Symbiotic unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned surface vehicle system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9464902-B2
Application number	US-201414498369-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2014
Priority date	Sep 27, 2013
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

A system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle and an unmanned surface vehicle. The unmanned aerial vehicle has a memory storing a plurality of collection points and at least one sensor for collecting sensor data from each of the collection points. The unmanned surface vehicle is capable of moving to a plurality of locations. The unmanned aerial vehicle travels through the air between at least two collection points stored in the memory and the unmanned aerial vehicle is carried between at least two collection points stored in the memory by the unmanned surface vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an unmanned aerial vehicle having a memory storing a plurality of collection points and at least one sensor for collecting sensor data from each of the collection points;
an unmanned surface vehicle capable of moving to a plurality of locations, the unmanned surface vehicle comprises a memory storing a plurality of soil measurement locations and a landing time and a landing location for the unmanned aerial vehicle and at least one soil sensor and wherein the unmanned surface vehicle collects at least one soil measurement using the at least one soil sensor at each of the soil measurement locations;
wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle travels through the air between at least two collection points stored in the memory and wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is carried between at least two collection points stored in the memory by the unmanned surface vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of collection points comprise collection points selected from a larger set of possible collection points so as to maximize a number of measurement locations for which the unmanned aerial vehicle collects sensor data before an energy budget for the unmanned aerial vehicle is spent.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the collection points are selected based on energy use by the unmanned aerial vehicle to travel between collection points and energy use by the unmanned aerial vehicle to launch and land.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is carried on the unmanned surface vehicle between two collection points when the energy required for the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly between the two collection points exceeds the energy required for the unmanned aerial vehicle to land and launch from the unmanned surface vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the unmanned surface vehicle travels to a next measurement location and collects at least one sensor signal at the next measurement location if a time needed to travel to the next measurement location, collect the at least one sensor signal and travel to the landing location is less than a time remaining until the landing time.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one sensor of the unmanned aerial vehicle comprises an image capture sensor and wherein the at least one sensor of the unmanned surface vehicle comprises a sensor for measuring Nitrogen levels.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein each measurement location comprises a location for which it is probable that an existing nitrogen classification of the location is incorrect.

8. A method comprising:
storing measurement locations, launching locations, and landing locations in an unmanned surface vehicle's memory;
storing image capture locations, launching locations and landing locations in an unmanned aerial vehicle's memory;
initiating a data collection routine during which:
the unmanned surface vehicle carries the unmanned aerial vehicle between multiple measurement locations and collects sensor data at the multiple measurement locations while the unmanned aerial vehicle is positioned on the unmanned surface vehicle;
the unmanned surface vehicle carries the unmanned aerial vehicle to a launching location;
the unmanned aerial vehicle launches from the launching location and flies to a plurality of image capture locations;
the unmanned surface vehicle travels to a landing location; and
the unmanned aerial vehicle lands on the unmanned surface vehicle at the landing location

wherein the image capture locations, the launching locations and the landing locations are selected to maximize a number of measurement locations that are captured in images by the unmanned aerial vehicle before the unmanned aerial vehicle uses its budgeted energy.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein after the unmanned aerial vehicle is launched and before the unmanned aerial vehicle lands, the unmanned surface vehicle travels to a measurement location from the launching location and collects sensor data at the measurement location.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein each measurement location comprises a location in a farm field that is suspected of having an incorrect nitrogen classification.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a camera with a field of view at a selected altitude such that at each image capture location the field of view of the camera at the selected altitude includes a view of at least one measurement location.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the field of view of the camera at the selected altitude for at least one image capture location includes a view of multiple measurement locations.

13. A method comprising:
identifying a collection of areas in which measurements should be taken;
finding a maximal set of non-intersecting areas among the collection of areas;
setting an initial tour to a point in each area in the maximal set of non-intersecting areas;
finding a minimum number of sampling locations around each area in the maximal set of non-intersecting areas in order to ensure that there is at least one sampling location in each area of the collection of areas;
adjusting the initial tour to add each sampling location to form an adjusted tour; and
instructing an unmanned vehicle to travel along the adjusted tour and to collect measurements at the point in each area in the maximal set of non-intersecting disks and each sampling location.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the unmanned vehicle comprises an unmanned surface vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
determining launching and landing locations for an unmanned aerial vehicle carried by the unmanned surface vehicle;
determining a tour for the unmanned aerial vehicle between each launching and landing location; and
instructing the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly along the tour and collect images of areas in the collection of areas positioned along the tour.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the unmanned surface vehicle carries the unmanned aerial vehicle between one landing location and one launch location.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein at least one sampling location is in more than one of the areas in the collection of areas.

Assignees

• Univ Minnesota

Inventors

• Isler Volkan
• Mulla David
• Tokekar Pratap
• Vander Hook Joshua

Classifications

• G06Q10/047

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

• G01N2001/021

  Correlating sampling sites with geographical information, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• G01C21/00

  Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00 (measuring distance traversed on the ground by a vehicle G01C22/00; control of position, course, altitude or attitude of vehicles G05D1/00; traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• G01N33/24 Primary

  Earth materials (G01N33/42 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N2033/245

  Physics · mapped topic