter
communication equipment through the communication UAV in order to
access an outside network. Such a communication UAV may be
considered a pico-cell within a wider operational wireless area,
wherein, e.g., the communication UAV is used for extending a range
of a cellular network.
[0342] In an embodiment, multiple communication UAVs may be
deployed in an enlarged operational area (e.g., an operational area
beyond the range of a single communication UAV). In this
arrangement, the multiple communication UAVs may form a mesh
network coverage within the operational area for providing
communication for UAVs in the operational area. In another view,
the communication UAVs may form an ad hoc pico-cellular wireless
base station group for providing wireless communications to other
UAVs that otherwise would not have adequate wireless
communications. In one embodiment, such communication UAVs are
geospatially arranged (in 3D space) in a formation to enhance
wireless communications between, e.g., cargo transport UAVs, and
between such cargo transport UAVs and a particular network (e.g.,
the Internet). In one embodiment, several of the communication UAVs
may be arranged in a serial formation such that an ad hoc
daisy-chain, thereby forming a wireless network in a longitudinal
3D space. The formation may be used to provide various
communications services, such as on-the-fly cellular hot-spot
coverage in areas of marginal or no current cellular/Wi-Fi coverage
exists.
[0343] In one embodiment, such a communication UAV may include two
or more of the second communication components for communicating
with two or more communication points. For example, one of the
second communication components may communicate with a first
communication point (e.g., a cellular tower) and another of the
second communication components may communicate with another
communication point (e.g., a communication satellite or another
cellular tower at another location). Accordingly, the second
communication components may need to have separate antennas (e.g.,
directional antenna) for their corresponding wireless
communications. In one embodiment, such a communication UAV may be
oriented to facilitate the separate communication components in
transmitting and receiving a signal of sufficient signal strength
with the other communication points. For example, depending on
where the directional antennas are located on the communication
UAV, the communication UAV may configure itself to allow a maximum
separation of the communication signals when the directional
antennas are oriented to accept the signal from their respective
communication points.
[0344] In an embodiment, the communication UAV may employ channel
bonding techniques through the two or more separate communication
components for communicating with the respective two or more
communication points. For example, the separate communication
components may be communicating with two cellular towers of two
different carriers or service providers at different spectrum. As
such, channel bonding techniques may be used for aggregating
communications through the separate channels for increased
bandwidth, redundancy, or other desirable effects. In a more
generalized example, a number of alternative wireless
channels/networks, such as Ku-Band, military, public safety,
aeronautical bands, may be used to provide the wireless
communication services through channel bonding. This may also
include expanding the data network capacity via the multiple paths
of backbone communications, to increase overall bandwidth between
various endpoints. Either same-carrier or cross-carrier channel
aggregation may be used. For example, cross-carrier data channel
aggregation is utilized where such mutual cell or Ku-band coverage
is available, to enable increased bandwidth-handling capacity. In
another example, same carrier channel aggregation may be used by
transmitting a directed signal to two cellular tower of the same
carrier in opposite directions.
[0345] In an embodiment, a non-UAV communication station may be
used in place of a communication UAV for operations by the
communication UAV as discussed above and herein in this disclosure.
For example, the non-UAV communication station may include the
communication components (e.g., the control and telemetry radio
1214, the VHF air band radio 1218, and the ATC transponder 1220),
the geolocation components (e.g., the GPS receiver 1216), and/or
the navigation components (e.g., the ADS-B subsystem 1222 and the
alternative navigation receiver 1226) but lack the control systems
and/or the piloting components (e.g., the autopilot system 1228)
that would control and/or maneuver the UAV while airborne. As such,
the non-UAV communication station may be able to detect, control,
manage, communicate/provide communication, and/or provide other
functions to UAVs within the operational area of the non-UAV
communication station but non-UAV communication station would not
be capable in active airborne operational deployment. In an
embodiment, the non-UAV communication station may be deployed
ground-based, on top or at the side of large buildings, or at other
suitable locations.
[0346] In an embodiment, a number of communication UAVs and/or
non-UAV communication stations operating in an aggregate
operational area may form a communication UAV system that provides
at least communication service for other UAVs in the aggregate
operational area.
[0347] In an embodiment, the communication UAVs (individually or
collectively) may be deployed at various locations, including
unplanned locations (as opposed to predetermined locations such as
a UAV corridor) to establish and provide of an ad hoc network
servicing other UAVs and/or other network devices (e.g., portable
devices such as smart phones used by the user directly). Since UAVs
may operate at an elevated height (e.g., airborne), the
communication UAVs may be suitable replacement for cellular or
other radio towers providing wireless communication to an area. In
an embodiment, the communication UAVs may be deployed at locations
where existing communication infrastructure is inadequate (e.g.,
lacking or damaged) to provide a temporary extended communication
access. In an embodiment, the communication UAVs may also provide a
mesh network for other UAVs operating in the area (e.g., for other
UAVs that may be carrying payloads into the area). This is
particularly applicable to military (e.g., establishing
communication and/or logistics to a battle front), events (e.g.,
establishing and/or bolstering the communication infrastructure in
an area with an unexpected, temporary mass of people), disaster
relief, urban planning and/or construction, and other
applications.
[0348] In an embodiment, a communication UAV may also be include
(or be controlled by) algorithms, robotics, and/or artificial
intelligence for finding and determining a position where it can be
deployed (e.g., in the deployment scenario discussed above). For
example, the communication UAV may select an optimal area for
deployment based on finding an area of weak communication coverage
(thereby maximizing the communication UAV's usefulness). The
communication UAV may also select an area that maximizes its
communication coverage area (e.g., by selecting to operate at a
location with a large amount of expected users). Also, the
communication UAV may consider minimizing the use of its resources
(e.g., to prolong its operational duration). For example, the
communication UAV may select to dock to a high object (e.g., top of
buildings, lamp posts, towers, hills) so that it does not need to
expend energy to hover. Further, the communication UAV may consider
that some areas it may be prohibited or discouraged to operate in
(e.g., private property, restricted airspace). As such, in an
embodiment, a communication UAV (or another system deploying the
UAV) may consider the various factors for an automated
deployment.
