Distributed Avionics Processing for UAM Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles face challenges in hosting numerous systems and processing power due to energy, payload, and weight constraints, while maintaining stringent safety standards, and they experience limited GPS availability and degraded signal quality in their operating environment, making navigation difficult.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of distributed vehicle processing systems that offload computation and storage functions to edge nodes and the cloud, using low-latency wireless networks like 5G, allowing UAM vehicles to transmit reference data from imaging, antenna, and radar systems to determine their position and perform navigation control processes, supplementing GPS signals when they are below a threshold.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If UAM vehicles host numerous systems and processing power onboard, then navigation and safety functions can be performed independently, but energy consumption, payload weight, and resource requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts navigation computation and storage functions from the UAM vehicle to external edge nodes and cloud infrastructure. The vehicle retains only essential sensing capabilities (GPS receiver, imaging system, antenna system, radar system) while offloading complex position resolution and navigation control processes to external servers, thereby reducing onboard energy consumption and resource requirements while maintaining navigation reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces edge nodes as intermediary components between the UAM vehicle and cloud infrastructure. These edge nodes receive reference data from the vehicle's sensors, perform position resolution computations, and return navigation information, acting as a mediator that reduces the computational burden on the vehicle while ensuring reliable navigation functionality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If UAM vehicles operate at low altitudes in urban environments, then they can access cell phone networks for communication, but GPS signal availability is limited and signal quality is significantly degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple sensing modalities including GPS reception, imaging system data, antenna system signals, and radar system measurements to determine vehicle position. By combining these diverse data sources and processing them through edge node computation, the system compensates for degraded GPS signals in urban canyons and achieves accurate position determination despite limited GPS availability.
3Device complexity
If UAM vehicles use distributed processing to offload computation to edge nodes, then resource requirements on the vehicle are reduced, but dependency on external infrastructure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the navigation system into onboard sensing components (GPS receiver, imaging system, antenna system, radar system) and external processing components (edge nodes, cloud infrastructure). This segmentation reduces onboard device complexity by placing computation externally while maintaining operational functionality through the coordinated work of distributed system components.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed are methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for distributed vehicle navigation processing for a vehicle. For instance, the method may include: by the vehicle: obtaining reference data from one or a combination of an imaging system, an antenna system, and/or a radar system of the vehicle; in response to obtaining the reference data, determining whether a GNSS signal is below a threshold; and in response to determining the GNSS signal is below the threshold, transmitting a navigation supplementation request message including the reference data to an edge node or a cloud node. By the edge node or the cloud node: in response to receiving the navigation supplementation request message from the vehicle, performing a position resolution process to determine and transmit a position of the vehicle by one or more functions. By the vehicle: performing a navigation control process based on the determined position.