Autonomous delivery of items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016239798-A1
Application number	US-201514623067-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 16, 2015
Priority date	Feb 16, 2015
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Proposed is an autonomous vehicle (AV) for delivering an item to a recipient at a delivery location in a trusted manner. The AV includes: a sensor system adapted to detect, while the autonomous vehicle is travelling to the delivery location, a value of a property of at least one of: the autonomous vehicle, and the item. The AV further includes a data store adapted to store authentication data for verifying the trustworthiness of the item, the authentication data being based on the value detected. The AV further includes a recipient verification unit adapted to verify the identity of the recipient and to generate a verification signal indicative of whether the identity of the recipient is verified. The AV further includes a communication unit adapted to communicate stored authentication data to an authentication system for verification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An autonomous vehicle for delivering an item to a recipient at a delivery location in a trusted manner, the autonomous vehicle comprising:
a sensor system adapted to detect, while the autonomous vehicle is travelling to the delivery location, a value of a property of at least one of: the autonomous vehicle, and the item; a data store adapted to store authentication data for verifying the trustworthiness of the item, the authentication data being based on at least the value detected by the sensor system; a recipient verification unit adapted to verify the identity of the recipient and to generate a verification signal indicative of whether the identity of the recipient is verified; a communication unit adapted to communicate stored authentication data to an authentication system for verification; and wherein the autonomous vehicle is adapted to control the communication unit to communicate stored authentication data to the authentication system based on the generated verification signal.

2 . The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the property comprises one of: location; altitude; route travelled; weight; size; speed; orientation; G-force experienced; and origin.

3 . The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the sensor system comprises:
a position tracking system adapted to track positions of the autonomous vehicle over time to determine a delivery route that the autonomous vehicle has travelled to arrive at the delivery location and to generate route data indicative of the determined delivery route; and wherein the authentication data comprises route data generated by the position tracking system.

4 . The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the recipient verification unit is adapted to verify the identity of the recipient using a security key provided to the recipient via a communication channel prior to the arrival of the autonomous vehicle at the delivery location; and
wherein the autonomous vehicle is adapted to permit release of the item to the recipient if the recipient verification unit verifies the identity of the recipient.

5 . The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the data store comprises one of: a tamper-proof, and a tamper-evident data storage unit.

6 . An automated delivery system for delivering an item to a recipient at a delivery location in a trusted manner, the automated delivery system comprising:
an autonomous vehicle; and an authentication system adapted to receive authentication data from the autonomous vehicle and to verify the trustworthiness of the item based on the received authentication data.

7 . The automated delivery system of claim 6 , wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises:
a sensor system adapted to detect, while the autonomous vehicle is travelling to the delivery location, a value of a property of at least one of: the autonomous vehicle, and the item; a data store adapted to store the authentication data for verifying the trustworthiness of the item, the authentication data being based on at least the value detected by the sensor system; a recipient verification unit adapted to verify the identity of the recipient and to generate a verification signal indicative of whether the identity of the recipient is verified; a communication unit adapted to communicate stored authentication data to the authentication system for verification; and wherein the autonomous vehicle is adapted to control the communication unit to communicate stored authentication data to the authentication system based on the generated verification signal.

8 . The automated delivery system of claim 6 , wherein the authentication system comprises:
a portable computing device adapted to receive authentication data from the autonomous vehicle via a short-to-medium range communication link and to process the received authentication data in accordance with an authentication algorithm.

9 . The automated delivery system of claim 8 , wherein the authentication system further comprises:
an authentication server remotely located from the delivery location and adapted to verify the trustworthiness of the item based on received authentication information; and wherein the portable computing device is adapted to transmit authentication information to the authentication server, the authentication information being based on authentication data received from the autonomous vehicle.

10 . The automated delivery system of claim 8 , wherein the portable computing device is adapted to communicate recipient identity data for verifying the identity of the recipient to the autonomous vehicle.

11 - 15 . (canceled)

16 . A computer program product for controlling an autonomous vehicle for delivering an item to a recipient at a delivery location in a trusted manner, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising: program instructions to detect, while the autonomous vehicle is travelling to the delivery location, a value of a property of at least one of: the autonomous vehicle, and the item; program instructions to store, in a data store of the autonomous vehicle, authentication data for verifying the trustworthiness of the item, the authentication data being based on at least the value detected; program instructions to verify the identity of the recipient; program instructions to generate a verification signal indicative of whether the identity of the recipient is verified; and based on the generated verification signal, program instructions to communicate the stored authentication data to an authentication system for verification.

17 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the property comprises one of: location; altitude; route travelled; weight; size; speed; orientation; G-force experienced; or origin.

18 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the program instructions to detect comprise:
program instructions to track positions of the autonomous vehicle over time to determine a delivery route that the autonomous vehicle has travelled to arrive at the delivery location and generating route data indicative of the determined delivery route; and wherein the authentication data includes the generated route data.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Borley Andrew J
• Jackson Callum P
• Mcmullan Kathryn M
• Norton Philip L

Classifications

• G06Q10/08355

  Routing methods · CPC title

• G06Q30/0185

  Product, service or business identity fraud · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833 Primary

  Tracking · CPC title

• G08G5/0069

  Physics · mapped topic