Drone Box Sensor-Zone Layout for GPS-Denied UAV Landing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies face challenges in enabling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform precise, unassisted self-landing and charging, especially in environments with weak or no navigational signals and on moving platforms, while ensuring safety from environmental hazards and attacks.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising drone boxes with sensor zones, adjustable mounting dispositions, and programmable charging terminals that communicate through GPS or WIFI, allowing UAVs to auto-pilot precise landings, manage multiple drones, and switch polarity for safe charging, while protecting against overvoltage and environmental threats.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If drones perform unassisted self-landing in environments with weak or no navigational signals, then autonomous capability is improved, but landing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary landing guidance system consisting of transmitters and receivers that create a local reference frame on the landing platform. This intermediary system provides the necessary positional reference for autonomous drones to achieve precise landing without relying on external GPS or other weak navigational signals, thereby resolving the contradiction between autonomous capability and landing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces reliance on external navigational signal systems with a local optical/electromagnetic field-based guidance system. By substituting the mechanical/GPS-dependent navigation approach with a local transmitter-receiver field system, the patent enables autonomous drones to achieve precise positioning and landing independent of external navigational infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If drones land on moving platforms, then operational versatility is improved, but landing stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the landing platform itself a dynamic reference frame. The system continuously tracks the motion of the moving platform and adjusts the guidance fields and drone trajectory in real-time, allowing the drone to compensate for platform movement and achieve stable landing on dynamic surfaces such as vehicles or moving structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where receivers on the moving platform continuously provide positional and motion data back to the autonomous drone. This real-time feedback loop enables the drone to adjust its landing trajectory and maintain stability despite the platform's movement, resolving the contradiction between versatility and stability.
3Productivity
If multiple drones share a common landing platform, then resource utilization is improved, but charging safety deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the common landing platform into multiple distinct sensor zones, each with its own identification coordinates and charging interface. This segmentation allows multiple drones to land and charge simultaneously in separate zones, preventing electrical interference and safety hazards while maximizing platform utilization efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by giving each sensor zone unique identification coordinates and localized charging parameters. Each zone can independently manage its charging process with appropriate polarity and voltage settings, ensuring safe simultaneous charging of multiple drones with different battery requirements while maintaining high platform productivity.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 2
AI summary
Method and system to ascertain location of drone box for landing and charging drones comprising at least a drone box having a drone platform with a plurality of limiting boundaries, divided into number of sensor zones that are mechanically contiguous and electrically separated by an insulated separator of insulation width, each sensor zone having an identification coordinates, each drone having a plurality of ground interfaces, each having a unique address code, each ground interface has a charging terminal at a far end, each charging terminal having an interlocked switchable electricity polarity. The identification coordinates of the activated sensor zones are communicable to a second drone so that the second drone knows where NOT to land on the drone box, Such communication enables a third and subsequent drone to ascertain whether the identified drone box is suitable and available for landing.