System and method for automated traffic management of intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9847032-B2
Application number	US-201514800250-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2015
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A drone traffic management system comprising a computer comprising memory means for storing origin coordinates indicating an origin location of a drone, destination coordinates indicating a destination of the drone, and traffic management factors located between the origin location of the drone and the destination of the drone; and processing means for controlling the flight of a drone. This is accomplished by calculating a flight path for the drone to fly automatically from the origin location to the destination location without manual intervention, sending the flight path to the drone, receiving location data of the drone as it travels from the origin location to the destination, re-calculating the flight path of the drone as a function of the traffic management factors and the location data of the drone, and sending the re-calculated flight path to the drone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A drone traffic management system comprising a computer comprising:
memory means for storing
origin coordinates indicating an origin location of a drone,
destination coordinates indicating a destination of the drone, and
traffic management factors located between the origin location of the drone and the destination of the drone, the traffic management factors comprising a flight path of a second drone; and

processing means for controlling a flight path of the drone by
calculating an initial flight path for the drone to fly automatically from the origin location to the destination location without manual intervention,
sending the initial flight path to the drone,
continuously revising the flight path of the drone by repeating, until the drone reaches its destination, the steps of:
receiving location data of the drone as it travels from the origin location to the destination,
receiving location data of the second drone as the second drone travels along its the flight path,
calculating a revised flight path of the drone as a function of the location data of the drone and the location data of the second drone, and
sending the revised flight path to the drone

wherein the processing means is adapted to control the flight of a plurality of drones, and wherein one of the plurality of drones is a roving sector drone, and wherein the computer is located onboard the roving sector drone.

2. The drone traffic management system of claim 1 wherein the traffic management factors further comprise at least one of weather parameters, natural barrier locations, manmade barrier locations.

Assignees

• Postrel Richard

Inventors

• Postrel Richard

Classifications

• H04W4/46

  for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V] · CPC title

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• B64U2101/60

  for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons · CPC title