A UAV is a remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment, or other payloads, is capable of controlled, sustained, level flight, and is usually powered by an engine. A self-piloted UAV may fly autonomously based on preprogrammed flight plans.
UAVs are becoming increasingly used for various missions where manned flight vehicles are not appropriate or not feasible. These missions may include military situations, such as surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, data acquisition, communications relay, decoy, harassment, or supply flights. UAVs are also used for a growing number of civilian missions where a human observer would be at risk, such as firefighting, natural disaster reconnaissance, police observation of civil disturbances or crime scenes, and scientific research. An example of the latter would be observation of weather formations or of a volcano.
As miniaturization technology has improved, it is now possible to manufacture very small UAVs (sometimes referred to as micro-aerial vehicles, or MAVs). For examples of UAV and MAV design and operation, see U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/752497, 11/753017, and 12/187172, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
A UAV can be designed to use a ducted fan for propulsion, and may fly like a helicopter, using a propeller that draws in air through a duct to provide lift. The UAV propeller is preferably enclosed in the duct and is generally driven by a gasoline engine. The UAV may be controlled using micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) electronic sensor technology.
Traditional aircraft may utilize a dihedral wing design, in which the wings exhibit an upward angle from lengthwise axis of the aircraft when the wings are viewed from the front or rear of this axis. A ducted fan UAV may lack a dihedral wing design and, therefore, it may be challenging to determine which direction a ducted fan UAV is flying. Consequently, it can be difficult for both manned and unmanned vehicles to avoid collisions with such a UAV. As UAVs are more widely deployed, the airspace will become more crowded. Thus, there is an increasing need to improve UAV collision avoidance systems.
However, there currently exist a number of UAVs that are too small to carry the sensors required to perform on-board collision avoidance.
In an embodiment, a system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configured to be equipped with data representing a first UAV flight plan, and a ground station configured to control the UAV. The ground station is operable to receive, at a first time, a first data set representing at least one flight path of at least one aircraft, calculate a second UAV flight plan to avoid the at least one flight path of the at least one aircraft, the second UAV flight plan being based on the data representing the first UAV flight plan and the first data set representing at least one flight path of the at least one aircraft, and transmit data representing the second UAV flight plan to the UAV.
Preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.
UAV 100 may include one or more active or passive sensors, such as a video camera or an acoustic sensor. In alternative embodiments, different types of sensors may be used in addition to the video camera and/or the acoustic sensor, such as motion sensors, heat sensors, wind sensors, RADAR, LADAR, electro-optical (EO), non-visible-light sensors (e.g. infrared (IR) sensors), and/or EO/IR sensors. Furthermore, multiple types of sensors may be utilized in conjunction with one another in accordance with multi-modal navigation logic. Different types of sensors may be used depending on the characteristics of the intended UAV mission and the environment in which the UAV is expected to operate.
UAV 100 may also comprise a processor and a memory coupled to these sensors and other input devices. The memory is preferably configured to contain static and/or dynamic data, including the UAV's flight plan, flight corridors, flight paths, terrain maps, and other navigational information. The memory may also contain program instructions, executable by the processor, to conduct flight operations, and other operations, in accordance with the methods disclosed herein.
Generally speaking, UAV 100 may be programmed with a UAV flight plan that instructs UAV 100 to fly between a number of waypoints in a particular order, while avoiding certain geographical coordinates, locations, or obstacles. For example, if UAV 100 is flying in the vicinity of a commercial, civilian or military flight corridor, UAV 100 should avoid flying in this corridor during the flight corridor's hours of operation. Similarly, if UAV 100 is programmed with a flight path of a manned aircraft or another UAV, UAV 100 should adjust its UAV flight plan avoid this flight path. Additionally, if UAV 100 is flying according to its UAV flight plan and UAV 100 encounters a known or previously unknown obstacle, UAV 100 should adjust its UAV flight plan to avoid the obstacle.
Herein, the term “flight plan” generally refers to the planned path of flight of a UAV, such as UAV 100, while the term “flight path” generally refers to an observed or planned path of flight of another aerial vehicle that the UAV may encounter. However, these terms may otherwise be used interchangeably.
Embodiments of the invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
The operating environment illustrated in
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In an embodiment, the station 200 receives, via one or more radios 221, digital flight-path and/or position reports from airborne objects (AOs) 320, which could be other UAVs, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, or balloons and other lighter than air aircraft. These reports may include, for example, position, heading, altitude, and velocity of the AO 320.
A report/overlay (R/O) analyzer 236 is configured to process the AO flight-path reports and compare the information associated with the reports to current-position information 230 and future flight plans 235 of one or more UAVs 100 under the control of the station 200. This comparison may generate one or more overlays of the projected respective positions of the controlled UAVs 100 and the AOs to enable a determination of potential flight-path conflicts.
The alerts module 210 is configured to provide instant alerts (e.g., auditory and/or displayed to a display device (not shown) associated with the station 200) to the operator of the station 200 in response to a determination by the R/O analyzer 236 that one or more of the controlled UAVs 100 will be positioned within a user-configurable or pre-defined thresholds proximity of one or more of the AOs 320. The pre-defined thresholds can be based on standards or other regulations.
The DOC module 215 is configured to calculate the degree of certainty resulting from the incoming flight-path reports. For example, the station 200 may be configured to receive a series of reports from the AOs over a period of time for purposes of updating the flight paths of such AOs. If the station 200 fails to receive a report of the series, either through station malfunction or a communication failure on the part of an AO, the DOC module 215 can calculate an estimate of the AO's flight path based on the last report received from the AO. Additionally, the mission logic system 205 can notify the operator that the certainty of the position analysis is reduced and that manual operation of the controlled UAVs 100 should be resumed. The station 200 can also provide a displayed estimated flight path of the AO on an associated display device. The station 200 can also provide a maximum possible radius marker of the AO that is based on last known position augmented with information such as predicted location based on last known heading and speed information.
The overlays tool 220 is configured to generate “control measure” overlays representing the flight paths of the AOs in order to enable construction by the update tool 225 of flight plans for the controlled UAVs 100 and to ensure that the operator does not plan a controlled-UAV route or manually direct a controlled UAV into a position in conflict with an actual or potential AO position or is at least notified of a potential conflict requiring additional coordination on the part of the UAV operator.
The update tool 225 takes into account all the information from the other modules of the mission logic system 205, as well as the current position of controlled UAVs 100, current flight plans of controlled UAVs, and incoming AO reports, and automatically updates the controlled-UAV flight plans to avoid collisions with AOs.
The flight planning module 240 and flight control module 245 are configured to communicate with the controlled UAVs 100 to upload safe, non-conflicting flight plans, and uploads these new flight plans when the mission logic system 205 determines that the controlled UAVs 100 are on a potential collision course with one or more AOs.
The control measures and digital messaging module 250 is configured to communicate using radios 221 the proposed flight plans for the controlled UAVs 100 to the AOs 320 and/or air traffic management sites for coordination and approval. Such communications can be expanded to support pre-approval and flight clearances with appropriate agencies.
At point G, UAV 100 receives an updated flight plan from station 200 in response to station having determined that aircraft 320 is flying according to aircraft vector 330. UAV 100 may then follow the updated flight plan to avoid aircraft 320.
As alluded to above herein, the characteristics of the updated flight plan may be configured by a user of the station 200 or pre-defined based on standards or regulations. As illustrated in
While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.