UAV Flight Planning Using Weighted Obstacle Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Developing flight plans for UAVs that effectively avoid obstacles in urban areas is challenging due to the dynamic introduction of static and dynamic obstacles, with existing information sources providing limited and stale data, leading to a risk of collisions and increased costs for obstacle detection sensors.
Innovation Solution
A UAV management device that aggregates obstacle data from various sources, including crowdsourcing, government authorities, and real-time UAV feedback, to provide real-time adjustments to flight plans, reducing the need for onboard sensors and enhancing safety by leveraging a comprehensive repository of static and dynamic obstacles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If UAVs use existing information sources for obstacle data, then the system complexity is reduced, but the data becomes stale and collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by collecting and storing obstacle data from multiple sources before flight operations begin. This includes gathering data from government authorities, third-party sources, and crowdsourcing platforms in advance, creating a pre-populated obstacle database that is ready for real-time query and adjustment during flight operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where obstacle data is constantly updated from multiple sources including real-time crowdsourcing from other UAVs and ground-based sensors. This feedback mechanism ensures the obstacle database remains current and accurate, allowing the flight management system to adjust flight plans dynamically based on the latest obstacle information.
2Reliability
If UAVs equip onboard sensors for obstacle detection, then real-time obstacle detection capability is improved, but the cost and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary obstacle database and flight management server that mediates between various obstacle data sources and the UAV. This intermediary layer provides processed, consolidated obstacle information to the UAV, reducing the need for complex onboard sensor systems while maintaining effective obstacle detection and avoidance capabilities through external data support.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of each UAV maintaining its own complete obstacle detection system, the invention creates a centralized copy of obstacle data that is distributed to multiple UAVs. This shared obstacle database allows UAVs to access comprehensive obstacle information without duplicating expensive sensor systems, reducing individual UAV complexity while maintaining collective detection capability.
3Reliability
If comprehensive obstacle data is collected from multiple sources, then collision risk decreases, but the data processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and separates the complex data processing functions from the UAV itself and places them in an external flight management server. This server handles the aggregation, validation, and processing of obstacle data from multiple sources, while the UAV receives pre-processed flight plan adjustments. This extraction reduces the processing burden on individual UAV systems while maintaining comprehensive data analysis capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The flight management server performs multiple functions including obstacle data collection, validation, processing, flight plan generation, and real-time adjustment. This multi-functional system handles diverse data types from various sources (government authorities, third-party sources, crowdsourcing) through a unified processing framework, reducing overall system complexity despite the comprehensive nature of data collection.
Data Source
AI summary
A device can receive obstacle data from a plurality of sources. The obstacle data can include location data associated with obstacles. The device can determine weightings for the obstacles based on the plurality of sources. Each of the weightings can indicate a measure of reliability/accuracy of the information regarding an obstacle. The device can process the obstacle data to associate the obstacles with airspace voxel(s), that represent one or more 3D portions of airspace, based on the location data, receive flight parameters relating to a proposed flight plan of a UAV through airspace represented by a set of airspace voxels, determine whether the set of airspace voxels includes any of the airspace voxel(s), and perform one or more actions to cause a recommendation, regarding the proposed flight plan and based on the determination, to be provided. The recommendation can be based on one or more of the weightings.