US 11,945,582 B2
Coordinating an aerial search among unmanned aerial vehicles
Syed Mohammad Ali, Leander, TX (US); Lowell L Duke, Austin, TX (US); Zehra Akbar, Leander, TX (US); Syed Mohammad Amir Husain, Georgetown, TX (US); and Taylor R. Schmidt, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to SKYGRID, LLC, Austin, TX (US)
Filed by SKYGRID, LLC, Austin, TX (US)
Filed on Mar. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/208,565.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/002,689, filed on Mar. 31, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0300555 A1, Sep. 30, 2021
Int. Cl. B64C 39/02 (2023.01); B64U 101/00 (2023.01); G08G 5/00 (2006.01)
CPC B64C 39/024 (2013.01) [G08G 5/0008 (2013.01); G08G 5/0013 (2013.01); G08G 5/0043 (2013.01); G08G 5/0069 (2013.01); B64U 2101/00 (2023.01); B64U 2201/102 (2023.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for coordinating an aerial search among unmanned aerial vehicles, the method comprising:
receiving from a device, by a server in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) transportation ecosystem, search area data including a set of global positioning system (GPS) coordinates, a type of UAV, and a time limit;
generating, by the server based on the set of GPS coordinates, a search area polygon;
determining, by the server, that vertices of the search area polygon define two or more monotone polygons;
partitioning, by the server, the search area polygon into two or more monotonic partitions in accordance with the two or more monotone polygons;
determining, by the server, a total number of UAVs needed to complete a sweep search of the two or more monotonic partitions within the time limit based on UAV parameters of the type of UAV, wherein the UAV parameters include a maximum speed for the type of UAV, a maximum runtime for the type of UAV, and a power consumption relationship between speed and runtime for the type of UAV;
generating, by the server based on the total number of UAVs needed, UAV route instructions for executing a sweep search path in each of the two more monotonic partitions; and
controlling, by the server, a set of UAVs in performing a coordinated aerial search of the two or more monotonic partitions based on the UAV route instructions, the set of UAVs having the total number of UAVs needed to complete a sweep search of the two or more monotonic partitions within the time limit.