Aerial Traffic Services:
[0349] In an embodiment, a communication station (e.g., either UAV
or non-UAV) may also include communications with aerial traffic
and/or collision avoidance systems and/or services.
[0350] A recent Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM),
docket no. FAA-2015-0150; Notice No, 15-01, herein incorporated by
reference, pg. 29, notes that UAVs must comply with the
see-and-avoid requirement of 14 CFR part 91, .sctn. 91.113(b) in
order to integrate civil small UAV operations into the National Air
Space (NAS). Pg. 211, notes, " . . . small unmanned aircraft are
unable to see and avoid other aircraft in the NAS. Therefore, small
UAV operations conflict with the FAA's current operating
regulations . . . specifically, at the heart of the part 91
operating regulations is 91.113(b), which requires each person
operating an aircraft to maintain vigilance "so as to see and avoid
other aircraft". Pg. 30 notices, "At this point in time, we have
determined that technology has not matured to the extent that would
allow small UAV to be used safely in lieu of visual line of sight
without creating a hazard to other user of the NAS or the public,
or posing a threat to national safety. On pg. 20, The DOT/FAA
further explains, "[a]lthough ground-based radar and the Traffic
Collision Avoidance system (TCAS) have done an excellent job in
reducing the mid-air collision rate between manned aircraft.
Unfortunately, the equipment required to utilize these widely
available technologies is currently too large and heavy to be used
in small UAV operations. Until this equipment is miniaturized to
the extent necessary . . . existing technology does not appear to
provide a way to resolve the `see and avoid` problem with small UAV
operations without maintaining human visual contact with the small
unmanned aircraft during flight."
[0351] As such, a critical solution is the enablement of a system
or means to inform other aircraft (manned and unmanned), of the
location, identification, and movement direction of aircraft.
Aerial traffic and/or collision avoidance systems and/or services
are essential in directing traffic and/or avoiding collisions among
aerial vehicles in controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Aerial
traffic services may include one or more or a combination of an
automated service and/or a human operator controlled service. For
example, an automated service may be predominately machine
controlled and operated for directing traffic and/or avoiding
collision. In another example, a machine assisted service may use
inputs from one or more automated sensors, radars, or other inputs
that describes the airspace to determine and provide alerts and/or
instructions to a human operator of an aerial vehicle and/or the
service. In another example, a human operator controlled service
relies on the human operator of an aerial vehicle and/or the
service to provide alert, instructions, and/or control of aerial
vehicles in the airspace. Some aerial traffic service technology
currently in use or proposed include Air Traffic Control (ATC),
Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), and Automatic Dependent
Surveillance--Broadcast (ADS-B).
[0352] ATC is a service provided by ground-based operators (air
traffic controller) who direct aircraft in a controlled airspace
and on the group. As such, ATC functions to organize air traffic
and to prevent collisions. ATC may also provide relevant advisory
information and services (e.g., weather information) other support
for aerial vehicle operators. The primary method of communication
of an ATC with aerial vehicle operators are through voice
communication over radio. The operator of the ATC have the
information of the ground and airspace the operator is responsible
for through a combination of the voice communications (from the
aerial vehicle operators), visual observation (e.g., from a control
tower), radar systems in the area (e.g., secondary surveillance
radar), and other systems (e.g., surface movement radar (SMR) or
surface movement guidance and control system (SMGCS)).
[0353] TCAS is a system for collision avoidance of aerial vehicles
to reduce the incidences of collisions between aerial vehicles
while airborne. TCAS is typically installed on an aerial vehicle
for monitoring the airspace around the aerial vehicle and is
equipped with a transponder for communication with other aerial
vehicles in the vicinity. TCAS warns the operators of aerial
vehicles of the presence of TCAS or other transponder-equipped
aircraft when a threat of mid-air collision (MAC) is detected. TCAS
may work independent of ATC and is mandated by the various national
and international agencies (e.g., ICAO) for certain aerial
vehicles. Communications from the transponders of TCAS is primarily
as a digital message in a specified format.
[0354] Standardized radio and computing machinery systems employing
the TCAS technology (and also ATC) to discretely address
interrogation and data exchange beacon systems have been available
for over 30 years to perform these types of tasks. Typically, a 200
watt digital transponder radio in the 1 GHz radio band (1090 MHz
and 1030 MHz) is used to transmit and receive messages using a
well-defined modulation and protocol format. These radio signal
digital messages can be received and processed effectively by
neighboring aerial vehicles and/or ground communications systems.
Message types include broadcast, as well as query-response
messages. Radio signals are used to provide a significant amount of
useful information, including, for example, the aircraft ID, X, Y
and Z position, speed, type of aircraft, direction, altitude, size,
weight, etc. Various algorithms have been defined and are used to
inform aircraft operators of potential collisions and provide means
to inform of actions required to avoid a collision. In some cases,
the equipment can be used to automatically prevent a collision.
[0355] An example of the current TCAS system architecture is
described by Henley in 2001, "Introduction to TCAS II 2000," herein
incorporated by reference.
[0356] More recent advances in technology have been introduced,
such as TCAS III, TCAS-IV, and Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which use global position system
information, and the time required to transmit and receive a radio
signal (sometimes called the tau time). The tau time was useful
when precise GPS data was not available, or trusted. A vector of
the intruding aircraft could be calculated, along with the current
aircraft, to determine the Closest Point of Approach (CPA) (of a
collision). "Introduction to ADS-B," available at
http://www.trig-avionics.com/knowledge-bank/ads-b/introduction-to-ads-b,
is herein incorporated by reference.
[0357] As discussed above and herein in this disclosure, UAVs may
have weight and other limitation that hinder or prevent the UAV
from easily carrying numerous equipments (e.g., full TCAS and/or
ADS-B types transponders and the associated antennas). Although UAV
cannot easily carry TCAS and ADS-B types of transponders with
antennas, this equipment could be placed in a near-by area of a UAV
or a plurality of UAV. In an embodiment, a computational machinery
server may be used, in communication with a secure, trusted
wireless network of communications between and among UAV and a
modified TCAS/ADS-B transponder system. Each UAV may provide the
UAV transponder system with its individual identifier, flight data
details, and/or other information. A planned and actual flight plan
data set may also be stored in the TCAS/ADS-B transponder server
for subsequent radio transmission, should real-time communications
become lost, between a given UAV and the transponder server.
