Rescue Drone Attachment and Mission Rescheduling in Swarms

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Solution Overview

Problem

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) face challenges in managing drone fleets, particularly in preventing cascading failures and crashes due to malfunctioning drones, which pose risks to other drones, infrastructure, and human safety, and require efficient recovery and reconfiguration of mission objectives.

Innovation Solution

A system comprising a drone fleet with mission and rescue drones that detects malfunctions, physically or virtually attaches to malfunctioning drones, and transports them to a safe landing location while reconfiguring mission instructions to adapt to the loss, using a rescue drone to prevent crashes and ensure mission completion.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a drone fleet operates without rescue drones, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates due to inability to prevent crashes and cascading failures

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedrone fleet reliabilityVSAvoiddrone fleet complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The drone fleet is segmented into specialized roles: mission drones that perform primary tasks and rescue drones that handle emergencies. This segmentation allows the system to improve reliability through dedicated rescue functionality while managing complexity by dividing responsibilities across different drone types rather than requiring all drones to have dual capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Rescue drones act as intermediary elements between malfunctioning drones and the overall fleet system. They intercept and capture failing drones before they can cause cascading failures, serving as a buffer that protects the fleet's reliability without requiring direct intervention from the control system or other mission drones.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If rescue drones are deployed to capture malfunctioning drones, then harmful factors are reduced by preventing crashes, but loss of time occurs due to mission rescheduling

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecollateral damage from crashesVSAvoidmission completion time

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Rescue drones are positioned in advance within the fleet formation, ready to intercept malfunctioning drones before they crash. This preliminary positioning allows rapid response to failures, minimizing the time drones are out of service and reducing the impact on overall mission completion time while still preventing harmful crashes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

When a drone malfunctions, the system discards its original mission assignment and recovers the drone through rescue operations. The rescued drone is then reintegrated into the fleet with a revised mission, minimizing permanent loss of resources while accepting temporary mission rescheduling. This approach reduces harmful crashes while managing time loss through efficient resource reallocation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #34Discarding and recovering

3Adaptability or versatility

If mission objectives are rigidly maintained without reconfiguration, then productivity is preserved, but adaptability deteriorates when drones malfunction

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemission reconfiguration capabilityVSAvoidmission completion efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The mission assignment system is made dynamic rather than static. When drones malfunction, the system automatically reconfigures mission assignments in real-time, dynamically adjusting which drones perform which tasks. This adaptability ensures the fleet can respond to failures while maintaining overall productivity through flexible resource allocation rather than rigid mission adherence.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes operational parameters by allowing mission assignments to be modified based on fleet status. Instead of maintaining fixed mission parameters, the system adjusts task allocations, drone roles, and flight paths in response to malfunctions, enabling adaptability while preserving productivity through optimized reconfiguration rather than rigid persistence.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS12422857B2Smart drone rescue and mission rescheduling on a swarm of drones

Publication Date: 2025.09.23 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION

AI summary

According to one embodiment, a method, computer system, and computer program product for rescuing a malfunctioning drone is provided. The present invention may include responsive to detecting a total failure in a malfunctioning drone comprising a drone fleet, operating one or more rescue drones to physically or virtually attach to the malfunctioning drone; reconfiguring sub-missions comprising a mission assigned to the drone fleet based on an absence of the malfunctioning drone and the one or more rescue drones; and transporting, by the one or more rescue drones, the malfunctioning drone to a safe landing location.