Boeing Counters Contingencies for Smaller Drones
So you’re operating a UAV, and the engine quits. Is it certain death for your drone? Boeing says ‘no’.
According to their patent application, “Larger UAVs and manned aircraft often have redundant systems for communication (e.g., SATCOM) and navigation (e.g., inertial navigation) that enable them to respond to jamming and other contingencies without losing communication and navigation. That is, they have many spectral degrees of freedom. On the other hand, small UAVs typically cannot tolerate the weight, power, and volume needed for such redundant systems; accordingly, small UAVs rely on a single radio and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver.”
This software patent outlines a flowchart of procedure to ensure a safe return or landing of your smaller drone, notwithstanding hostile forces jamming your signal or an engine failure. “The enhanced UAV control system assists a UAV to choose a flight path that maintains access to communication and navigation signals in contingency situations. In accordance with one embodiment, the UAV control system comprises a computer system programmed to (a) detect an in-flight contingency, (b) choose a path that meets requirements for availability of communications and navigation signals while satisfying other constraints, and (c) fly the chosen path. The UAV control system further comprises a digital model of the RF environment that includes the location of the operator’s transmitter, characteristics of other transmitters like radio stations or known jammers, the position and orientation of each antenna on the UAV, RF signal polarization, terrain features that may cause multipath fades, etc. The control system further comprises a geometry engine that includes data and functions to analyze how changes in UAV position and orientation affect each antennas’ position and orientation relative to the operator’s RF signal. The control system further comprises logic for when and how to use the RF environment model and the geometry engine.”
Claim 1 is quite broad, but Boeing knows what it’s doing, and this may be a forefront invention not only for loss-of-signal and engine failure, but for anti-drone-jacking applications a well:
- A method for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle in response to an in-flight contingency, comprising:
- performing operations by a computer system onboard the unmanned aerial vehicle, including:
- (a) determining whether a current flight path of the unmanned aerial vehicle should be changed;
- (b) determining a different flight path of the unmanned aerial vehicle which satisfies signal reception constraints in response to a determination that the current flight path should be changed;
- and (c) controlling the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly said different flight path.
Title: “DETERMINATION OF FLIGHT PATH FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN EVENT OF IN-FLIGHT CONTINGENCY”
US Patent Application Publication No: 20140142787
Filed: November 16, 2012
Published: May 22, 2014
