Wireless control of unmanned aerial vehicle with distance ranging and channel sensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10613209-B2
Application number	US-201615224431-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2016
Priority date	Jul 29, 2015
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

Various techniques are provided to efficiently detect the position and angular velocity of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of a UAV system including a transmitter antenna array and a receiver antenna array. In one example, a method includes establishing a wireless link between a UAV controller and a UAV using at least one transmitter antenna array and/or at least one receiver antenna array, communicating link state data corresponding to the established wireless link over the established wireless link, generating UAV operational data based, at least in part, on the link state data, wherein the UAV operational data is configured to control operation of the UAV, and controlling operation of the UAV using the UAV operational data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
establishing a wireless link between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controller and a UAV using at least one transmitter antenna array and at least one receiver antenna array;
communicating link state data corresponding to the established wireless link over the established wireless link;
generating UAV operational data based, at least in part, on the link state data, wherein the UAV operational data is configured to control operation of the UAV; and
controlling operation of the UAV using the UAV operational data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link state data comprises a plurality of time stamps corresponding to transmissions and receptions of at least two timing measurement packets, a first one transmitted from the UAV controller to the UAV and a second one received by the UAV controller from the UAV, the method further comprising:
determining a propagation delay associated with the established wireless link from the plurality of time stamps; and
determining a range between the UAV controller and the UAV based on the propagation delay.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining a directional vector between the UAV controller and the UAV from the communicating the link state data and/or communicating the UAV operational data over the established wireless link;
determining a position of the UAV relative to the UAV controller from the range and the directional vector; and
indicating the position on a display of the UAV controller to a user of the UAV controller.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining a time series of propagation delays associated with the established wireless link from the plurality of time stamps;
detecting a change in the time series of propagation delays indicating a transition in a link state of the established wireless link from a line-of-sight link state to a non-line-of-sight link state; and
generating the UAV operational data to cause the UAV to perform flight operations to re-establish the line-of-sight link state.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining a time series of propagation delays associated with the established wireless link from the plurality of time stamps and a corresponding time series of ranges between the UAV controller and the UAV based on the time series of propagation delays;
determining a time series of directional vectors between the UAV controller and the UAV from the communicating the link state data and/or communicating the UAV operational data over the established wireless link;
determining a time series of positions of the UAV relative to the UAV controller from the time series of ranges and the time series of directional vectors;
determining a velocity of the UAV relative to the UAV controller from the time series of positions; and
indicating the velocity of the UAV on a display of the UAV controller to a user of the UAV controller.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link state data comprises a time series of a plurality of power measurements corresponding to receptions of the link state data and/or the UAV operational data by the UAV controller or the UAV over the established wireless link, the method further comprising:
detecting a change in link gain of the established wireless link in the time series of power measurements; and
adjusting a modulation of the wireless link and/or increasing or decreasing a transmission data rate according to the detected change in link gain.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link state data comprises a time series of a plurality of power measurements corresponding to receptions of the link state data and/or the UAV operational data by the UAV controller or the UAV over the established wireless link, the method further comprising:
detecting a change in link gain of the established wireless link in the time series of power measurements indicating a transition in a link state of the established wireless link between a line-of-sight link state and a non-line-of-sight link state; and
notifying a user of the UAV controller of the transition in the link state.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a time series of directional vectors between the UAV controller and the UAV from the communicating the link state data and/or communicating the UAV operational data over the established wireless link;
detecting a change in the time series of directional vectors indicating a transition in a link state of the established wireless link from a line-of-sight link state to a non-line-of-sight link state; and
generating the UAV operational data to cause the UAV to perform flight operations to re-establish the line-of-sight link state.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a directional vector between the UAV controller and the UAV from the communicating the link state data and/or communicating the UAV operational data over the established wireless link;
piloting the UAV to maintain or adjust an orientation of the UAV relative to the UAV controller using the directional vector as a reference.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, from the communicating the link state data and/or communicating the UAV operational data over the established wireless link, a first directional vector from the UAV controller to the UAV and a second directional vector from the UAV to the UAV controller;
detecting a transition in a link state of the established wireless link from a line-of-sight link state to a non-line-of-sight link state; and
determining the non-line-of-sight link state is due to detrimental multipath propagation based, at least in part, on the first and second directional vectors.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
at least one of the first and second directional vectors is determined by measuring a phase difference between adjacent antenna elements in the transmitter antenna array or the receiver antenna array.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
at least one of the first and second directional vectors is determined based on an antenna weight vector applied to the transmitter antenna array or the receiver antenna array to establish the wireless link between the UAV controller and the UAV.

13. A system comprising:
a transmitter coupled to a transmitter antenna array, wherein the transmitter is configured to apply amplitude weight vectors to signals provided to the transmitter antenna array to form corresponding transmitter channels using one or more antenna elements of the transmitter antenna array;
a receiver coupled to a receiver antenna array, wherein the receiver is configured to apply amplitude weight vectors to signals provided to the receiver antenna array to form corresponding receiver channels using one or more antenna elements of the receiver antenna array;
a logic device configured to communicate with the transmitter and the receiver; and
a memory configured to store a plurality of computer readable instructions which when executed by the logic device are adapted to cause the system to perform a method comprising:
establishing a wireless link between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controller and a UAV using at least one of the transmitter antenna array and the receiver antenna array;
communicating link state data corresponding to the established wireless link over the established wireless link;
generating UAV operational data based, at least in part, on the link state data, wherein the UAV operational data is configured to control operation of the UAV; and
controlling operation of the UAV using the UAV operational data.

14.

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Emami Sohrab
• Ho Keangpo Ricky
• Yang Ou
• Kim Sanghoek
• Cheng Shi
• Bennett Stephen

Classifications

• G01S13/003

  Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems · CPC title

• G01S2013/0254

  Active array antenna · CPC title

• G01S13/42

  Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates (indirect measurement G01S13/46) · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G01S13/825

  with exchange of information between interrogator and responder · CPC title