Flight management system for UAVs

A method for managing paths of a plurality of simultaneously flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), based on a 4G protocol or higher, comprising the following steps:

• providing at least one link to a cellular network of said protocol to said UAV while implementing a deterministic quality of service (QoS);
• providing a flight data collection and distribution server (FDCDS) connected via said protocol to a computer on board said vehicle;
• confirming or rejecting a requested flight plan according to
• flight authority regulations;
• flights of other UAVs, based on said data from said plurality of UAVs collected by said FDCDS;
• and
• verification said requested flight plan is in allowed airspaces;
• implementing said confirmed flight plan;
• alerting at least one of said plurality of UAVs of a danger of contention with another of said plurality of UAVs;
• alerting of deviation from a flight path;
• and
• correcting said flight path;
• wherein the method further comprises the steps:
• requesting flight path data selected from the group:
• a 30 flight path, altitude, speed, and bandwidth allocation at a specific time/date;
• said requesting made by said plurality of UAVs while located at any part of their flight path or flight space;
• processing the requested flight path data for checking of no contention with other vehicles or entrance into non allowed spaces;
• sending the result of said checking as confirmation or rejection of requested flight plan;
• storing confirmed flight path parameters with flight information (flight ID details);
• and
• comparing said parameters with actual vehicle flight parameters;
• wherein said method further comprises the step of providing a dedicated virtual network within an infrastructure of said protocol, thereby assuring said deterministic QoS to said plurality of UAVs.

A system for management and communication for a plurality of simultaneously riding unmanned vehicles, based on a cellular communication protocol of 4G or further generation, comprising:

• a plurality of unmanned vehicles equipped for transport control based on said protocol, said unmanned vehicles each carrying on board:
• at least one modem of said protocol;
• at least one on-board antenna connected to said at least one modem for providing uplink, downlink, or both uplink and downlink wireless RF to a network of said protocol;
• a computer (42) connected to said modem and to driving controls or an autopilot of said unmanned vehicle;
• at least one infrastructure of said protocol configured to support sending via uplink and receiving via downlink from and to said plurality of unmanned vehicles, said infrastructure further including at least:
• a base station capable of communicating with plurality of unmanned vehicles along their paths of travel;
• at least one ground antenna in said at least one base station capable of supporting an uplink, downlink, or both to said plurality of unmanned vehicles;
• a control centre to accept navigation related data from said downlink, said at least one control centre further including at least;
• a connection to said infrastructure for obtaining downlink and uplink data;
• a computer, tablet, or smartphone for calculating location of said plurality of unmanned vehicles using at least data from said downlink and/or uplink, and
• a connection to said infrastructure or to a communication network for providing uplink and downlink;
• and
• at least one data collection and distribution server (DCDS) for collecting data from said plurality of unmanned vehicles, from at least one supporting cellular network of said protocol, and from traffic control authorities, wherein said server also distributes data for users who are involved in at least planning of transportation missions;
• said collecting data from said traffic control authorities is performed online, offline, or both online and offline;
• wherein said DCDS is further configured to confirm or reject a requested transport plan according to
• road regulations;
• routes of other unmanned vehicles, based on said data from said plurality of unmanned vehicles collected by said DCDS;
• and
• verification said requested transport plan is on allowed roadways;
• wherein said DCDS is further configured to alert at least one of said plurality of unmanned vehicles of a danger of contention with another of said plurality of unmanned vehicles;
• wherein said system further comprises a dedicated virtual network within said infrastructure;
• and
• wherein said dedicated virtual network is configured to provide a deterministic QoS to said at least one unmanned vehicle.