Additional message types or unallocated fields in messages can be
used to provide UAV-specific data that are not within the realm of
manned aerial vehicle. Examples include whether or not a given UAV
data is in real-time (actual), or stored/estimated. Other data may
include category-specific data, such as commercial vs. government
use, package delivery details, remaining time-in-flight, battery
information, specific UAV flight restrictions, flight paths
landing, and/or maneuvering and plans.
[0358] One implementation of a UAV transponder server system may
use secured messaging within a public wireless band, such as a
Wi-Fi radio frequency band. In a preferred embodiment, each UAV
includes two digital transceivers, capable of operating on separate
frequencies, or preferably, on separate bands. In separating, for
example, the command and control messages from transponder server
system messages, the UAV transponder server system may have the
desirable effects of lower shared-media packet message congestion,
less chance of data packet collision, and more reliability with the
UAV transponder server system (UTSS). In an embodiment, as UAVs
generally communicate wirelessly with a manned pilot control
system, thus this same UAV position and flight data could be
extracted and used as sensor data to the UTSS.
[0359] Several modifications may be performed to modify a standard
TCAS/ADS-B transponder functions to a UAV TCAS/ADS-B capable
transponder server system (UTSS). Current TCAS/ADS-B transponders
are designed to receive signals from a group of sensors aboard a
single aerial vehicle, and to transmit messages (either of
broadcast or query-response type), based on a single aerial
vehicle's data exchange. In an embodiment, a TCAS/ADS-B transponder
for the UTSS may support multiple aerial vehicles in terms of the
radio transmission side. In this case, multiple RF transmissions
for multiple aerial vehicles could be supported by adding separate
aerial vehicle query-response data registers, used to support a
plurality of aerial vehicle data for radio transmission to other
systems. In another embodiment, multiple separate sensor data
registers and ways of populating these registers with a plurality
of appropriate UAV sensor data groups can be added to the
TCAS/ADS-B systems. Additional logic may be provided to coordinate
switching control such that the corresponding aerial vehicle
linkages are maintained between a given aerial vehicle's sensor
data and the corresponding radio transmission query-response data
for a given aerial vehicle.
[0360] In an additional embodiment, sensor and other data from
multiple UAVs and/or other aerial vehicles in the vicinity may be
aggregated by the UTSS as an aggregated dataset used in the
communication and/or other purposes, for a more reliable and
complete dataset. For example, data from sensors of various UAVs
may give indications of the conditions in different areas of the
airspace. Also, some of these data may be considered more reliable
than others (e.g., a UAV or other aerial vehicle with better
sensors, the aerial vehicle being closer to the area where the data
is for, a fake or unreliable data due to equipment malfunction or
malicious intent). The aggregation of the dataset may then be
dependent on such reliability factors, and may be ranked or
weighted when aggregated to the aggregate dataset. In an
embodiment, the aggregated data may be used in place of actual data
for a UAV. Alternatively viewed, the UTSS may act as a unified data
source for supported UAVs in the vicinity with respect to the air
traffic services such as TCAS/ADS-B.
[0361] In an embodiment, the transponder for the air traffic
services (e.g., TCAS/ADS-B transponders) may be deployed on a
communication UAV as discussed above and herein in this disclosure
for providing the air traffic services to other UAVs in the
operational area of the communication UAV, to facilitate
coordinated communications among manned aerial vehicles, as well as
other UAVs for a variety of reasons, including collision avoidance,
with the UAVs. For example, the UAVs may communicate, through the
mesh network, with the communications UAVs which may have the air
traffic services transponders to obtain the associated data and/or
to communicate with the various operators and/or parties of the air
traffic services. As discussed, since general UAV radio systems may
not be able to implement long-range communications, a message
store-and-forward capability may also be implemented into the
communication UAV and the associated mesh network (e.g., as opposed
to a routed message system by the communication UAV). Various
challenges exist in UAV radio communications, thus having a
plurality of UAVs, with at least some in radio communications with
a mesh network, to enable all UAV to communicate, is very
desirable. By combining mesh networking (mesh network principles
and implementations as known now or may be later derived) within a
fleet of UAVs, and command and control, and TCAS or other air
traffic service transponder capability, it is possible to satisfy
DOT/FAA requirements for positive control, safety and
see-and-avoid, and collision avoidance capability among all aerial
vehicles for all UAVs in an area of interest.
[0362] In an embodiment, the UTSS may also be implemented in a
communication UAV or in another stations (e.g., terrestrial station
for an operational area).
[0363] FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram of a UAT, ADS-B server-based
system for multiple UAVs according to an embodiment. In an
embodiment, the UAT server-based system 1010 can be carried aboard
one (or more, for redundancy) dedicated UAV (e.g., a communication
UAV as discussed above and herein in this disclosure) or station
within a UAV system 1000 in an accessible location (e.g., a
somewhat central location) of a fleet of other UAVs 1020A-1020N. As
discussed above, each UAV 1020A-1020N may send telemetry and other
individual UAV-specific data, using a RF band (through transceiver
1013) separate from the ADS-B system (e.g., mesh network), to the
UAT server 1010 carried by the dedicated UAV. This individual data
includes for example, UAV identifier, latitude and longitude (e.g.,
from a GPS), altitude, and other related data. The UAT server 1010
stores each UAV's data, and schedules and multiplexes each UAV's
data through the ADS-B Dual Band transceivers 1014A and 1014B. This
scheme allows each the UAVs 1020A-1020N to inform other aerial
vehicles 1040 and/or ATC 1030 of its whereabouts, without having
the weight and power drain requirements of a dedicated UAT. The UAV
carrying the dedicated UAT server 1010 may also include a
processing system 1011 to provide communications back to a given
UAV 1020A-1020N, for a variety of reasons. Example include
flight-plan modifications where the UAT service 1010 acquires new
information that one or more of the fleet UAVs 1020A-1020N is
suddenly in flight danger from, e.g., birds, or other unknown
objects that could affect the standard UAV flight path/safety.
