UAV Virtual Wall Mapping for No-Fly Zone Boundary Avoidance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Remote controlled aerial vehicles (UAVs) face challenges in navigating around no-fly zones (NFZs) without explicit user input, as users may not be aware of NFZ boundaries or their proximity to virtual walls, leading to potential collisions.
Innovation Solution
The UAV is equipped with a flight controller that determines its geographic location and velocity, calculates the distance to the closest NFZ segment, and adjusts speed and thrust to avoid virtual walls by overriding user input, using a navigation engine, distance evaluation engine, and virtual wall behavior engine to autonomously navigate around NFZs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the UAV autonomously navigates around no-fly zones by overriding user input, then safety and operational reliability are improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to reduced user control
Solution Approach 1:
The flight controller serves as an intermediary between the user input and the UAV's flight control system. It receives user inputs through the user interface, evaluates them against no-fly zone boundaries using the distance evaluation engine, and only executes commands that do not violate NFZ constraints. This intermediary layer protects safety while preserving user control within acceptable boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the UAV's geographic location using the navigation engine and calculates real-time distance to NFZ boundaries through the distance evaluation engine. This feedback loop provides the flight controller with up-to-date information about proximity to no-fly zones, enabling dynamic adjustment of user inputs to prevent boundary violations while maintaining operational awareness.
2Reliability
If the flight controller continuously monitors location and calculates distance to NFZ segments, then navigation safety is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional computational requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The no-fly zone boundaries are divided into discrete segments or vertices that can be individually processed. The distance evaluation engine calculates distances to these segmented boundary points rather than treating the entire NFZ as a single complex geometric entity. This segmentation reduces computational complexity while maintaining accurate distance measurement for safety decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs distance calculations only for the closest relevant NFZ segment to the current UAV position, rather than computing distances to all possible boundary segments. This partial action approach focuses computational resources on the most critical safety assessment, reducing overall computational requirements while maintaining navigation safety.
Data Source
AI summary
An unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), the UAV including an electronic speed controller and a flight controller. The electric speed controller is interfaced with thrust motors of the UAV. The flight controller is configured to: determine a geographic location and a velocity of the UAV. The flight controller configured to: determine a distance between the geographic location of the UAV and a closest segment of a no-fly-zone. The flight controller in response to the distance being less than a threshold distance, control a speed and thrust applied by the thrust motors through the electric speed controller to reduce both the first component and the second component of the velocity of the UAV based on the distance. The flight controller configured to: override a user input received via a user interface so that the UAV is moved relative to the closest segment of a no-fly-zone according to instructions from the flight controller.