Survey migration system for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11254229-B2
Application number	US-202016867344-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2020
Priority date	Feb 11, 2015
Publication date	Feb 22, 2022
Grant date	Feb 22, 2022

Abstract

A method of migrating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations between geographic survey areas, including: uploading a first plurality of flight missions into a first UAV pod; deploying the UAV pod; autonomously launching the UAV from the UAV pod a plurality of times to perform the first plurality of flight missions; providing first survey data from the UAV to the UAV pod; autonomously migrating the UAV from the first UAV pod to a second UAV pod; receiving a second plurality of flight missions in a second UAV pod; providing the UAV with one of the second plurality of flight missions from the second UAV pod; autonomously launching the UAV from the second UAV pod a plurality of times to perform the second plurality of flight missions; and providing a second survey data from the UAV to the second UAV pod; where the autonomous migrating of the UAV to accomplish the first and second survey data happens autonomously and without active human intervention.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of migrating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations between geographic survey areas, comprising:
receiving a first plurality of flight missions into a UAV;
deploying the UAV in a first geographic survey area comprising at least one agricultural field in at least one crop phase, wherein the crop phase is at least one of: a planting phase, an emergence phase, a growth phase, a harvest phase, and a clean-up phase;
autonomously launching the UAV in the first geographic survey area a plurality of times to perform the first plurality of flight missions;
providing first survey data from the UAV, wherein the provided first survey data relates to the at least one crop phase; and
autonomously migrating the UAV from the first geographic survey area to a second geographic survey area, wherein the autonomous migrating of the UAV to accomplish the first survey data happens autonomously and without active human intervention.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second plurality of flight missions into the UAV;
providing the UAV with one of the second plurality of flight missions;
autonomously launching the UAV in the second geographic survey area a plurality of times to perform the second plurality of flight missions; and
providing a second survey data from the UAV;
wherein the autonomous migrating of the UAV to accomplish the first and second survey data happens autonomously and without active human intervention.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
processing, by a first processor of the first UAV, the provided first survey data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the processing comprises at least one of:
converting the provided first survey data into one or more viewable images with accompanying geospatial location and stitching the one or more images into an orthomosaic.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
charging a battery of the UAV in the first geographic survey area; and
charging the battery of the UAV in the second geographic survey area.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first plurality of flight missions comprises dropping a payload by the UAV.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first plurality of flight missions comprises loitering the UAV over an event of interest.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining a UAV battery power level during the first plurality of flight missions; and
autonomously re-routing the UAV to a landing location in the first geographic survey area if the determined UAV battery power level drops below a predetermined voltage threshold.

9. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
performing data analysis of the first and second survey data; and
providing the data analysis to a customer.

10. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
storing the provided first survey data in a UAV memory in the first geographic survey area; and
storing the provided second survey data in the UAV memory in the second geographic survey area.

11. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
determining, by a first weather sensor in the first geographic survey area in communication with a processor of the UAV, a flight decision based on a measurement of the external environment prior to each autonomous launch of the UAV in the first geographic survey area; and
determining, by a second weather sensor in the second geographic survey area in communication with the processor of the UAV, a flight decision based on a measurement of the external environment prior to each autonomous launch of the UAV in the second geographic survey area.

12. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
autonomously landing the UAV in the first geographic survey area a plurality of times after each of the performed first plurality of flight missions; and
autonomously landing the UAV in the second geographic survey area a plurality of times after each of the performed second plurality of flight missions.

13. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
autonomously routing the UAV to a local area network (LAN) for wireless transmission of at least one of: the first survey data and the second survey data by a transceiver of the UAV.

14. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
uploading a third plurality of flight missions into the first UAV pod;
autonomously launching a second UAV from the first geographic survey area a plurality of times to perform the third plurality of flight missions;
providing third survey data from the second UAV;
autonomously migrating the second UAV from the first geographic survey area to the second geographic survey area;
receiving a fourth plurality of flight missions in the second geographic survey area;
providing the second UAV with one of the fourth plurality of flight missions from the second geographic survey area;
autonomously launching the second UAV from the second geographic survey area a plurality of times to perform the fourth plurality of flight missions; and
providing a fourth survey data from the second UAV;
wherein the autonomous migrating of the second UAV to accomplish the third and fourth survey data happens autonomously and without active human intervention.

15. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveying system comprising:
a first geographic survey area comprising at least one agricultural field in at least one crop phase, wherein the crop phase is at least one of: a planting phase, an emergence phase, a growth phase, a harvest phase, and a clean-up phase;
a second geographic survey area;
a UAV having a UAV processor, wherein the UAV processor is configured to:
receive one or more flight missions in the first geographic survey area;
provide flight survey data from the received one or more flight missions in the first geographic survey area, wherein the provided flight survey data in the first geographic survey area relates to the at least one crop phase; and
migrate the UAV from the first geographic survey area to the second geographic survey area.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:
receive one or more flight missions in the second geographic survey area; and
provide flight survey data from the received one or more flight missions in the second geographic survey area.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising:
a first transceiver of the UAV;
wherein the provided flight survey data from the one or more flight missions in the first geographic survey area is sent by the first transceiver of the UAV; and
wherein the provided flight survey data from the one or more flight missions in the second geographic survey area is sent by the first transceiver of the UAV.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the UAV is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV, and wherein the migration of the UAV from the first geographic survey area to the second geographic survey area happens autonomously and without active human intervention.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the received one or more flight missions includes at least one of: waypoints, altitude, flight speed, sensor suite configuration data, launch time, launch day, and mission sensor go and no-go parameters.

20. The system of claim 15 further comprising:
a weather sensor in communication with a processor of the UAV;
wherein the processor of the UAV determines a UAV flight decision based on a measurement of the external environment by the weather sensor prior to each launch of the UAV.

Assignees

• Aerovironment Inc

Inventors

• Fisher Christopher Eugene
• Mukherjee Jason Sidharthadev
• Lott William Arden
• Aagaard Eric James

Classifications

• B64U80/70

  in containers (B64U80/60 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B64U2201/10

  autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS] · CPC title

• B64U2101/30

  for imaging, photography or videography · CPC title

• G08G5/76

  for monitoring atmospheric conditions · CPC title

• G08G5/57

  for unmanned aircraft · CPC title