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US 12,637,238 B2Granted
Autonomous drone battery management
AssigneeBrookhurst Garage, Inc.
InventorsYoung Joon Kim, Wonjae Lee, Kyuhwan Sim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments relate to a drone and a base station. The drone is adapted to navigate a storage site and carry a swappable battery. The base station is adapted to receive the drone to perform a battery swap. As such, the base station may include charging ports to recharge the swappable battery and may be adapted to predict a return timing of the drone, charge a battery to a level in anticipation of the return timing, and subsequent to the drone returning to the base station, swapping the battery of the drone with the charged battery.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an autonomous drone adapted to navigate a warehouse environment, the autonomous drone carrying a swappable first battery;
- a base station for receiving the autonomous drone to perform a battery swap, the base station carrying a plurality of batteries and comprising a plurality of charging ports to recharge a plurality of idle batteries, an idle battery being a battery that has a state of charge below a threshold battery requirement;
- and
- a computing device in communication with the base station, the computing device adapted to extend battery lives of the plurality of batteries by planning a charging schedule of the plurality of batteries, the computing device adapted to:
- receive a planned path of the autonomous drone;
- determine an estimated duration of operation of the autonomous drone based on the planned path, wherein the estimated duration is determined using a machine learning model that predict the estimated duration based on historical paths and path metadata;
- determine that the estimated duration of operation requires a plurality of instances of battery swapping, each instance of battery swapping comprising an exchange of a battery carried by the autonomous drone with a battery pre-charged by the base station;
- determine a number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- determine the charging schedule based on the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- causing the base station to charge the plurality of batteries from an idle state to a state of charge above the threshold battery requirement in anticipation of the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- and
- causing the base station to swap the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with one of the plurality of batteries subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station as a first instance of battery swapping among the plurality of instances.
9 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving a planned path of an autonomous drone, the autonomous drone carrying a swappable first battery and is chargeable at a base station that carries a plurality of batteries;
- determining an estimated duration of operation of the autonomous drone based on the planned path for extending battery lives of the plurality of batteries by planning a charging schedule of the plurality of batteries, wherein the estimated duration is determined using a machine learning model that predict the estimated duration based on historical paths and path metadata;
- determining that the estimated duration of operation requires a plurality of instances of battery swapping, each instance of battery swapping comprising an exchange of a battery carried by the autonomous drone with a battery pre-charged by the base station;
- determining a number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- determining the charging schedule based on the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- charging, at the base station for receiving the autonomous drone, the plurality of batteries from an idle state to a state of charge above a threshold battery requirement in anticipation of the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping, wherein the base station comprises a plurality of charging ports to recharge a plurality of idle batteries, an idle battery being a battery that has a state of charge below the threshold battery requirement;
- and
- swapping the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with one of the plurality of batteries subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station as a first instance of battery swapping among the plurality of instances.
5 more elements
A base station for receiving an autonomous drone to perform a battery swap, the autonomous drone adapted to navigate a warehouse environment and carrying a swappable first battery, the base station comprising:
- a plurality of charging ports to recharge a plurality of idle batteries, an idle battery being a battery that has a state of charge below a threshold battery requirement;
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memories storing one or more sets of instructions for extend battery lives of a plurality of batteries by planning a charging schedule of the plurality of batteries, the one or more sets of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- receive a planned path of the autonomous drone;
- determine an estimated duration of operation of the autonomous drone based on the planned path, wherein the estimated duration is determined using a machine learning model that predict the estimated duration based on historical paths and path metadata;
- determine that the estimated duration of operation requires a plurality of instances of battery swapping, each instance of battery swapping comprising an exchange of a battery carried by the autonomous drone with a battery pre-charged by the base station;
- determine a number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- determine the charging schedule based on the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- causing the base station to charge the plurality of batteries from an idle state to a state of charge above the threshold battery requirement in anticipation of the number of batteries required to complete the plurality of instances of battery swapping;
- and
- causing the base station to swap the first battery carried by the autonomous drone with one of the plurality of batteries subsequent to the autonomous drone returning to the base station as a first instance of battery swapping among the plurality of instances.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.