UAM Navigation via Low Latency Ground Terminals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Urban air mobility vehicles face challenges in maintaining navigation systems due to constrained resource requirements and stringent safety standards, particularly when GNSS and radar systems fail, leading to difficulties in determining location and ensuring safe operation.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a supplemental navigation system that utilizes low latency communication networks to cross-reference positional data from nearby terminals, such as ground stations and other vehicles, to determine vehicle location and maintain safe navigation even when onboard navigation systems fail.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an exclusive secondary navigation system is hosted onboard a UAM vehicle, then navigation reliability is improved during GNSS failure, but device complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces ground-based terminals as intermediary devices that provide navigation assistance to UAM vehicles. These terminals act as mediators between the vehicle's primary navigation system and external backup navigation sources, enabling the vehicle to obtain positioning information from ground infrastructure without carrying a complete secondary navigation system onboard.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground-based terminals serve multiple functions: they provide backup navigation data, enable cross-referencing with vehicle sensors, and support low-latency communication for real-time positioning. This multi-functional approach allows a single ground-based infrastructure to address multiple navigation challenges simultaneously.
2Reliability
If an exclusive secondary navigation system is hosted onboard a UAM vehicle, then navigation reliability is improved during GNSS failure, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
By using ground-based terminals as intermediaries, the computational burden of running a complete secondary navigation system is transferred from the vehicle to the ground infrastructure. The vehicle only needs to communicate with these terminals and process their responses, significantly reducing onboard energy consumption while maintaining navigation reliability.
3Loss of time
If low latency communication networks are used for cross-referencing positional data, then navigation response time is improved, but communication infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Ground-based terminals serve as intermediaries that enable low-latency communication between UAM vehicles and navigation data sources. These terminals are strategically positioned to provide real-time positional data and cross-referencing capabilities, reducing communication delays without requiring complex onboard processing infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The ground-based terminals pre-process and prepare navigation data before receiving vehicle requests, performing preliminary calculations and data organization. This preliminary action reduces the time required for real-time cross-referencing and response generation, enabling faster navigation updates.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for vehicle navigation processing. For instance, the method may include scanning for one or more terminals within a predetermined vicinity of the vehicle via a low latency communication network and receiving positional data of the one or more terminals via the low latency communication network. The method may further include receiving directional data of the one or more terminals relative to the vehicle, determining a first location of the vehicle relative to the one or more terminals based on the directional data, and determining a second location of the vehicle relative to the environment based on the positional data and the first location.