Examples of ADS-B transceivers may be provided by Aspen Avionics,
available at http://www.aspenavionics.com/products/nextgen, herein
incorporated by reference. Another example of ADS-B transponder
includes the XPC-TR, XPS-TR, XPG-TR, and other transponder by
Sagetech Corporation. Robert C. Strain, et al., "A Lightweight,
Low-cost ADS-B System for UAS Applications," The MITRE Corporation,
Case Number 07-0634, 2007, is herein incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0038501, entitled "Self-configuring
universal access transceiver," herein incorporated by references,
discusses a multiplexing server that submits individual UAV data to
a central area-based ADS-B transceiver system.
[0364] In an embodiment, it is noted that ATC communications (and
other voice communications in general) may be relayed through the
communication UAV system. For example, voice communications from
the ATC directed to a particular UAV (or a number of UAV) may be
received by a communication UAV (or other communication station in
the communication UAV system) through VHF radio and packetized and
sent through the Internet (via a cellular tower or other point of
presence) to an operator of the particular UAV. In another example,
the communication UAV system may forward contact information (e.g.,
a VoIP address) of the operator of the a UAV to the ATC, where the
ATC can then directly contact the operator using the contact
information.
[0365] FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a layout of a
general ADS-B system for a UAV system according to an
embodiment.
[0366] U.S. Pat. No. 9,274,521, entitled "Employing local,
opportunistic automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B)
information processed by an unmanned aerial vehicle ground control
station to augment other source "knowledge" of local aircraft
position information for improving situational awareness," which is
herein incorporated by references, discloses a system and method
for employing local, opportunistic ADS-B to augment other source
knowledge of local aircraft position information for improving
situational awareness in areas lacking ADS-B coverage provided by
aircraft control agencies. Locally-received, such as in a vicinity
of a UAV or sUAS, ADS-B positional information is received by a
UAV, sUAS or associated ground control station and integrated on a
display component of the ground control station, e.g., a pilot
display, for the UAV or sUAS. In an embodiment, the UTSS and the
UAT server-based system may be modified to implement the local,
opportunistic ADS-B system and method. In a further embodiment, the
local, opportunistic ADS-B system may be implement with and as part
of the communication UAVs and system, UAV corridor system, flight
management system, and other systems as disclosed herein.
Navigation
[0367] FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a distance-based
position determination system for a UAV system according to an
embodiment. FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a
angle-based position determination system for a UAV system
according to an embodiment.
[0368] Radio navigation has two fundamental forms: RHO which
measures or estimates the distance to a known point, and THETA
which measures the azimuth to a known point. GPS in a RHO RHO
system is capable of measuring a three dimensional point anywhere
on or near the surface of the earth. With a priori knowledge of the
orbital characteristics, including errors, and a stable time
source, an excellent estimate can be made of the distance to each
of the satellites, which a navigation receiver on a UAV can see
resulting in an accurate estimate of position, albeit in a somewhat
esoteric coordinate system.
[0369] It is noted that the data from GPS satellites is very close
to the natural ambient noise level, As such, it is subject to
signal loss from powerful radio transmitters in the vicinity,
including military operations, intentional jamming, and/or
obstructions to the horizon
[0370] In the case of GPS signal loss, it is desirable to have
alternate positioning and/or navigation strategies for a UAV. These
options may include eLoran, inertial guidance, dead reckoning, RF
environment augmented dead reckoning, and/or some form of Terrain
Referenced Navigation. There are advantages and disadvantages to
each of these options, as follows:
[0371] eLoran is a proposed technology which would effectively
provide an alternative to GPS navigation. However, it is expected
that eLoran would be subject to the similar geometry issues which
plagued the obsolete Loran-C which eLoran is projected to replace.
This would need database support for the coordinate conversion of a
Loran chain to Cartesian coordinate conversion as well as database
support to switch to another chain, if the current Loran geometry
does not permit a reasonable, or any solution, of the Loran
coordinates.
[0372] Dead reckoning, using airspeed and heading information based
on a priori knowledge of position speed, is an effective method of
mitigating transient GPS outages. Navigation errors, however,
rapidly increase to an unacceptable level.
[0373] Inertial guidance is a similar technology to dead reckoning.
An issue with inertial guidance is that it is too large and too
expensive with current technology.
[0374] Terrain Referenced Navigation is a non-radio navigation
system which is more analogous to reading a road map and comparing
it to the surrounding features. For example, a radar, scanning
LIDAR, and/or passive optical scanner operating at a fixed angle
may provide a scan which can then be correlated with a
geographically encoded database, such as the US Department of
Commerce TIGER database or open street map.
[0375] In any urban or suburban environment there are a plethora of
stationary RF emitters, such as cell towers. Used in a RHO RHO
navigation solution, RF environment augments dead reckoning would
need the ability to properly identify each emitter, an extensive
database of accurate survey data and frequency stability well
beyond what is currently required by the regulatory authorities.
However, a UAV equipped with a small array of antennas could
navigate with a THETA THETA method. This requires a two-step
method, where the first step is acquiring and cataloging the most
powerful of local emitters, as well as providing angular data and
eliminating those emitters which are located at small angles to the
current location. Using a priori knowledge of the initial position,
e.g., as a GPS position, and a reasonably large number of THETAs, a
position can be derived which is limited only by the UAVs ability
to measure the angle, THETA, of the emitter. If the UAV is to be
operated in close proximity to the control station (e.g., a station
of the communication UAV system where the UAV is communicating
with), then the control station can compare its position to a THETA
THETA solution and an equivalent THETA THETA solution at the UAV to
determine a Cartesian position. Additional methods of resolving
position using RF environment augments dead reckoning or other
wireless positioning method is disclosed in Alan Bensky, Wireless
Positioning Technologies and Applications, ed. Artech House, 2007,
which is herein incorporate by reference.
