Systems and methods for avian flock flight path modification using UAVs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11801937-B2
Application number	US-201916523889-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 26, 2019
Priority date	Jul 26, 2018
Publication date	Oct 31, 2023
Grant date	Oct 31, 2023

Abstract

Systems and methods for autonomously herding birds in accordance with embodiments of the invention are illustrated. One embodiment includes an autonomous flock herding system, including a bird location sensor, a drone; and a control system, including a processor, and a memory, the memory containing a flock herding application, where the application directs the processor to obtain bird position data from the at least one bird location sensor, where the bird position data describes the location of birds in a flock of birds, determine if the flock of birds will enter a protected zone, generate a set of waypoints using a flock dynamics model, instruct the unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to at least one waypoint in the set of waypoints such that the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the unmanned aerial vehicle at the at least one waypoint, change trajectory away from the protected zone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous bird flock herding system, comprising:
at least one bird location sensor;
an unmanned aerial vehicle; and
a flock herding control system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, the memory containing a flock herding application, where the flock herding application directs the processor to:
obtain bird position data from the at least one bird location sensor, where the bird position data describes the location of birds in a flock of birds, where the flock of birds forms a non-convex hull;
determine if the flock of birds will enter a protected zone;
generate a set of waypoints for positioning the unmanned aerial vehicle using a predictive flock dynamics model, where for each waypoint in the set of waypoints, the unmanned aerial vehicle is predicted to not split the flock when at the waypoint;
uniformly sample the set of waypoints to produce a subsample of waypoints;
score each given waypoint in the subsample of waypoints based on whether or not placing the unmanned aerial vehicle at the given waypoint will move the flock of birds in a desired direction and the distance to other waypoints in the subsample of waypoints;
sort the subsample of waypoints based on score;
select a waypoint from the sorted subsample of waypoints having the highest score;
instruct the unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to the selected waypoint such that the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the unmanned aerial vehicle at the at least one waypoint, change trajectory away from the protected zone.

2. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , wherein the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the unmanned aerial vehicle at the selected waypoint maintain integrity such that a centroid of the flock and a shape of the flock are maintained and communication links between any two neighboring birds of the flock are not broken.

3. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , wherein the protected zone is a cylinder.

4. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , wherein the protected zone is over an airport.

5. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one bird location sensor is an avian radar.

6. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one environmental sensor; and
the flock herding application further directs the processor to:
obtain environment data describing environmental conditions proximal to the protected zone from the at least one environmental sensor; and
generate the set of waypoints using the environment data.

7. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 6 , wherein the environment data describes the position of airplanes.

8. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 6 , wherein the environment data describes wind speed.

9. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , wherein the flock herding application further directs the processor to:
obtain updated bird position data;
update the set of waypoints based on the updated bird position data;
uniformly sample the updated set of waypoints to produce an updated subsample of waypoints;
score each specific waypoint in the updated subsample of waypoints based on whether or not placing the unmanned aerial vehicle at the specific waypoint will move the flock of birds in a desired direction and the distance to other waypoints in the updated subsample of waypoints;
sort the updated subsample of waypoints based on score; and
select a new waypoint from the sorted, updated subsample of waypoints having the highest score.

10. The autonomous bird flock herding system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second unmanned aerial vehicle; and
wherein the flock herding application further directs the processor to:
generate a second set of waypoints using the predictive flock dynamics model;
uniformly sample the second set of waypoints to produce a second subsample of waypoints;
score each specific waypoint in the second subsample of waypoints based on whether or not placing the unmanned aerial vehicle at the specific waypoint will move the flock of birds in a desired direction and the distance to other waypoints in the second subsample of waypoints;
sort the second subsample of waypoints based on score;
select a second waypoint from the sorted second subsample of waypoints having the highest score; and
instruct the second unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to the selected second waypoint such that the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the second unmanned aerial vehicle at the given at least one waypoint, change trajectory away from the protected zone.

11. A method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds comprising:
obtaining, using a flock herding control system, bird position data from at least one bird location sensor, where the bird position data describes the location of birds in a flock of birds, where the flock of birds forms a non-convex hull;
determining, using the flock herding control system, if the flock of birds will enter a protected zone;
generating, using the flock herding control system, a set of waypoints using a predictive flock dynamics model for an unmanned aerial vehicle, where for each waypoint in the set of waypoints, the unmanned aerial vehicle is predicted to not scars split the flock when at the waypoint;
uniformly sampling the set of waypoints to produce a subsample of waypoints;
scoring each given waypoint in the subsample of waypoints based on whether or not placing the unmanned aerial vehicle at the given waypoint will move the flock of birds in a desired direction and the distance to other waypoints in the subsample of waypoints;
sorting the subsample of waypoints based on score;
selecting a waypoint from the sorted subsample of waypoints having the highest score; and
instructing, using the flock herding control system, the unmanned aerial vehicle to navigate to the selected waypoint such that the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the unmanned aerial vehicle at the at least one waypoint, change trajectory away from the protected zone.

12. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 11 , wherein the flock of birds will, in response to the presence of the unmanned aerial vehicle at the selected waypoint maintain integrity such that a centroid of the flock and a shape of the flock are maintained and communication links between any two neighboring birds of the flock are not broken.

13. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 11 , wherein the protected zone is a cylinder.

14. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 11 , wherein the protected zone is over an airport.

15. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 11 , wherein the at least one bird location sensor is an avian radar.

16. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 11 , further comprising
obtaining, using the flock herding control system, environment data from at least one environmental sensor describing environmental conditions proximal to the protected zone from the at least one environmental sensor; and
generating the set of waypoints using the environment data.

17. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 16 , wherein the environment data describes the position of airplanes.

18. The method for the autonomous herding of flocks of birds of claim 16 , wherein the environment data describes wind speed.

19. Th

Assignees

• California Inst Of Techn
• Imperial College Innovations Ltd

Inventors

• Chung Soon-Jo
• Paranjape Aditya
• Kim Kyunam

Classifications

• A01M29/06 Primary

  using visual means, e.g. scarecrows, moving elements, specific shapes, patterns or the like · CPC title

• B64U10/14

  with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters · CPC title

• B64C39/02 Primary

  characterised by special use · CPC title

• A01K29/005

  Monitoring or measuring activity · CPC title

• B64F1/36

  Other airport installations (ground installations for de-icing aircraft B64F5/20) · CPC title