UAV ADS-B Gateway for Airspace Tracking

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Solution Overview

Problem

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) pose a safety risk due to their difficulty in detection using existing air traffic control technologies like ADS-B and SSR, as they often lack ADS-B equipment and operate at low altitudes, making them hard to track, which can lead to potential collisions.

Innovation Solution

An ADS-B gateway system that receives flight data from UAVs, generates ADS-B data, and broadcasts it to air traffic control stations and aircraft, enabling their tracking and situational awareness, without the need for additional equipment on aircraft or air traffic control stations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If ADS-B equipment is installed on all aircraft, then tracking capability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetracking capabilityVSAvoidequipment requirement

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an ADS-B gateway as an intermediary component that receives flight data from UAVs and converts it into ADS-B format. This gateway acts as a mediator between UAVs without ADS-B equipment and the air traffic control system, enabling tracking of UAVs that would otherwise be invisible to traditional ADS-B receivers.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates a virtual ADS-B signal by copying and converting flight data from UAVs into the standard ADS-B message format. This allows UAVs to be represented in the air traffic control system as if they were broadcasting native ADS-B signals, without requiring actual ADS-B transponders on the UAVs.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

2Difficulty of detecting and measuring

If secondary surveillance radar is used to detect UAVs, then detection capability is improved, but effectiveness decreases due to small size and low altitude

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedetection capabilityVSAvoiddetection effectiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Difficulty of detecting and measuringVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the mechanical radar detection system with an electronic data conversion system. Instead of using radio waves to physically detect UAVs, the system electronically captures flight data from UAVs and converts it into ADS-B format, bypassing the limitations of radar detection for small, low-altitude targets.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

3Loss of information

If ADS-B data is broadcast to all aircraft, then situational awareness is improved, but data loss occurs for UAVs without ADS-B equipment

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesituational awarenessVSAvoidequipment requirement

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The ADS-B gateway serves as a mediator that ensures UAV flight data is converted and broadcast in the standard ADS-B format, making it visible to all aircraft equipped with ADS-B receivers. This intermediary conversion process prevents information loss by ensuring UAV data is properly formatted and transmitted to the air traffic control ecosystem.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS11657722B2Providing automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast data for unmanned aerial vehicles

Publication Date: 2023.05.23 VERIZON PATENT & LICENSING INC

AI summary

A device can be configured to receive flight data from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), where the flight data indicates at least one of an identifier that identifies the UAV, a location of the UAV, an altitude of the UAV, a bearing of the UAV, or a speed of the UAV. The device can be further configured to convert at least a portion of the flight data from a first format to a second format; generate automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data based on the converted flight data; and perform an action associated with the ADS-B data.