Systems and methods for generating flight plans used by a ride sharing network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11615501-B2
Application number	US-202117212413-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2021
Priority date	Mar 25, 2020
Publication date	Mar 28, 2023
Grant date	Mar 28, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for systems and methods for generating potential flight plans to be used by a ride sharing network, including dynamic and/or automated changes to flight plans that have been engaged with passengers based on real-time information. In particular, the systems and methods of the present disclosure can operate to generate a fleet-level set of potential flight plans which comply with one or more constraints for a fleet of aircraft. The potential flight plans can be exposed into and used by a ride sharing network to provide transportation to users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
receiving input data descriptive of a fleet of aircraft, one or more constraints, and a flight planning period;
generating a set of potential flight plans for the fleet of aircraft and the flight planning period based at least in part on the input data;
exposing, over a communication network, the set of potential flight plans to a ride sharing network;
receiving, from the ride sharing network, one or more additions of one or more passengers to one or more of the set of potential flight plans to generate one or more engaged flight plans;
transmitting data indicative of a particular engaged flight plan to a computing device associated with an aircraft assigned to a flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan;
tracking location data associated with a particular passenger assigned to the aircraft for the flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan;
computing an estimated time of arrival for the particular passenger;
predicting, based on the estimated time of arrival, a deviation from the particular engaged flight plan due to the particular passenger arriving late to the aircraft;
determining an adjustment to the particular engaged flight plan based, at least in part, on the deviation, wherein the adjustment comprises delaying a take-off time of the aircraft or removing the particular passenger from the flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan; and
adjusting the particular engaged flight plan to delay the take-off time of the aircraft or to remove the particular passenger from the flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the input data comprises forecasted demand data that describes a forecasted demand for respective flights at different respective times and locations, wherein the forecasted demand data is based, at least in part, on the ride sharing network.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the input data comprises forecasted supply data descriptive of a forecasted supply of ground-based transportation providers at different respective times and transportation locations, wherein the forecasted supply data is based, at least in part, on the ride sharing network.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
monitoring adherence of the fleet of aircraft to the one or more engaged flight plans;
detecting one or more deviations of the fleet of aircraft from the one or more engaged flight plans; and
adjusting one or both of: the one or more engaged flight plans or the set of potential flight plans to account for the one or more deviations.

5. The computing system of claim 4 , wherein monitoring adherence of the fleet of aircraft to the one or more engaged flight plans comprises tracking
location data associated with one or more aircraft of the fleet of aircraft.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein tracking the location data associated with the particular passenger comprises:
receiving passenger location data associated with the particular passenger that is captured via a ground vehicle device associated with the particular passenger for providing ground transportation to the respective particular passenger before the flight for the particular engaged flight plan.

7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein each engaged flight plan is associated with one or more assigned passengers of the one or more passengers, a respective take-off time, a respective landing time, and a respective buffer time period, wherein the respective buffer time period is indicative of a delay from the take-off time.

8. The computing system claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a buffer time period for the particular engaged flight plan based, at least in part, on one or more assigned passengers of the particular engaged flight plan.

9. The computing system claim 8 , wherein each of the one or more assigned passengers are associated with a multi-leg travel itinerary, wherein one leg of the multi-leg travel itinerary is the flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan, and wherein the buffer time period is determined based, at least in part, on the multi-leg travel itinerary for each of the one or more assigned passengers.

10. The computing system claim 9 , wherein the multi-leg travel itinerary is associated with a total estimated travel time for an assigned passenger, and wherein the buffer time period is determined based, at least in part, on an aggregated time period to the multi-leg travel itinerary of each of the one or more assigned passengers as a result of delaying the particular engaged flight plan by one or more different periods of time.

11. The computing system claim 9 , wherein the buffer time period is determined based, at least in part, on a number of the one or more assigned passengers that will have a change to their multi-leg travel itinerary as a result of delaying the particular engaged flight plan by one or more different periods of time.

12. The computing system claim 1 , wherein determining the adjustment for the engaged flight plan comprises:
in response to determining that the estimated time of arrival for the particular passenger is after the take-off time by a time period greater than a buffer time period, adding the particular passenger to another potential flight plan;
in response to determining that the estimated time of arrival for the particular passenger is after the take-off time and within the buffer time period, delaying the take-off time to accommodate the particular passenger; and
wherein adjusting the engaged flight plan further comprises automatically transmitting notifications to one or more of: the particular passenger, operations personnel, or aircraft operators.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, input data descriptive of a fleet of aircraft, one or more constraints, and a flight planning period;
generating, by the computing system, a set of potential flight plans for the fleet of aircraft and the flight planning period based at least in part on the input data;
exposing, by the computing system over a communication network, the set of potential flight plans to a ride sharing network;
receiving, by the computing system from the ride sharing network, one or more additions of one or more passengers to one or more of the set of potential flight plans to generate one or more engaged flight plans
transmitting, by the computing system, data indicative of a particular engaged flight plan to a computing device associated with an aircraft assigned to a flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan;
tracking, by the computing system, location data associated with a particular passenger assigned to the flight associated with the particular engaged flight plan;
computing, by the computing system, an estimated time of arrival for the particular passenger;
predicting, by the computing system based on the estimated time of arrival, a deviation from the particular engaged flight plan due to the particular passenger arriving late to the aircraft;
determining, by the computing system, an adjustment to the particular engaged flight plan based, at least in part, on the deviation, wherein the adjustment comprises delaying a take-off time of the aircraft

Assignees

• Joby Aero Inc

Inventors

• Mueller Eric Richard
• Wei Bogu
• Dolgov Igor
• Lurie Raphael Max
• Warmoth Adam
• Mollahan Kellen Christopher
• Schulz Karl Weston

Classifications

• G06Q50/47

  Passenger ride requests, e.g. ride-hailing · CPC title

• G06Q10/025

  Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation · CPC title

• G06Q10/02 Primary

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title

• G06Q10/06313

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06Q30/0202

  Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities · CPC title