US 12,325,521 B2
Drone-based payload management
Patrick Soon-Shiong, Los Angeles, CA (US); John Wiacek, Culver City, CA (US); and Nicholas J. Witchey, Laguna Hills, CA (US)
Assigned to Nant Holdings IP, LLC, Culver City, CA (US)
Filed by Nant Holdings IP, LLC, Culver City, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 13, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/946,285.
Application 18/946,285 is a continuation of application No. 18/465,874, filed on Sep. 12, 2023, granted, now 12,221,214.
Prior Publication US 2025/0083816 A1, Mar. 13, 2025
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B64D 1/16 (2006.01); B64U 10/16 (2023.01); B64U 20/70 (2023.01); B64U 101/45 (2023.01)
CPC B64D 1/16 (2013.01) [B64U 10/16 (2023.01); B64U 20/70 (2023.01); B64U 2101/45 (2023.01); B64U 2201/10 (2023.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A drone-based payload management system comprising:
at least one drone having a first payload bay and a second payload bay; and
a drone controller coupled with the first and second payload bays and comprising at least one processor and at least one non-transitory computer readable memory storing software instructions executable by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a location of the at least one drone while the at least one drone is deployed;
determining a ground attribute value of a ground surface associated with the location;
deriving, based on the ground attribute value, a payload ratio of a first amount of a first payload relative to a second amount of a second payload;
causing the first and second payload bays to release the first amount of the first payload and the second amount of the second payload respectively according to the payload ratio;
determining a dispersion of one or both of the first and second payloads on the ground surface, the dispersion being an area of actual payload delivery on the ground surface where the one or both of the first and second payloads has been delivered; and
adjusting subsequent releases of one or both of the first and second payloads based on the determined dispersion.