Unmanned aerial vehicles and control thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11803196-B2
Application number	US-202117201530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2021
Priority date	Mar 15, 2021
Publication date	Oct 31, 2023
Grant date	Oct 31, 2023

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and control thereof to assemble into flexible, dynamic structures. A UAV includes a flexible screen retractable between extended and retracted positions, connector(s) for coupling to another UAV that can pull the flexible screen from a retracted position to an extended position, and a coupling portion for coupling to connector(s) of yet another UAV to connect to and extend a flexible screen thereof. Chain(s) of coupled UAVs with extended flexible screens thereof form a structure that can change shape and size based on UAV movement. Local wireless communication with a group control UAV facilitates coordinated positioning and control of a UAV group. A group control UAV with a power supply and an electrical conducting lead can power UAVs of a group while it and they are in-flight, and can perform real-time management of the group UAVs in forming and maintaining a desired shape of the structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:
a flexible screen coupled to a retraction device, the flexible screen being retractable, by the retraction device, from an extended position, in which the flexible screen extends in a direction from the UAV, to a retracted position;
one or more connectors at a free end of the flexible screen, the one or more connectors configured for coupling to a screen housing of a first other UAV of a group of UAVs to move the flexible screen from the retracted position to the extended position based on relative movement between the UAV and the first other UAV;
a coupling portion configured for engaging with at least one connector of a second other UAV of the group;
a wireless network interface controller for local wireless network communication between the UAV and UAVs of the group; and
a processing circuit in communication with a memory, the memory storing program instructions for execution by the processing circuit to control operation of the UAV to perform wireless communicating with one or more other UAVs in the group to facilitate coordinated positioning of the UAV within the group and coupling of the UAV to the first other UAV and the second other UAV.

2. The UAV of claim 1 , wherein the retracted position comprises a rolled position, in which the flexible screen is rolled, and the extended position comprises an unrolled position, in which the flexible screen is at least partially unrolled from the rolled position, wherein the retraction device is biased to pull the flexible screen into the rolled position.

3. The UAV of claim 2 , wherein the flexible screen is at least partially contained within a screen housing of the UAV and the flexible screen rolls into the rolled position in the screen housing of the UAV, and wherein the coupling portion comprises ferromagnetic material that is at least one of the group consisting of: disposed on the screen housing of the UAV, and integrated into the screen housing of the UAV.

4. The UAV of claim 1 , wherein the flexible screen comprises an electronic visual display, and wherein the operation of the UAV further comprises receiving directives to graphically display one or more elements on the electronic visual display, and graphically displaying the one or more elements on the electronic visual display with the flexible screen in the extended position.

5. The UAV of claim 1 , further comprising an electrical conductor that extends along the flexible display, the electrical conductor coupled to a power supply of the UAV and a contact configured for electrically coupling with the first other UAV and conducting electricity from the UAV to the first other UAV.

6. The UAV of claim 1 , wherein the free end of the flexible screen has a contour conforming to a shape of the first other UAV where the free end is positioned based on the one or more connectors of the UAV being coupled to the first other UAV.

7. The UAV of claim 1 , wherein the one or more connectors comprises ferromagnetic contacts for magnetically engaging with the first other UAV, and wherein the coupling portion comprises ferromagnetic material for magnetically engaging with the at least one connector of the second other UAV.

8. The UAV of claim 7 , wherein the coupling portion comprises one or more electromagnets configured to selectively produce a magnetic field and attract and engage with the at least one connector of the second other UAV.

9. The UAV of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communicating comprises receiving control commands from a group control UAV, different from the UAVs of the group, and controlling movement and positioning the UAV in response to the received control commands.

10. The UAV of claim 1 , further comprising an active RFID tag coupled to a power supply dedicated to the active RFID tag, the RFID tag comprising identification information that uniquely identifies the UAV to an RFID reader.

11. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:
a power supply and an electrical conducting lead for powering one or more UAVs of a group of UAVs in-flight;
a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver;
at least one communication device, comprising a wireless network interface card; and
a processing circuit in communication with a memory, the memory storing program instructions for execution by the processing circuit to control operation of the UAV to perform:
receiving from an external server instructions for formation of a structure out of the UAVs of the group at a geographic location;
navigating to the geographic location based on GPS data obtained from the GPS receiver;
establishing, using the wireless network interface card, a local wireless network at the geographic location for wireless network communication between the UAV and the UAVs of the group; and
performing real-time management of the UAVs of the group in forming and maintaining a desired shape of the structure at the geographic location, the real-time management comprising wirelessly communicating with the UAVs of the group in providing control commands to the UAVs of the group to coordinate positioning and coupling together of the UAVs of the group in forming and maintaining the desired shape, the coupling together comprising selective coupling of, and relative movement between, a plurality of the UAVs to extend flexible screens of the plurality of UAVs to form at least a portion of the structure, in which each flexible screen is of a respective first UAV of the plurality of UAVs and has a respective one or more connectors at a free end thereof that are configured for coupling to a screen housing of a respective second UAV of the plurality of UAVs to move the flexible screen from a retracted position to an extended position based on relative movement between the first UAV and the second UAV.

12. The UAV of claim 11 , wherein the power supply comprises a battery holding a charge, and wherein the powering the one or more UAVs comprises providing power from the battery to the one or more UAVs via the electrical conducting lead.

13. The UAV of claim 11 , wherein the operation of the UAV further comprises engaging with, and receiving power from, a dock at the geographic location, and wherein the powering the one or more UAVs comprises providing the power received from the dock to the one or more UAVs via the electrical conducting lead.

14. The UAV of claim 11 , wherein the real-time management further comprises:
performing sensor-based identification of locations of the UAVs of the group;
analyzing physical properties of the formed structure based on the locations; and
communicating control commands to at least one UAV of the group to dictate adjustments in at least one of the group consisting of: location and functioning of the at least one UAV of the group.

15. The UAV of claim 14 , wherein the dictated adjustments comprise adjustments ascertained based on dynamically changing conditions of an environment at the geographic location.

16. The UAV of claim 14 , further comprising an RFID reader, wherein the sensor-based identification of locations of the UAVs of the group comprises using the RFID reader to read RFID tags of the UAVs of the group to identify the locations of the UAVs of the group, and wherein the real-time management further comprises basing at least some adjustments of the dictated adjustments on the locations identified by reading the RFID tags.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a group control unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), from an external server, instructions for formation of a structure out of

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Farley Adam Michael
• Hopkins Keira Louise
• Wishart Alexandra Easton
• Lees Andrew Michael
• Williams Julian David

Classifications

• B64U2201/102

  adapted for flying in formations · CPC title

• B64U10/14

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

• B64U50/34

  In-flight charging (photovoltaics B64U50/31) · CPC title

• B64U30/299

  Rotor guards (ducted or shrouded rotors B64U30/26; guards used as ground propulsion B64U60/60) · CPC title

• G05D1/104 Primary

  involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying (traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00) · CPC title