UAV Traffic Management with Locked Waypoints for Safe Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current air traffic management systems are inadequate for handling large fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as they lack automated and rapid management capabilities, particularly in three-dimensional spaces, and fail to ensure safe separation and navigation planning for multiple UAVs, including during takeoff and landing.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes a central control server generating navigation plans with locked waypoints for exclusive use by UAVs, allowing them to hover until the waypoint is clear and navigate to the next one, ensuring safe separation and emergency landing protocols, using a network of processing circuitry and memory to manage and communicate with multiple UAVs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual coordination of aircraft by a central control tower is used, then traffic management is provided for limited circumstances, but it fails to address the difficulties of management of unmanned vehicles and cannot provide rapid automated management of large fleets
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables unmanned vehicles to autonomously request navigation plans and receive automated responses from the control server without human intervention. The server automatically generates navigation plans with locked waypoints and provides real-time traffic management, eliminating the need for manual coordination while handling large fleets efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical coordination systems with an automated electronic communication system. The control server uses digital communication to exchange navigation requests, locked waypoint data, and traffic management information with unmanned vehicles, enabling rapid automated management instead of human-operated mechanical control.
2Ease of operation
If de-centralized air traffic management solutions are used, then management of air traffic without a central controller is provided, but they fail to address the traffic management requirements posed by large fleets of unmanned vehicles and cannot provide automatic determination of safe takeoff and landing plans
Solution Approach 1:
The control server acts as an intermediary between unmanned vehicles, maintaining a centralized system that provides automated navigation plan generation. The server mediates traffic management by receiving navigation requests, generating plans with locked waypoints, and coordinating between multiple vehicles to ensure safe separation, combining centralized control with automated operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-generating navigation plans with locked waypoints before vehicles execute them. The control server determines safe takeoff and landing plans in advance, locks appropriate waypoints to prevent conflicts, and provides these plans to vehicles before they operate, ensuring safety is established beforehand rather than reactively managed.
3Reliability
If waypoints are locked for exclusive use by UAVs, then safe separation between vehicles is ensured, but navigation efficiency may be reduced due to hovering requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically manages locked waypoints based on real-time traffic conditions. The control server monitors vehicle positions and dynamically adjusts waypoint locking and unlocking timing. Vehicles may be instructed to hover temporarily when waypoints are locked, but the server optimizes these periods to minimize navigation time while maintaining collision prevention through coordinated dynamic control.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for aerial traffic management of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are provided. The method includes receiving at least a navigation request from a first UAV of a plurality of UAVs, wherein the navigation request specifies at least a waypoint; determining whether the waypoint is clear; sending an instruction the first UAV to hover at a specified position until the waypoint is clear, when the received waypoint is not clear; locking the waypoint, when the received waypoint not clear; and instructing the first UAV to navigate to the received waypoint.