Method and apparatus for surveying remote sites via guided wave communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11211974-B2
Application number	US-201916266564-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 4, 2019
Priority date	Dec 9, 2016
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a surveying system operable to receive a plurality of electromagnetic waves via a guided wave transceiver that include environmental data collected via a plurality of sensors at a plurality of remote sites. Weather pattern data is generated based on the environmental data. Other embodiments are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A surveying system comprising:
a processing system that includes a processor;
a physical interface to a transmission medium;
a guided wave transceiver configured to transmit and receive communications by electromagnetic waves at the physical interface the transmission medium, wherein the electromagnetic waves are guided by the transmission medium and propagate without having any electrical return path; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving a first plurality of the electromagnetic waves via the guided wave transceiver, wherein the first plurality of the electromagnetic waves includes first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) data collected via a plurality of UAV sensors at a plurality of remote sites, wherein at least one of the plurality of remote sites is associated with at least one utility pole, wherein at least one of the plurality of UAV sensors is mounted on the at least one utility pole, and wherein the first plurality of the electromagnetic waves is guided along a power line of the at least one utility pole without having any electrical return path and
generating UAV traffic pattern data based on the first UAV data.

2. The surveying system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a second plurality of electromagnetic waves, via the guided wave transceiver, that is guided by the transmission medium and propagates without utilizing any electrical return path, wherein the second plurality of electromagnetic waves includes first environmental data collected via a plurality of sensors at the plurality of remote sites;
wherein at least one of the plurality of sensors is mounted on the at least one utility pole, and wherein the second plurality of electromagnetic waves is guided along the power line of the at least one utility pole.

3. The surveying system of claim 2 , wherein the first environmental data includes at least one of: wind velocity data, atmospheric pressure data, temperature data, humidity data, or rainfall data.

4. The surveying system of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise:
generating weather pattern data based on the first environmental data, wherein the generating the weather pattern data includes identifying a storm.

5. The surveying system of claim 4 , wherein the identifying the storm includes identifying an affected region associated with the storm.

6. The surveying system of claim 4 , wherein the first environmental data is associated with a first time interval, wherein a third plurality of the electromagnetic waves is received via the guided wave transceiver that includes second environmental data associated with a second time interval, and wherein the generating the weather pattern data includes identifying a direction of travel of the storm based on the first environmental data and the second environmental data.

7. The surveying system of claim 4 , wherein the weather pattern data includes storm prediction data that identifies an endangered region based on the first environmental data.

8. The surveying system of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying a subset of the plurality of remote sites located within the endangered region;
generating a third plurality of the electromagnetic waves that includes a storm warning notification; and
transmitting the third plurality of the electromagnetic waves to the subset of the plurality of remote sites via the guided wave transceiver.

9. The surveying system of claim 4 , wherein the operations further comprise:
generating a notification for display by at least one user interface that includes the weather pattern data.

10. The surveying system of claim 1 , wherein the power line is a medium voltage power line.

11. The surveying system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of UAV sensors includes a plurality of UAV signal receivers at the plurality of remote sites, wherein the first UAV data includes a plurality of UAV signals collected by the plurality of UAV signal receivers, and wherein the UAV traffic pattern data includes identifying a location distribution of UAVs across the plurality of remote sites based on the plurality of UAV signals.

12. The surveying system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
generating UAV traffic control data based on the UAV traffic pattern data; and
transmitting the UAV traffic control data to the plurality of remote sites;
wherein the plurality of remote sites includes a plurality of UAV traffic beacons, and wherein one of the plurality of UAV traffic beacons transmits a traffic control signal to a first UAV.

13. The surveying system of claim 12 , wherein the traffic control signal includes navigation data, and wherein the first UAV executes the navigation data to change from a first flight velocity to a second flight velocity in response to receiving the traffic control signal.

14. The surveying system of claim 12 , wherein the traffic control signal is a short-range broadcast signal, wherein the traffic control signal is received by the first UAV and is further received by a second UAV, wherein the first UAV executes a first flight maneuver based on the traffic control signal, wherein the second UAV executes a second flight maneuver that is different from the first flight maneuver based on the traffic control signal.

15. A method comprising:
receiving a plurality of electromagnetic waves, via a guided wave transceiver, that is guided by a transmission medium and propagates without utilizing an electrical return path, wherein the plurality of electromagnetic waves includes Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) data collected via a plurality of UAV sensors at a plurality of remote sites, wherein at least one of the plurality of UAV sensors is mounted on at least one utility pole, and wherein the plurality of electromagnetic waves is guided along a power line of the at least one utility pole; and
generating UAV traffic pattern data based on the UAV data.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
generating UAV traffic control data based on the UAV traffic pattern data; and
transmitting the UAV traffic control data to the plurality of remote sites;
wherein the plurality of remote sites includes a plurality of UAV traffic beacons, and wherein one of the plurality of UAV traffic beacons transmits a traffic control signal to a first UAV and a second UAV.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the traffic control signal includes navigation data, and wherein the first UAV executes the navigation data to change from a first flight velocity to a second flight velocity in response to receiving the traffic control signal.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the traffic control signal is a short-range broadcast signal, wherein the traffic control signal is received by the first UAV and is further received by a second UAV, wherein the first UAV executes a first flight maneuver based on the traffic control signal, wherein the second UAV executes a second flight maneuver that is different from the first flight maneuver based on the traffic control signal.

19. A surveying system, comprising:
means for generating Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) traffic pattern data based on UAV data; and
means for receiving a plurality of electromagnetic waves comprising a physical interface to a transmission medium, wherein the plurality of electromagnetic waves is guided by the transmission medium and propagates without having an electric

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Liu Ken
• Bennett Robert
• Bogdan Pamela A M
• Barzegar Farhad
• Barnickel Donald J
• Gerszberg Irwin

Classifications

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• B64U2101/35

  for science, e.g. meteorology · CPC title

• B64U2101/30

  for imaging, photography or videography · CPC title

• H04B3/36

  Repeater circuits (H04B3/58 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04B3/46

  Monitoring; Testing · CPC title