UAV Contingency Landing Using Third-Party Risk Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques for landing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in contingency scenarios do not adequately consider third-party risk, particularly in urban and suburban environments, leading to potential safety hazards.
Innovation Solution
A contingency management system that performs a tiered quantitative risk assessment to identify safe landing zones and generate trajectories, calculating risk values based on environmental and operational factors to minimize third-party risk, allowing for autonomous or remote-controlled UAV landing decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If simple return to home or backtracking functions are used for contingency landing, then the UAV can return to a known location, but third-party risk to people, road traffic, aircraft, and structures is not considered
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of risk assessment by introducing a quantitative risk model that evaluates multiple factors (people, road traffic, aircraft, structures) with different risk weights. This transforms the landing decision from a simple location-based choice to a risk-optimized decision that selects landing zones minimizing third-party harm.
Solution Approach 2:
The UAV autonomously performs risk assessment and selects landing zones without requiring ground control intervention. The system self-evaluates potential landing sites by calculating risk values based on environmental data and operational constraints, then independently executes the safest landing procedure.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If automated risk assessment and trajectory generation are implemented, then third-party risk is minimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The risk assessment system is segmented into distinct functional modules: risk model definition, environmental data processing, trajectory generation, risk calculation, and landing zone selection. Each module handles a specific aspect of the problem, making the overall complex system manageable and maintainable while achieving comprehensive risk minimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary risk assessment and landing zone identification before the actual contingency landing occurs. By pre-calculating risk values for multiple potential landing zones and generating trajectories in advance, the system reduces real-time computational burden and enables faster automated decision-making during emergencies.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If multiple candidate landing zones are evaluated with risk calculations, then safer landing decisions are made, but computation time and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system evaluates multiple candidate landing zones beyond the minimum single option to ensure safety, but applies risk thresholds and filtering to avoid exhaustive evaluation of all possible locations. By assessing a reasonable number of candidates with highest potential safety and selecting the optimal one based on risk values, the system achieves thorough evaluation without excessive computation time.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus is provided for causing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to perform a contingency landing procedure. The apparatus includes memory and processing circuitry configured to cause the apparatus to at least determine candidate safe landing zones (SLZs) within an estimated current range of the UAV. Trajectories are generated for landing the UAV in respective ones of the candidate SLZs. Risk values are calculated that quantify third-party risk associated with operation of the UAV along respective ones of the trajectories to the respective ones of the candidate SLZs. A flight termination risk value is calculated that quantifies third-party risk associated with immediately landing the UAV at the current position. The lowest of the risk values is compared with the flight termination risk value, and a sequence is executed to operate the UAV along the trajectory to the selected one of the candidate SLZs, or immediately land the UAV.