Aircraft information retrieval using onboard RFID tags

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9766621-B2
Application number	US-201614994076-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Jan 12, 2016
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A method for determining information about an aircraft may include receiving at a base station an RFID tag location map for the aircraft and transmitting to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) the RFID tag location map for the aircraft. The method may include generating navigation signals by the UAV based at least in part on the received RFID tag location map appropriate for controlling navigation of the UAV proximate to an RFID tag supported on the aircraft at an RFID tag location, the RFID tag having aircraft-related identifying data. The method may include receiving, by the base station, read-related data from the UAV. The read-related data may include aircraft-related identifying data when the RFID tag is at the RFID tag location. The method may include determining, at the base station from the received read-related data, information about the aircraft.

First claim

I claim:

1. An aircraft survey system for determining information about an aircraft, comprising:
an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader, a UAV controller, and a UAV transceiver, the RFID reader being configured to read an RFID tag supported on the aircraft at an identified location and having aircraft-related identifying data, the UAV controller configured to receive an RFID tag location map for the aircraft and generate navigation signals based at least in part on the RFID tag location map for navigating proximate to the identified location, and the UAV transceiver configured to communicate with the UAV controller and receive and transmit data wirelessly; and
a base station including a communication system, a base-station controller operatively coupled to the communication system, and a data storage device operatively coupled to the base-station controller, the communication system configured to communicate wirelessly with the UAV, the base-station controller configured to receive and transmit to the UAV the RFID tag location map for the aircraft, receive read-related data from the UAV, the read-related data including aircraft-related identifying data when the RFID tag is at the RFID tag location, and determine from the received read-related data information about the aircraft.

2. The survey system of claim 1 , where the aircraft-related identifying data includes component-identifying data corresponding to a component installed on the aircraft, and wherein the base-station controller is further configured to receive desired configuration data for the aircraft, and determine whether the component-identifying data received from the UAV corresponds to a component that matches the desired configuration data.

3. The survey system of claim 2 , wherein the base-station controller is further configured to generate an output identifying the component if the aircraft-related identifying data includes component-identifying data corresponding to a component that does not match the desired configuration data.

4. The survey system of claim 2 , wherein the UAV controller is configured to transmit to the base station read-related data indicating that no component-identifying data was read at the RFID tag location when the RFID reader receives no component-identifying data at the RFID tag location, and the base-station controller is further configured to generate an output identifying the desired configuration data for the RFID tag location.

5. The survey system of claim 1 , where the RFID tag location map includes a plurality of RFID tag locations, and wherein the UAV controller is further configured to generate navigation signals based at least in part on the received RFID tag location map appropriate for controlling navigation of the UAV to the plurality of RFID tag locations sequentially, and transmit read-related data to the base station for each of the RFID tag locations to which the UAV navigated.

6. The survey system of claim 5 , wherein the base-station controller is further configured to receive desired configuration data for each RFID tag location on the aircraft, determine whether the aircraft-related identifying data received from the UAV corresponds to a component that matches the desired configuration data, and generate an output identifying the component if the aircraft-related identifying data includes component-identifying data that corresponds to a component that does not match the desired configuration data.

7. The survey system of claim 6 , wherein the UAV controller is configured to transmit to the base station read-related data indicating that no component-identifying data was read at one of the plurality of RFID tag locations when the RFID reader receives no component-identifying data at the one RFID tag location, and the base-station controller is further configured to generate an output identifying the desired configuration data for the one RFID tag location.

8. The survey system of claim 1 , wherein the UAV further includes a visible-light camera, and the UAV controller is configured to navigate along the aircraft, control the camera to record an image of at least a portion of the aircraft having aircraft identification indicia, and transmit image signals representative of the image to the base station, and the base-station controller is configured to identify the model and registration number of the aircraft from the image signals received from the UAV.

9. A method for determining information about an aircraft, comprising:
receiving at a base station an RFID tag location map for the aircraft;
transmitting to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) the RFID tag location map for the aircraft;
generating navigation signals by the UAV based at least in part on the received RFID tag location map appropriate for controlling navigation of the UAV proximate to an RFID tag supported on the aircraft at an RFID tag location, the RFID tag having aircraft-related identifying data;
receiving by the base station read-related data from the UAV, the read-related data including aircraft-related identifying data when the RFID tag is at the RFID tag location; and
determining at the base station from the received read-related data information about the aircraft.

10. The method of claim 9 , where the aircraft-related identifying data includes component-identifying data corresponding to a component installed on the aircraft, the method further comprising receiving by the base station desired configuration data for the aircraft, and determining by the base station whether the aircraft-related identifying data received from the UAV includes component-identifying data that corresponds to a component that matches the desired configuration data.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising generating by the base station an output identifying the component if the aircraft-related identifying data includes component-identifying data corresponding to a component that does not match the desired configuration data.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein receiving read-related data includes receiving read-related data indicating that no component-identifying data was read at the RFID tag location, the method further comprising generating by the base-station an output identifying the desired configuration data for the RFID tag location when the read-related data indicates that no component-identifying data was read at the RFID tag location.

13. The method of claim 9 , where the RFID tag location map includes a plurality of RFID tag locations, and wherein generating navigation signals includes generating navigation signals based at least in part on the stored RFID tag location map appropriate for controlling navigation of the UAV to the plurality of RFID tag locations sequentially, and receiving read-related data includes receiving read-related data from the UAV for each of the plurality of RFID tag locations.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising receiving desired configuration data for each of the plurality of RFID tag locations, determining whether the read-related data received from the UAV includes component-identifying data corresponding to a component that matches the desired configuration data, and generating an output identifying the component to which the component-identifying data corresponds if the component-identifying data does not match the desired configuration data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein receiving the read-related data includes receiving read-related data indicating that no component-identifying data was read at one of the plurality of RFID tag locations, and generating an

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Glatfelter John William

Classifications

• G05D1/00

  Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots (drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00) · CPC title

• G06K7/00

  Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, {e.g. for reading patterns} (methods or arrangements for marking the record carrier in digital fashion G06K1/00; pattern recognition G06F18/00; arrangements for image or video recognition or understanding G06V10/00; character recognition, recognising digital ink or document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00) · CPC title

• G06F7/00

  Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled (logic circuits H03K19/00) · CPC title

• G06K17/0029 Primary

  the arrangement being specially adapted for wireless interrogation of grouped or bundled articles tagged with wireless record carriers · CPC title

• B64D43/00

  Arrangements or adaptations of instruments · CPC title