Autonomous Surveillance Drones for Baseline-Guided Intrusion Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional commercial surveillance systems require significant investment in video cameras and are prone to missing conditions and false alarms, making them costly and inefficient for monitoring large areas, while military drones are expensive and not practical for small-scale commercial applications.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing drones for surveillance, where the drone makes an initial tour to establish a baseline, checks in at pre-programmed locations, transmits data to a server, and recharges, reducing false alarms and costs by providing robust monitoring at lower expenses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional commercial surveillance systems use multiple video cameras to cover large areas, then surveillance coverage is improved, but system cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The surveillance system is segmented into multiple independent drone units, each capable of autonomous operation. Instead of one complex centralized system with many cameras, multiple simpler drone units independently cover different areas, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining large coverage area
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from two-dimensional ground-based camera coverage to three-dimensional aerial drone coverage. Drones operate in the air space above the facility, providing surveillance from elevated positions that naturally cover larger areas with fewer units, thereby improving coverage while limiting complexity growth
2Reliability
If conventional surveillance systems deploy many video cameras and analytics channels, then surveillance capability is improved, but licensing costs and operational expenses increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs multiple inexpensive drone units that can be replaced if needed, rather than relying on expensive permanent camera installations. Each drone is a cost-effective unit that provides reliable surveillance capability at lower individual cost, reducing total operational expenses while maintaining surveillance reliability
Solution Approach 2:
Each drone unit is multi-functional, serving as both camera platform and analytics processing unit. The drones perform multiple surveillance functions (area monitoring, anomaly detection, tracking) within single units, reducing the need for separate specialized equipment and lowering overall operational costs while maintaining comprehensive surveillance capability
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional surveillance systems use fixed camera positions, then installation simplicity is maintained, but ability to detect moving targets and cover large areas deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces static fixed cameras with dynamic mobile drones that can move to optimal positions. The drones autonomously navigate to detect and track moving targets, providing reliable target detection capability while maintaining installation simplicity through automated deployment and operation
Data Source
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AI summary
An unmanned aerial vehicle is described and includes a computer carried by the unmanned aerial vehicle to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle and at least one sensor. The unmanned aerial vehicle is caused to fly a specific pattern within a facility, receive sensor data from a sensor carried by the vehicle, apply processing to the sensor data to detect an unacceptable level of detected feature differences in features contained in the sensor data with respect to video data previously captured at the same location, determine a new flight instruction for the vehicle based on the processing; and send the new flight instruction for the vehicle to a system for controlling flight of the vehicle.