Routing Based on Vehicle Characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024078916-A1
Application number	US-202318471732-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 21, 2023
Priority date	Jun 7, 2019
Publication date	Mar 7, 2024
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

1 .- 20 . (canceled)

21 . A computer-implemented method for determining an aircraft and route to transport a quantity of passengers within a transportation network, comprising:
accessing a set of available routes in the transportation network based on historical demand information and capability information, wherein each available route in the set of available routes comprises a departure vertiport and an arrival vertiport; accessing predicted vehicle characteristics for a plurality of aircraft, wherein the predicted vehicle characteristics comprise at least one of: a state of charge of the aircraft, a state of power of the aircraft, or a state of health of the aircraft, accessing an itinerary request comprising payload characteristics that include the quantity of the passengers for aerial transport; computing, based on the set of available routes, the predicted vehicle characteristics, and the payload characteristics, an assigned route from the set of available routes and a first assigned aircraft from the plurality of aircraft for providing the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers, wherein the first assigned aircraft is computed based on a determination that the first assigned aircraft will maintain an energy budget above a threshold upon arrival at the arrival vertiport associated with the assigned route; and activating the first assigned aircraft to provide the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route.

22 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
accessing sensor data from a sensor of the first assigned aircraft, wherein the sensor data is indicative of actual vehicle characteristics being different than the predicted vehicle characteristics; based on the sensor data, computing a second assigned aircraft for providing the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route; and activating the second assigned aircraft instead of the first assigned aircraft to provide the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route.

23 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
accessing sensor data from a sensor of the first assigned aircraft, wherein the sensor data is indicative of actual vehicle characteristics; and computing a validation indicative of whether the first assigned aircraft is capable of performing an itinerary indicative of the assigned route and the payload characteristics based on the sensor data indicative of the actual vehicle characteristics.

24 . The computer-implemented method of claim 23 , further comprising:
transmitting, to a transportation system associated with the transportation network, an indication to either accept the itinerary or reject the itinerary based on the validation.

25 . The computer-implemented method of claim 24 , wherein an indication to reject the itinerary is provided to the transportation system, and further comprising:
accessing a second itinerary from the transportation system; and computing a validation of the second itinerary based on the sensor data indicative of the actual vehicle characteristics of the first assigned aircraft.

26 . The computer-implemented method of claim 24 , wherein computing the validation indicative of whether the first assigned aircraft is capable of performing the itinerary comprises:
generating a display comprising a vehicle status indication based on the sensor data indicative of the actual vehicle characteristics; and receiving input via the display accepting or rejecting the itinerary.

27 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
generating an itinerary comprising information associated with the assigned route and the first assigned aircraft.

28 . The computer-implemented method of claim 27 , further comprising:
generating a display comprising the itinerary for presentation to a user.

29 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , wherein the first assigned aircraft is further computed based on a predicted amount of time for the first assigned aircraft to reach a particular state of charge at the arrival vertiport associated with the assigned route.

30 . The computer-implemented method of claim 21 , further comprising:
generating at least one of the predicted vehicle characteristics using a machine-learned model trained for a type of the first assigned aircraft.

31 . A computing 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 computing system to perform a set of operations comprising:
accessing a set of available routes in a transportation network based on historical demand information and capability information, wherein each available route in the set of available routes comprises a departure vertiport and an arrival vertiport;
accessing predicted vehicle characteristics for a plurality of aircraft, wherein the predicted vehicle characteristics comprise at least one of: a state of charge of the aircraft, a state of power of the aircraft, or a state of health of the aircraft;
accessing an itinerary request comprising payload characteristics that include a quantity of passengers for aerial transport;
computing, based on the set of available routes, the predicted vehicle characteristics, and the payload characteristics, an assigned route from the set of available routes and a first assigned aircraft from the plurality of aircraft for providing the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers, wherein the first assigned aircraft is computed based on a determination that the first assigned aircraft will maintain an energy budget above a threshold upon arrival at the arrival vertiport associated with the assigned route; and
activating the first assigned aircraft to provide the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route.

32 . The computing system of claim 31 , the operations further comprising:
accessing sensor data from a sensor of the first assigned aircraft, wherein the sensor data is indicative of actual vehicle characteristics being different than the predicted vehicle characteristics; based on the sensor data, computing a second assigned aircraft for providing the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route; and activating the second assigned aircraft instead of the first assigned aircraft to provide the aerial transport of the quantity of passengers via the assigned route.

33 . The computing system of claim 31 , the operations further comprising:
accessing sensor data from a sensor of the first assigned aircraft, wherein the sensor data is indicative of actual vehicle characteristics; and computing a validation indicative of whether the first assigned aircraft is capable of performing an itinerary indicative of the assigned route and the payload characteristics based on the sensor data indicative of the actual vehicle characteristics.

34 . The computing system of claim 33 , the operations further comprising:
transmitting, to a transportation system associated with the transportation network, an indication to either accept the itinerary or reject the itinerary based on the validation.

35 . The computing system of claim 34 , wherein an indication to reject the itinerary is provided to the transportation system, and the operations further comprising:
accessing a second itinerary from the transportation system; and computing a validation of the second itinerary based on the sensor data indicative of the actual

Assignees

• Joby Aero Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G05D2109/20

  Aircraft, e.g. drones · CPC title

• G05D2105/28

  of freight · CPC title

• B64U80/25

  for recharging batteries; for refuelling · CPC title

• G05D1/654

  Landing (docking at a base station G05D1/661) · CPC title

• G05D1/6445

  for optimising payload operation, e.g. camera or spray coverage · CPC title