UAV Navigation System Route Overlap Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current navigation displays for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become cluttered and difficult to use as the number of UAVs and complexity of planned routes increase, leading to overlapping routes that may not necessarily coincide in time or space, making it challenging for operators to manage them effectively.
Innovation Solution
A navigation system that identifies and displays only the planned routes within a predefined distance of a selected route at a specific point in time within a viewing area on a map, reducing clutter and emphasizing potential conflicts or overlaps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If all planned routes for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles are displayed on a top-down map view, then the operator can see the routes, but the display becomes cluttered and difficult to use when the number of UAVs and route complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into multiple hierarchical levels: a global map view showing all routes, and localized zoomed-in views showing detailed route segments. This segmentation allows the operator to see both the overall picture and specific details without clutter, resolving the contradiction between showing all route information and maintaining display usability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a two-dimensional top-down map view to a three-dimensional perspective that includes altitude information. By displaying routes in multiple dimensions (horizontal position and altitude), the system can show overlapping routes more clearly, distinguishing between routes that overlap on the map versus those that are separated vertically, thus reducing perceived clutter while preserving complete route information.
2Productivity
If the number of unmanned aerial vehicles increases, then the operator can manage more vehicles, but the display complexity and difficulty of managing the vehicles increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and highlights only the critical information relevant to route overlaps and potential conflicts, separating this from the complete set of route data. By taking out and emphasizing only the necessary information (routes within a threshold distance of each other), the system enables management of more UAVs without proportionally increasing display complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The display dynamically adapts to the number of UAVs and routes being managed. When multiple routes are present, the system automatically adjusts by showing only relevant overlapping routes, using dynamic filtering and selective display. This dynamic behavior allows the interface to remain manageable regardless of the total number of UAVs, supporting higher productivity without linearly increasing complexity.
3Device complexity
If routes are displayed in a top-down view, then the layout is simple, but routes that overlap in the display may not coincide in time or space, making it challenging to identify actual conflicts
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses color coding to encode additional information about routes, such as altitude levels and time of passage. Routes that overlap on the map but occur at different times or altitudes are displayed with different colors or visual indicators, allowing operators to quickly distinguish between actual conflicts and mere spatial overlaps. This maintains simple display layout while significantly improving conflict detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary computational layer that processes route data to identify and highlight only those routes that represent actual conflicts (overlapping in both space and time). This intermediary filtering mechanism mediates between the simple top-down display and the complex task of conflict detection, automatically identifying and emphasizing true conflicts while suppressing false positives from the basic map view.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for assisting in management of unmanned aerial vehicles. Planned routes are identified for the unmanned aerial vehicles. The planned routes are displayed on a map. A set of planned routes is identified that is within a predefined distance of a selected planned route during substantially a same point in time within a viewing area on the map.