[0376] In an embodiment, the UAV and/or the communication UAV
system may also use a combination of the available positioning
and/or navigation methods (including GPS if available) to determine
a position and/or heading of the UAV. By combining the data from
all the navigation and/or geolocation sensors and/or component on
the UAV (together with known information from other sources such as
the location of cellular towers for some positioning methods), a
series of positioning and/or heading measurements can be made over
time. These measurements/estimates may contain statistical noise
and other inaccuracies, with some methods being less accurate than
others. An aggregate of these measurements/estimates may tend to be
more precise than those based on a single measurement alone with
one positioning method.
[0377] In an embodiment, a process may be used to aggregate the
positioning measurements/estimates. In the prediction step of the
process, current position estimates are determined based on the
current state variables (e.g., the current position as measured),
along with their uncertainties. Once the outcome of the next
measurement (which may necessarily be corrupted with some amount of
error, including random noise) is observed, the position estimates
may be updated using a weighted average, with more weight being
given to estimates with higher certainty. For example, a
measurement from a GPS receiver and/or by wireless geolocation may
be given more weight than a measurement from a terrain referenced
navigation method, perhaps due to the higher precision of the GPS
and/or the wireless geolocation method if the UAV is operating in
an open area where signals from GPS satellite and/or wireless
towers would not be susceptible to multipath and/or other signal
effects). However, if the UAV is operating in an area with various
obstructing features (e.g., buildings, mountains), a terrain
references navigation method may use the obstructing features to
give a more precise measurement than GPS and/or wireless
geolocation that may be affected by multipath and/or other signal
effects (e.g., from the buildings). As such, in an embodiment the
weight of a measurement or estimate may be adjusted depending on
the location of the UAV. Further, in an embodiment, the weight of a
measurement or estimate may also be adjusted over time (e.g., an
initial measurement/estimate using a dead reckoning method is much
more precise than subsequent measurement after the method have been
used for some time). The process may be recursive and can run in
real time, using only the present input measurements and the
previously calculated state and its uncertainty matrix; no
additional past information is required.
[0378] In an embodiment, a location of a UAV may be measured and/or
estimated with certain precision by using known/measured positions
of other UAVs in the area. For example, if the location of a UAV is
known (e.g., through a GPS measurement on the UAV), and the UAV is
able to communicate its location, the location of another UAV may
be determined using the positioning methods as discussed above
(e.g., a RHO THETA calculation). In an embodiment, when both UAVs
are part of or able to connect with the communication UAV system,
the position of one UAV may be used to determine the position of
the other UAV based on known distances, angles, or other
measurements of the UAVs within the communication UAV system.
[0379] In an embodiment, the position and/or the trajectory of an
unknown UAV (e.g., a UAV that is not recognized, is not connected,
and/or has lost contact to the communication UAV system) may be
tracked when the unknown UAV is operating within the operating area
of the communication UAV system and/or as it moves outside of the
operating area. Using the positioning and navigating methods as
discussed above, the position and/or the trajectory of an unknown
UAV can be determined when within the operating area.
[0380] It may also be desirable to be able to track a UAV that has
left the operational area (e.g., in the case of the unknown UAV or
a UAV that has some failure such as losing operating link with the
operator or a failure to flight control). In an embodiment, if a
history of the previous positions and/or the trajectory (e.g.
flight pattern) is known, at least within the operational area of
the communication UAV system, a projection of the position and/or
flight path of the UAV may be estimated based on the known history
when as the UAV has left the operational area over time. In an
embodiment, various projection techniques (e.g., based on known
flight patterns) may be used for a more sophisticated projection
(e.g., rather than a simple projection based on last known
trajectory and position). For example, if the flight pattern of a
UAV is consistent with a UAV with malfunctioning flight control
(e.g., a flight pattern consistent with unpowered flight), then a
projection can be made as to the UAV's potential crash position
even if the crash position is outside of the operational area. In
an embodiment, certain action may be taken (e.g., by the
communication UAV system) such as notifying the appropriate
entities (e.g., governmental entities or other authorities in the
scenario of a projected UAV crash).
Flight Management
[0381] Flight management of a UAV may be performed by the flight
management system (FMS) (e.g., flight management system 1210). In
an embodiment, the flight management system receives various
navigation data available on the UAV and utilizes the databases
available for navigation, in addition to maintaining the flight
plan and/or maintaining contingency flight plans, such as loss of
control channel or important navigation data. Other functions may
include avoiding or mitigating special use airspace, situational
awareness of other vehicles and/or stationary collision objects,
and maintaining control and telemetry channels. In an embodiment,
the FMS system is capable of providing a holistic view of both the
UAV and its potential mission profile.
[0382] In an embodiment, the functions of the FMS may be described
in the following categories: Communications, Navigation ,
Situational Awareness, Flight Plan Management, and Mission Support,
which are further disclosed below. It is noted that some of these
functions may be offloaded into another UAV or station similar to
the offloading of the communication functions using the
communication UAVs.
[0383] In an embodiment, the communication function of the FMS
system may also use other communication methods available to the
exploited in the operational environment of the UAV. For example,
methods of communications includes specialized utility air band
network (e.g., Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting
System (ACARS)), point to point and/or point to multipoint
very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite services, satellite
based communications utilities (e.g., Iridium and Marisat), direct
connect cellular services, cellular network based Internet
services, dedicated point-to-point radio (terrestrial, airborne,
and/or a combination), and/or ad hoc networks (e.g., Wifi).
[0384] As such, the communications medium is essentially
independent of the messaging requirements of the UAV. However, in
order to permit any one or more of the possible communications
systems outlined above and herein in this disclosure or other
communication systems and/or have the UAVs participate in an ad hoc
network, a common communications protocol may be preferred. The
common communications protocol may be standardized to be recognized
and used by all UAVs (e.g., in an operational area of a
communication UAV system and/or other UAVs which may be outside of
the operational area of the communication UAV system but need to
access resources (e.g., UTSS or UAT server information) of the
communication UAV system). In an embodiment, these messages may
consist of a variation, and could consist of a subset and/or a
superset, of the following:
[0385] Major Events
[0386] A major event function automatically detects and reports the
start of each major flight phase of a UAV, such as ground roll
takeoff, segment crossing etc. These events may be detected using
input from the UAV's sensors and the flight management system. At
the start of each major flight event phase, a message may be
transmitted to a control entity (or other relevant systems)
describing the flight phase, the time at which it occurred, and
other related information such as UAV housekeeping data. These
messages may be used to track the status of the UAV.
