Autonomous Drone Power States for Faster Camera Readiness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous drones with camera sensors face challenges in reducing readiness time due to size and power constraints, limiting their ability to quickly respond to user demands for capturing events, as they need to balance battery life with power usage and form factors.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of additional power states, including a 'standby' and 'off' state, where the drone maintains power to the memory to keep the operating system active, significantly reduces boot time by allowing quicker transitions between states, with the 'off' state consuming minimal power and the 'power off' state depowering all components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the drone maintains full power to all components, then the boot time is reduced, but the power consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining power to the memory component before actual use, keeping the operating system loaded and ready. This allows the drone to transition to operational state quickly without powering up all components from a completely off state, thus reducing boot time while avoiding continuous full power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts power states of different components based on operational needs. It transitions between multiple power states (fully off, standby with memory powered, fully on) rather than maintaining a static power level, optimizing the balance between boot time and power consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the drone enters a low power state to conserve battery, then power consumption is reduced, but the readiness time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-loading the operating system into memory while in standby state. This preparation work is done before the drone needs to be fully operational, so when activation is needed, the OS is already in place and doesn't need to be loaded from storage, reducing the readiness time penalty of being in low power state.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different power states to different components locally. The memory component remains powered in standby state while other components are powered down, creating a localized power maintenance strategy that balances overall power consumption with readiness requirements.
3Loss of time
If the drone keeps the operating system active in memory, then the boot time is reduced, but the memory power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by powering only the memory component in standby state rather than all components. This selective partial powering achieves the goal of fast boot (by keeping OS in memory) without the excessive power consumption of keeping everything active, applying just enough power where needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, computer readable medium and methods for improved boot time for autonomous drones are disclosed. Autonomous drones are disclosed that include an Off State and a Power off State. The Off State appears to a user of the autonomous drone as if the autonomous drone is off, but the Off State maintains some of the autonomous drone's state such as the operating system being loaded in a memory. The autonomous drone enters the Power off State, where all or substantially all the power is turned off, from the Off State based on a timeout or a power level of a battery dropping below a threshold level. The Off State reduces the boot time of the autonomous drone compared with the Power off State. The time reduction is often less than ten seconds, but this time is beneficial for situations where a user would like the autonomous drone to immediately perform photography.