Modular UAV Hangar Network for Scalable Field Data Collection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for field data collection are expensive to maintain, proprietary, and lack scalability, as they often require human operators and are limited to specific UAVs and sensors, making them difficult to deploy and integrate with existing infrastructure.
Innovation Solution
A modular field data collection platform that allows for intelligent, automated UAV deployments across different aircraft and sensors, using a networked system with flight operations software to instruct UAVs to collect data and return it to a hangar for processing, enabling scalability, compatibility with third-party technology, and remote management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If proprietary fully integrated software-hardware stack is used for drone-in-a-box operations, then automated UAV deployment is achieved, but scalability and extensibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the UAS into separate modular components: a proprietary ground control station for automated operations, and compatible third-party UAVs that can be independently selected and configured. This segmentation allows the automated deployment system to remain proprietary while enabling users to mix and match different UAV models, sensors, and payloads from multiple vendors, thereby achieving both automation and scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground control station is designed with universal compatibility to work with multiple types of UAVs and sensor configurations. The system provides standardized interfaces and protocols that allow a single automated deployment system to control various UAV models (fixed-wing, multi-rotor, tilt-rotor) and integrate different sensor suites, making the system adaptable to diverse mission requirements without requiring complete proprietary integration for each configuration.
2Ease of operation
If human operators pilot UAVs onsite for inspection, then operational control is maintained, but safety risks and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements autonomous UAV operations where the UAVs self-deploy, self-navigate to inspection targets, self-monitor their operational status, and self-return to the ground control station. The automated flight management system handles mission planning, real-time navigation, and anomaly detection without requiring human operators to be physically present at remote or hazardous locations, thereby eliminating safety risks while maintaining operational control through remote monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground control station acts as an intermediary between the operator and the UAV, enabling remote operation through standardized communication protocols. This intermediary system provides automated flight management, real-time telemetry monitoring, and exception handling, allowing operators to maintain control over UAV missions from safe, centralized locations while the UAV autonomously handles navigation and inspection tasks in hazardous environments.
3Measurement precision
If specialized equipment and personnel are deployed for field inspections, then data collection capability is improved, but deployment cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables dynamic configuration of UAV missions by changing operational parameters such as flight altitude, speed, sensor activation modes, and inspection patterns based on specific mission requirements. The automated ground control station allows users to adjust these parameters through software without requiring specialized hardware modifications or trained operators, thereby maintaining high data collection capability while reducing deployment complexity to simple parameter configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods describe providing field data collection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The system receives a request, from a client device, to perform an aerial mission. The system selects a launch hangar, from a group of launch hangars that are in networked communication, to launch a UAV to perform the aerial mission. The system transmits to the UAV from the selected launch hangar, instructions to perform the aerial mission. The system deploys from the selected launch hangar, the UAV to perform the aerial mission and obtain sensor data pertaining to a structure and/or a geographic area. The system receives the UAV at a return hangar which receives the obtained sensor data from the UAV.