[0387] Flight Management System Interface The communication
subsystem may interface with flight management systems, acting as
the communication system for flight plans, weather data, and Notice
to Airmen (NOTAMS) to be sent from the sources (e.g., ATC and a
communication UAV system) to the flight management system. This
enables the UAV operator to update the flight management system
while in flight.
[0388] Equipment Health and Maintenance Data
[0389] This may include information from the UAV to network
stations about the conditions of various UAV systems and sensors in
real-time. Maintenance faults and abnormal events may also be
transmitted, along with detailed messages.
[0390] Ping Messages
[0391] Automated ping messages may be used to test a UAV's
connection with the communications network (e.g., the mesh network
of the communication UAV system). In the event that a
communications link for a UAV has been silent for longer than a
preset time interval, the communication UAV system can ping the
UAV. A ping response indicates healthy UAV communication.
Manually Sent Messages
[0392] Manually sent messages are used to manually fly the UAV by
providing inputs to the autopilot system, which may alter the
heading, altitude, speed, and/or other flight control functions of
the UAV. These messages also may tune the air band radio subsystem
of the UAV used for coordinating flights in the current ATC and/or
communication UAV system environment.
[0393] The situational awareness of a FMS may involve categories
such as terrain avoidance, special use air space mitigation, and/or
collision avoidance.
[0394] Terrain avoidance may be a function of navigation accuracy,
a priori knowledge of the terrain, a priori knowledge of the
airspace usage. Collision avoidance may be a function of a priori
knowledge of other vehicles in the area.
[0395] Much of the special use airspace is of a static nature,
because it is defined and remains the same for long periods of
time. However, another type, the Temporary Flight Restriction
(TFR), is very dynamic in nature. TFR may occurs at a restricted
area around a large sporting event, a disaster area, forest fire,
or the immediate area, and sometimes as much as 30 miles, around
the location of a presidential visit.
[0396] The static special use air space as well as the areas
encompassed by class B, C and D airspace is defined in NavData,
which is published every 22 days by the FAA. This data may be
reformatted in a manner more useful to UAVs, since a large part of
the NavData is not useful for UAVs. This database may be stored on
the UAV (for use by the FMS) as needed for a geographical area of
interest.
[0397] The data defining TFRs is available in printed form as
NOTAM, via ADS-B, and private satellite weather services broadcast
over satellite radio, such as XM radio. This data may be up linked
to the UAV for the FMS through systems like ADS-B or via the
control channel or via any other currently available means. The
data may then be reformatted in a manner compatible with the static
special use airspace format. Data/database may also be updateable
using communication network (e.g., communication network service
provided by the communication UAV system as discussed above and
herein in this disclosure).
[0398] The systems, devices, and methods herein may provide
automated response of a UAV to a detected proximity to a
flight-restricted region. Different actions may be taken which
could include holding until an operator updates the flight plan or
takes manual control or landing. The systems, devices, and methods
herein may also use various systems for determining the location of
the UAV to provide greater assurance that the UAV will not
inadvertently fly into a flight-restricted region. In some
instances, if the UAV is within a particular distance from the
flight-restricted region, the UAV may be restricted from taking
off.
[0399] In an embodiment, a methodology disclosed herein would have
the UAV equipped with an air band remote controlled audio
transceiver, which could be used to provide voice communication
between the UAV pilot air traffic control (ATC) which could provide
additional situational awareness, as well as coordinating transit
into or through many types of special use air space.
[0400] ADS-B is a preferred base technology for collision
avoidance, since many of the potential collision targets are other
UAVs, which tend to be small and stealthy. Collision avoidance with
a non-ADS-B equipped aerial vehicle is significantly more
challenging. Interestingly, there are some characteristics of other
aerial vehicles. The classic example is that two aerial vehicles
with an identical velocity at 90 degrees to one another at a given
altitude is a physical impossibility. However, as the angle
decreases, the probability of a collision steadily increases.
[0401] There is an interesting characteristic of high probability
collision targets in three dimensional space, they appear in a
constant location in the field of view of the aerial vehicles.
Obviously, the distance is changing, but the geometric relationship
is constant. This applies equally to fixed objects and other aerial
vehicles.
[0402] A number of technologies are available to capitalize on this
characteristic such as radar, scanning LIDAR and passive optical.
The technology could be used to "piggy back" on a navigation such
as terrain reference navigation, with a field of view, for example,
of 30 degrees left and right of centerline and 7 degrees up and
down field of view.
[0403] In an embodiment, the FMS may determine the location of
restricted and/or special use airspace in the vicinity of the UAV
and provide alarms to the unmanned vehicle operator if special use
or restricted airspace will potentially be violated. For some types
of airspace, such as Class C airspace around airports, the
mitigation solution might be to increase altitude. For Class B
airspace, the solution might be to decrease altitude.
[0404] In an embodiment, UAVs may use optical communication
between/among two or more UAVs for collision avoidance. An unmanned
aerial vehicle with either an active optical system, such as LIDAR,
or passive optical system which "looks" for targets that maintain a
constant azimuth and elevation relative to the unmanned vehicle.
Targets which exhibit this behavior relative to the UAV have an
extremely high probability of colliding with the UAV.
[0405] In an embodiment, UAVs have the capability of networking
with one another to form an ad hoc swarm. These swarms may prevent
collisions, providing the UAV with more intelligent coordination
between UAV than is possible with the simplistic FAA strategies
outlined in FAR 91.113 or current generation TCAS systems. For
example, the UAVs may form an ad hoc network via an RF link such as
Wi-Fi or on some prearranged arbitrary radio frequency and
implements a swarming protocol for the purpose of collision
avoidance.
