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US 10,472,091 B2Granted
Method and apparatus using a drone to input vehicle data
AssigneeADESA, Inc.
InventorJames Michael Irish
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle is operated to utilize one or more tools included in an attachment assembly to obtain state measurements on an object being analyzed by the unmanned aerial vehicle. The attachment assembly can include one or more of a digital camera for capturing a digital image (or a series of images), a color meter for measuring a paint color, a thermographic camera for measuring infrared radiation, an electronic nose device for measuring odors, or an electronic distance measuring device for measuring a distance between objects. An operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle is then modified based on the obtained state measurements.
Claims25
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:
- a network interface configured to communicate with a command server;
- an attachment assembly;
- a memory configured to store UAV operational commands;
- and
- a processor in communication with the memory and configured to execute the UAV operational commands to:
- control at least one attachment assembly to obtain one or more observations regarding a vehicle indicative of vehicle identification associated with the vehicle;
- control the network interface to transmit to the command server the one or more observations regarding the vehicle indicative of vehicle identification associated with the vehicle;
- receive, through the network interface from the command server, at least one modified operational command, the at least one modified operational command comprising a vehicle control command from a command server, the vehicle control command, when executed by the vehicle, configured to cause the vehicle to perform an action;
- store the vehicle control command in the memory;
- transmit, to the vehicle, the vehicle control command for execution by the vehicle;
- and
- responsive to transmitting the vehicle control command to the vehicle in order for the vehicle to execute the vehicle control command and thereby perform the action, receive information with regard to the action performed by the vehicle in order to determine at least one aspect of the action of the vehicle.
9 more elements
A command server, comprising:
- a network interface configured to communicate with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a vehicle information server;
- a memory configured to store UAV operational commands;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- communicate with the network interface and the memory;
- transmit, through the network interface, a UAV operational command to the UAV, the UAV operational command indicative to the UAV to control an attachment assembly on the UAV obtain one or more observations associated with a vehicle, the one or more observations being indicative of vehicle identification associated with the vehicle;
- receive, from the UAV through the network interface, the one or more observations obtained by the attachment assembly, the one or more observations being indicative of the vehicle identification associated with the vehicle;
- store the one or more observations, including the vehicle identification associated with the vehicle, obtained by the attachment assembly in the memory;
- compare the vehicle identification associated with the vehicle obtained by the UAV with predetermined vehicle identification of a target vehicle;
- responsive to determining, based on the comparison, that the vehicle identification associated with the vehicle obtained by the UAV matches the predetermined vehicle identification of the target vehicle, transmit, through the network interface to the UAV, a vehicle control command, the vehicle control command indicative to the target vehicle to perform an action;
- and
- responsive to transmitting the vehicle control command to the UAV, receive, from the UAV through the network interface, information with regard to the action performed by the target vehicle in order to determine at least one aspect of the action of the target vehicle.
9 more elements
A command server comprising:
- a network interface configured to communicate with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a vehicle information server;
- a memory configured to store UAV operational commands;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- communicate with the network interface and the memory;
- transmit, through the network interface, UAV operational commands to the UAV, the UAV operational commands including operational commands for controlling an attachment assembly to obtain state observations, wherein the UAV operational commands include operational commands for controlling a digital camera in the attachment assembly to capture a digital image, and further include operational commands for the UAV to travel to a target vehicle location corresponding to a target vehicle;
- receive, through the network interface, the state observations obtained by the attachment assembly;
- store the state observations in the memory;
- compare the state observations to the UAV operational commands;
- when the state observations match an actionable item UAV operational command included in the UAV operational commands based on the comparison, determine an actionable item is recognized;
- transmit, through the network interface, the actionable item UAV operational command to the UAV that describes the actionable item;
- modify the UAV operational commands to accommodate the actionable item;
- transmit, through the network interface, the modified UAV operational commands to the UAV;
- apply image recognition analysis to the digital image;
- identify a vehicle identifier in the digital image based on the image recognition analysis;
- determine whether the vehicle identifier corresponds to a target vehicle described to be located at the target vehicle location;
- in response to determining the vehicle identifier corresponds to the target vehicle, transmit a vehicle un-lock code to the UAV;
- and
- receive, through the network interface, target vehicle un-lock confirmation from the UAV.
16 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.