Routing based on vehicle characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020388167-A1
Application number	US-202016894264-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 5, 2020
Priority date	Jun 7, 2019
Publication date	Dec 10, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Aerial vehicles are assigned to routes within a transportation network based on a state of charge, state of power, and/or state of health for the aerial vehicle. Such aspects can be modeled based on one or more statistical models and/or machine-learned models, among other examples. As another example, an energy budget is used to ensure that the state of charge, state of power, and/or state of health of the aerial vehicle during and/or after traveling the route remains within the energy budget. A payload is assigned to a route and an associated aerial vehicle, thereby generating an itinerary. In examples, the itinerary is validated by the aerial vehicle to ensure that the aerial vehicle is capable of traveling the route with the payload. In examples where the aerial vehicle rejects the itinerary, the itinerary is assigned to another aerial vehicle and a new itinerary is identified for the aerial vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for determining an aerial vehicle and route to transport a payload within a transportation network, comprising:
generating a set of available routes in the transportation network based on historical demand information, wherein each route comprises a departure vertiport and an arrival vertiport; accessing, for a set of aerial vehicles of the transportation network, a set of vehicle characteristics for each aerial vehicle of the set of aerial vehicles, wherein the set of vehicle characteristics comprises at least one of:
an energy type of the aerial vehicle;
a state of charge of the aerial vehicle;
a state of power of the aerial vehicle; or
a state of health of the aerial vehicle;
accessing capability information for each vertiport of a route in the set of available routes; and assigning, based on the set of vehicle characteristics and the capability information, an aerial vehicle from the set of aerial vehicles to the route.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, using a model for a type of the assigned aerial vehicle, at least one predicted vehicle characteristic of the set of vehicle characteristics for the assigned aerial vehicle.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one predicted vehicle characteristic is one of a predicted state of charge, a predicted state of power, or a predicted state of health at the arrival vertiport.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the predicted vehicle characteristic is a predicted state of charge, and further comprising:
receiving a state of charge indication from the assigned aerial vehicle that is different than the predicted state of charge; identifying a subsequent route assigned to the assigned aerial vehicle; and based on the received state of charge indication, assigning a new aerial vehicle to the subsequent route instead of the assigned aerial vehicle.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the route is a first route of a set of routes for the assigned aerial vehicle, and further comprising:
determining a second route for the aerial vehicle comprising an arrival vertiport that is the same as a departure vertiport of the first route; assigning the second route to the aerial vehicle; and reordering the set of routes for the assigned aerial vehicle to travel the second route prior to traveling the first route.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the route is a first route, and further comprising:
receiving an itinerary request associated with a payload comprising payload characteristics; determining that a new route is to be generated based on the payload characteristics instead of using the first route to transport the payload; generating the new route comprising a new departure vertiport and a new arrival vertiport based on the payload characteristics; determining a new aerial vehicle for the new route based on the payload characteristics, a vehicle characteristic for the new aerial vehicle, and capability information associated with the new arrival vertiport; and generating an itinerary in response to the itinerary request comprising information associated with the new route and the new aerial vehicle.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an itinerary request associated with a payload comprising payload characteristics; evaluating the payload characteristics, the route, and the assigned aerial vehicle to determine that the route is to be used to transport the payload; and generating an itinerary comprising information associated with the route and the assigned aerial vehicle.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning the aerial vehicle to the route further comprises evaluating a predicted amount of time for the assigned aerial vehicle to reach a predetermined state of charge at the arrival vertiport.

9 . A method for validating an itinerary to transport a payload using an aerial vehicle within a transportation network, comprising:
receiving, from a transportation system, an itinerary comprising a starting vertiport, a destination vertiport, and an indication of a payload; accessing a set of vehicle characteristics for the aerial vehicle, comprising at least one of:
an energy type of the aerial vehicle;
a state of charge of the aerial vehicle;
a state of power of the aerial vehicle; or
a state of health of the aerial vehicle;
evaluating the set of vehicle characteristics based at least in part on the starting vertiport, the destination vertiport, and the payload to validate whether the aerial vehicle is capable of performing the itinerary; and providing, to the transportation system, an indication to either accept the itinerary or reject the itinerary based on validating whether the aerial vehicle is capable of performing the itinerary.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein an indication to reject the itinerary is provided to the transportation system, and further comprising:
receiving, from the transportation system, a second itinerary; and evaluating the set of vehicle characteristics to validate the second itinerary.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein evaluating the set of vehicle characteristics to validate whether the aerial vehicle is capable of performing the itinerary further comprises:
generating a display comprising a vehicle status indication based on evaluating the set of vehicle characteristics; and receiving input via the display accepting or rejecting the itinerary.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of vehicle characteristics are accessed at least in part from a vehicle state monitor of the aerial vehicle.

13 . A system comprising:
at least one processor; and memory, operatively connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform a set of operations comprising:
generating a set of available routes in the transportation network based on historical demand information, wherein each route comprises a departure vertiport and an arrival vertiport;
accessing, for a set of aerial vehicles of the transportation network, a set of vehicle characteristics for each aerial vehicle of the set of aerial vehicles, wherein the set of vehicle characteristics comprises at least one of:
an energy type of the aerial vehicle;
a state of charge of the aerial vehicle;
a state of power of the aerial vehicle; or
a state of health of the aerial vehicle;

accessing capability information for each vertiport of a route in the set of available routes; and
assigning, based on the set of vehicle characteristics and the capability information, an aerial vehicle from the set of aerial vehicles to the route.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the set of operations further comprises:
generating, using a model for a type of the assigned aerial vehicle, at least one predicted vehicle characteristic of the set of vehicle characteristics.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one predicted vehicle characteristic is one of a predicted state of charge, a predicted state of power, or a predicted state of health at the arrival vertiport.

16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the predicted vehicle characteristic is a predicted state of charge, and the set of operations further comprises:
receiving a state of charge indication from the assigned aerial vehicle that is different than the predicted state of charge; identifying a subsequent route assigned to the aerial vehicle; and based on the received state of charge indication, assigning a new aerial vehicle to the subsequent

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Chase Adam Thomas
• Villa Ian Andreas
• Wilhelm Luke Asher
• Petersen Jon
• Mcdonald Robert Alan
• Moore Mark Douglass
• Mikolajczak Celina

Classifications

• G06Q10/08355 Primary

  Routing methods · CPC title

• G06Q10/0834

  Choice of carriers · CPC title

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title

• G06Q10/047 Primary

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title

• B64F5/60

  Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems · CPC title