UAV Corridors
[0406] In an embodiment, UAV corridors (their various
characteristics, functions, and applications as disclosed above and
herein in this disclosure) may be defined by infrastructures and/or
systems that maintain the corridors for active UAV operation. For
example, while some UAV corridors may be primarily defined by
property and/or airspace rights and/or governmental
approval/restrictions (e.g., defining the UAV corridors as a
3-dimensional space for legal UAV use), infrastructures and/or
systems for assisting with active UAV flight of the corridor define
the corridor in practice. In another example, for the communication
UAV system as discussed above and herein in this disclosure, an
active maintenance of communications UAVs and/or stations within
the UAV corridor provides the network needed for the operation of
UAVs without the proper long range communication equipment within
the corridor.
[0407] In an embodiment, control of an actively maintained UAV
corridor may be automated in one or more centralized locations
(e.g., at a hub) or distributed (e.g., at each component of the
systems than maintain the corridors such as at each communication
UAV/station of the communication UAV system).
[0408] Various functions may be performed at the control of the UAV
corridor, such as maintaining the infrastructure and systems that
maintain the corridor. For example, communication UAVs that provide
various communication functions to UAVs operating in the corridor
will need to be maintained, including docking to recharge or
exchange the power source to keep the communication UAVs powered
for airborne. The status of the communication UAVs would also need
to be maintained. For example, if a communication UAV malfunctions,
it may cause a break in the communication network within the
corridor. As such, a replacement communication UAV will need to be
moved to take the place of the malfunctioned communication UAV
within the mesh network. In another example, the density of the
communication UAVs at certain areas in the corridor may need to be
managed (e.g., more communications UAVs may be needed in certain
area at a time to provide higher bandwidth, such as in a scenario
where there would be more UAVs operating in an area or when UAVs in
an area is using more bandwidth, e.g., when UAVs may be performing
real time videography in an area due to a newsworthy or other
unexpected event).
[0409] Another function that may be performed at the control of the
UAV corridor is to provide flight planning (e.g., changing the
flight plan), navigation (e.g., taking direct control of the UAV
for emergency or normal flight control situations), or other FMS
services to UAVs with limited FMS capabilities or UAVs that have
less available data for flight in the area of the particular UAV
corridor.
[0410] Another function that may be performed at the control of the
UAV corridor is to control the flow of UAV traffic within the
corridor. In an embodiment, the UAV corridor control may enforce a
range separation between UAVs (e.g., through one or more of
communication with the UAV operators to control for congestions
within the corridor. For example, some UAVs may have limited flight
control capabilities (e.g., ability to quickly change speed and/or
flight path). As such, the control may enforce a range separation
to allow the UAVs to operate within a reasonable parameter (e.g.,
constant speed and/or pre-determined flight path) without the need
for drastic changes in flight (e.g., sudden stops). In another
embodiment, the UAV corridor control may enforce and entry/exit
control of UAVs coming from another operational area (e.g., another
UAV corridor) to manage flow, congestion, or other issues in the
UAV corridor. In a further embodiment, the control may work with
controls of other UAV corridors (e.g., neighboring UAV corridors
and/or other UAV corridors that is anticipated to affect the UAV
corridor). For example, the control may enforce a flow and/or range
separation of the UAVs within the corridor in conjunction with or
in anticipation of a similar flow control in a neighboring corridor
where UAVs within the corridor may enter, in order to promote a
constant traffic flow between corridors. In a situation where a
neighboring corridor may restrict entry, landing pads or other
corridor infrastructures may be prepared to accommodate UAVs that
need to wait in the corridor prior to being allowed to enter the
neighboring corridor.
[0411] Another function that may be performed at the control of the
UAV corridor is to broadcast and/or communicate temporary or recent
changes to the flight conditions of the corridor and/or changing
flights plans and/or taking control of UAVs in the corridor as
needed due to the changes to the flight conditions. For example, a
recent change closing off an area of airspace within the corridor
may be first known or informed to the control of the UAV corridor.
Also, the control of the UAV corridor may have the best information
as to how to respond to such a change (e.g., sufficiently complete
information of the UAVs in operation within the corridor). As such,
the control of the UAV corridor may be best suited to formulate an
alternate plan of UAVs operation within the corridor that causes
the least disruption.
[0412] Since the UAV corridors may require active maintenance with
infrastructures and systems the corridor may implement a system for
collecting revenue or toll from UAV owners and/or operators. In an
embodiment, information related to the UAV owners and/or operators
may be obtained (e.g., through communications with the
communication UAVs and/or stations of the corridor) and usage data
of the UAV in the corridor may be tracked. The UAV owners and/or
operators may be billed for the usage.
[0413] With regards to the FAA's small UAV rules, there are special
cases wherein the FAA Part 107 rules would not be applicable.
Special waivers are required in at least some of these cases. A UAV
operator that could not fly purely under the Part 107 operating
rules would need obtain authorization via a waiver, Public
Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA), a special Section 333
Exemption, or a Special Airworthiness Certification (SAC)/COA
combination. Some of these cases are outlined as follows:
[0414] Beyond Visual Line of Sight [0415] Power line inspections
[0416] Search and rescue (SAR)
[0417] Night Operations [0418] SAR at night
[0419] Firefighting at night [0420] Inspections using thermal
equipment in hot environments and night is the best time to use the
equipment [0421] Cinematography for TV/movie night scenes [0422]
Inspections on critical time/sensitive material that require 24/7
monitoring (example: turbidity monitoring for dredging operations)
[0423] Sports at night
[0424] 55 Pounds and Heavier [0425] Package delivery [0426] Crop
dusting [0427] Firefighting retardant delivery [0428] High-end
LIDAR to monitor crops such as lumber. The LIDAR is used to detect
the diameter of the wood so the loggers know which forest to
harvest first [0429] Cinematography (Dual Red Epics for 3-D filming
or full Arri Alexa with lens and large stack of batteries for extra
flight time)
[0430] Higher than 400 ft and 400 ft away from the object
[0431] 100 MPH and Faster [0432] Survey large areas fast [0433]
Fast package/medical delivery
[0434] Operation Over Persons [0435] Concerts [0436] Live news
events [0437] Sports
[0438] Operations from a Moving Vehicle in non-sparsely populated
areas
[0439] As such, a well-defined UAV corridor may assist UAV
operators in dealing with the myriad of federal and state
regulations, city policies, land owner interests, security
concerns, and weather and wind (including wind shearing
conditions), that will vary substantially around the country.
