Systems, devices and methods delivering energy using an uncrewed autonomous vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9778653-B1
Application number	US-201414318373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 27, 2014
Priority date	Jun 27, 2014
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

Devices such as vehicles, remote sensors, and so forth consume energy during operation. Described herein are systems, devices, and methods for transferring energy from an uncrewed autonomous vehicle to a vehicle such as a car. The uncrewed autonomous vehicle may locate the vehicle at a rendezvous location, and connect with the vehicle while the vehicle moves. Once the uncrewed autonomous vehicle connects to the vehicle, the uncrewed autonomous vehicle may transfer the energy to the vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a vehicle including a rechargeable battery and an optical target, wherein the vehicle is configured to:
determine that an amount of energy in the rechargeable battery is equal to or less than a threshold amount, wherein the threshold amount represents an amount of energy needed for the vehicle to reach a designated destination;
generate a request for energy; and
provide the request to a server;
receive an uncrewed autonomous vehicle identification (“UAV ID”) from the server, wherein the UAV ID is associated with an uncrewed autonomous vehicle (“UAV”);
execute a first authentication using wireless communication between the vehicle and the UAV that includes determining that the UAV ID is included within a UAV ID datastore;
receive, from the UAV, a transfer of energy for the rechargeable battery of the vehicle;

the server configured to:
determine a speed of the vehicle;
determine docking speeds supported by a plurality of UAVs;
select the UAV based on correspondence between a docking speed supported by the UAV and the speed of the vehicle; and
provide control data to the UAV, the control data representing instructions for the UAV to transfer energy to the rechargeable battery at a rendezvous location;
confirm an amount of the energy received for the rechargeable battery; and

the UAV includes an energy storage device and an optical scanner, wherein the UAV is configured to:
receive the control data from the server;
determine, using the wireless communication between the vehicle and the UAV, that the vehicle includes one or more components capable of receiving energy from the UAV;
travel to the rendezvous location;
locate the vehicle proximate to the rendezvous location;
read, using the optical scanner of the UAV, the optical target of the vehicle;
execute a second authentication of the vehicle based on the read of the optical target;
dock with the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, wherein the dock includes establishment of wired communication between the vehicle and the UAV using one or more electrical conductors;
execute a third authentication using the wired communication between the vehicle and the UAV that includes determining that a vehicle identification (“ID”) is included within a vehicle ID datastore; and
transfer, using the energy storage device of the UAV, energy to the rechargeable battery of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the UAV is configured to couple to the vehicle using the one or more electrical conductors when docked;
the vehicle is configured to provide heartbeat signals to the UAV using the one or more electrical conductors; and
the UAV is configured to determine a quantity of energy transferred to the rechargeable battery of the vehicle based on receiving a predetermined number of the heartbeat signals from the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the UAV includes:
a first UAV connector that includes a first upper side, a first lower side, and a first contact; and
a second UAV connector that includes a second upper side, a second lower side, and a second contact; and
the vehicle includes a docking mechanism including:
a first base portion and a first vehicle clamp engaged with the first base portion, wherein the first vehicle clamp is configured to move between a first open position and a first closed position to attach to the first contact, wherein the first vehicle clamp is connected to the rechargeable battery, and wherein in the first closed position, the first base portion contacts the first lower side and restricts movement of the first UAV connector toward the vehicle and the first vehicle clamp encloses the first upper side and restricts movement of the first UAV connector away from the vehicle; and
a second base portion and a second vehicle clamp engaged with the second base portion, wherein the second vehicle clamp is configured to move between a second open position and a second closed position to attach to the second contact, wherein the second vehicle clamp is connected to the rechargeable battery, and wherein in the second closed position, the second base portion contacts the second lower side and restricts movement of the second UAV connector toward the vehicle and the second vehicle clamp encloses the second upper side and restricts movement of the second UAV connector away from the vehicle.

4. An uncrewed autonomous vehicle (“UAV”) comprising:
an energy storage device configured to store energy;
a communication interface;
a memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

a processor in communication with the communication interface and the memory,
the processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
receive, using the communication interface, an instruction to transfer energy between the energy storage device and a vehicle, wherein the vehicle is proximate to a rendezvous location;
execute a first authentication process to authenticate one or more of the vehicle or the UAV using wireless communication, wherein the first authentication process determines correspondence between a speed of the vehicle and a docking speed supported by the UAV;
navigate the UAV to the rendezvous location;
determine location and motion information associated with the vehicle;
execute a second authentication process by detecting an optical target on the vehicle;
dock with the vehicle, wherein the dock includes establishment of a wired connection between the vehicle and the UAV using one or more of electrical conductors;
execute a third authentication process to authenticate the vehicle using the wired connection between the vehicle and the UAV; and
responsive to success with the first, second, and third authentication process, transfer at least one of:
a portion of the energy stored in the energy storage device to the vehicle; or
a portion of energy stored in the vehicle to the energy storage device.

5. The UAV of claim 4 , wherein the optical target includes a machine-readable optical code attached to the vehicle and the processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
execute the second authentication process by:
acquiring, using an optical scanner, vehicle identification information from the machine-readable optical code; and
querying a datastore storing a plurality of vehicle identification information to determine that the acquired vehicle identification information is included within the datastore.

6. The UAV of claim 4 , wherein:
the optical target includes one or more lights configured to generate one or more of an optical pattern, an optical shape, or an optical sequence; and
the processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to authenticate the vehicle by determining that the one or more of the optical pattern, the optical shape, or the optical sequence corresponds to a predetermined optical target.

7. The UAV of claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
receive vehicle location data from the vehicle, the vehicle location data indicating an expected route of the vehicle;
receive movement data indicative of a speed of the vehicle;
generate UAV location data indicating a location of the UAV; and
determine the rendezvous location using the vehicle location data, the movement data, and the UAV location data.

8. The UAV of claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
receive environment data from the vehicle, the environment data comprising information indicating an existence of objects proximate to the vehicle; and
navigate the UAV to avoid the objects while docking the UAV to the vehicle

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Mcclintock Jon Arron
• Buchmueller Daniel
• Gopalakrishnan Varadarajan
• Hensel Fabian
• Johansson Jesper Mikael
• Porter Brandon William
• Roths Andrew Jay

Classifications

• G05D1/00 Primary

  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

• B60L11/1822

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60L11/1846

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B67D7/08

  Arrangements of devices for controlling, indicating, metering or registering quantity or price of liquid transferred (arrangement of flow- or pressure-control valves B67D7/36; computing, calculating, counting G06; coin-freed apparatus for dispensing fluids G07F13/00; prepayment devices for metering liquids G07F15/00) · CPC title

• B60L11/1816

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic