Geolocation-based beamforming for drone communication
AssigneeTaiSync Technology, Inc.
InventorYan Li
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System and method of wireless communication in UAV systems that uses geolocation-based beamforming. The antenna array on the transmit device is first calibrated to compensate the random phase errors of the antenna. During operation, the geolocations of the UAV and its remote control and the rotational position of the transmit device are used to determine a beamforming direction. A beamforming vector is selected based on the beamforming direction. The beamformer on the transmit device then beam forms the antenna array such that data or other information can be transmitted to the receive device in the beamforming direction.
Claims20
A method of wireless communication between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a control station (STA), said method comprising:
- accessing first geolocation information and rotational position information of a transmit device;
- at said transmit device, receiving second geolocation information of a receive device transmitted from a first wireless communication channel;
- at said transmit device, determining a beamforming direction based on said first geolocation information and said second geolocation information and further based on said rotational position information of said transmit device;
- and
- transmitting a message from said transmit device to said receive device via said first wireless communication channel by beamforming on an antenna array of said transmit device in said beamforming direction,
- wherein said transmit device is one of of said UAV and said control STA, and wherein further said receive device is one of said control STA and said UAV.
A transmit device for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations, said device comprises:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled to said processor;
- a transceiver coupled to an antenna array;
- a beamformer coupled to said transceiver;
- a Global Positioning System (GPS);
- and
- a set of rotation sensors operable to sense rotational positions of said transmit device,
- wherein said memory comprise instructions that, when executed by said processor, cause said transmit device to perform a method of wireless communication between a UAV and a control station (STA), said method comprising:
- accessing first geolocation information and rotational position information of said transmit device, wherein said first geolocation information is produced by said GPS and wherein said rotational position information is produced by said rotational sensors;
- receiving second geolocation information of a receive device transmitted from a first wireless communication channel;
- determining a beamforming direction based on said first geolocation information and said second geolocation information and further based on said rotational position information of said transmit device;
- and
- transmitting a message from by using said transceiver to said receive device via said first wireless communication channel by beamforming on said antenna array of said transmit device in said beamforming direction,
- wherein said transmit device is one of said UAV and said control STA, and wherein further said receive device is one of said control STA and said UAV.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.