Acceptable UAV flight plans and flight corridors will vary by the
hour, given the huge number of unique situations that can
occur.
[0440] It is anticipated the FAA waiver may provide opportunities
that, upon showing working devices and configurations that
satisfies the FAA's concern for safety, airspace usage, and other
concerns (e.g., when the systems and methods such as the UAV
corridor system as disclosed above and herein this disclosure),
that the FAA will grant waivers that allows UAV operators to (1)
operate and be responsible for, multiple UAVs (the current rules
only allows each operator to operate 1 UAV) and (2) operate UAVs
beyond a line-of-sight restriction (e.g., by using the UAV corridor
and/or the communication UAV system as disclosed above and herein
this disclosure to enable and enhance the reliability and bandwidth
of communication for such beyond a line-of-sight operation).
[0441] The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented
for purposes of illustration and description. Further, the
description is not intended to limit the invention to the form
disclosed herein. Consequently, variation and modification
commiserate with the above teachings, within the skill and
knowledge of the relevant art, are within the scope of the present
invention. The embodiment described hereinabove is further intended
to explain the best mode presently known of practicing the
invention and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the
invention as such, or in other embodiments, and with the various
modifications required by their particular application or uses of
the invention.
[0442] Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed and
illustrated in relation to a particular sequence of events, it
should be appreciated that changes, additions, and omissions to
this sequence can occur without materially affecting the operation
of the disclosed embodiments, configuration, and aspects.
[0443] A number of variations and modifications of the disclosure
can be used. It would be possible to provide for some features of
the disclosure without providing others.
[0444] In yet another embodiment, the systems and methods of this
disclosure can be implemented in conjunction with a special purpose
computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and
peripheral integrated circuit element(s), an ASIC or other
integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired
electronic or logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a
programmable logic device or gate array such as PLD, PLA, FPGA,
PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means, or the like.
In general, any device(s) or means capable of implementing the
methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the various
aspects of this disclosure. Exemplary hardware that can be used for
the disclosed embodiments, configurations and aspects includes
computers, handheld devices, telephones (e.g., cellular, Internet
enabled, digital, analog, hybrids, and others), and other hardware
known in the art. Some of these devices include processors (e.g., a
single or multiple microprocessors), memory, nonvolatile storage,
input devices, and output devices. Furthermore, alternative
software implementations including, but not limited to, distributed
processing or component/object distributed processing, parallel
processing, or virtual machine processing can also be constructed
to implement the methods described herein.
[0445] In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be
readily implemented in conjunction with software using object or
object-oriented software development environments that provide
portable source code that can be used on a variety of computer or
workstation platforms. Alternatively, the disclosed system may be
implemented partially or fully in hardware using standard logic
circuits or VLSI design. Whether software or hardware is used to
implement the systems in accordance with this disclosure is
dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirements of the
system, the particular function, and the particular software or
hardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems being
utilized.
[0446] In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be
partially implemented in software that can be stored on a storage
medium, executed on programmed general-purpose computer with the
cooperation of a controller and memory, a special purpose computer,
a microprocessor, or the like. In these instances, the systems and
methods of this disclosure can be implemented as a program embedded
on personal computer such as an applet, JAVA.RTM. or CGI script, as
a resource residing on a server or computer workstation, as a
routine embedded in a dedicated measurement system, system
component, or the like. The system can also be implemented by
physically incorporating the system and/or method into a software
and/or hardware system.
[0447] Although the present disclosure describes components and
functions implemented in the aspects, embodiments, and/or
configurations with reference to particular standards and
protocols, the aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations are not
limited to such standards and protocols. Other similar standards
and protocols not mentioned herein are in existence and are
considered to be included in the present disclosure. Moreover, the
standards and protocols mentioned herein and other similar
standards and protocols not mentioned herein are periodically
superseded by faster or more effective equivalents having
essentially the same functions. Such replacement standards and
protocols having the same functions are considered equivalents
included in the present disclosure.
[0448] The present disclosure, in various aspects, embodiments,
and/or configurations, includes components, methods, processes,
systems and/or apparatus substantially as depicted and described
herein, including various aspects, embodiments, configurations
embodiments, subcombinations, and/or subsets thereof. Those of
skill in the art will understand how to make and use the disclosed
aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations after understanding the
present disclosure. The present disclosure, in various aspects,
embodiments, and/or configurations, includes providing devices and
processes in the absence of items not depicted and/or described
herein or in various aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations
hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have been
used in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving
performance, achieving ease and/or reducing cost of
implementation.
[0449] As the foregoing discussion has been presented for purposes
of illustration and description, the foregoing is not intended to
limit the disclosure to the form or forms disclosed herein. In the
foregoing description for example, various features of the
disclosure are grouped together in one or more aspects,
embodiments, and/or configurations for the purpose of streamlining
the disclosure. The features of the aspects, embodiments, and/or
configurations of the disclosure may be combined in alternate
aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations other than those
discussed above. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted
as reflecting an intention that the claims require more features
than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following
claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of
a single foregoing disclosed aspect, embodiment, and/or
configuration. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated
into this description, with each claim standing on its own as a
separate preferred embodiment of the disclosure.
[0450] Moreover, though the description has included a description
of one or more aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations and
certain variations and modifications, other variations,
combinations, and modifications are within the scope of the
disclosure, e.g., as may be within the skill and knowledge of those
in the art, after understanding the present disclosure. It is
intended to obtain rights which include alternative aspects,
embodiments, and/or configurations to the extent permitted,
including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures,
functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or not such
alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,
ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to
publicly dedicate any patentable subject matter.
[0451] The headings, titles, or other descriptions of sections
contained in this disclosure have been inserted for readability and
convenience of the reader and are mainly for reference only and are
not intended to limit the scopes of embodiments of the
invention.
* * * * *
References