Unmanned aerial vehicle assisted positioning
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorGaviphat Lekutai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques for improving a vehicles access to GPS signals are discussed herein. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) may be configured to communicate with the vehicle, such as a V2X capable vehicle, and provide GPS line of sight connection to a GPS satellite, thereby avoiding any blocking issues while maintaining accurate positioning of the vehicle on the ground. Short-range communications (e.g., Wi-Fi, PC5, unicast, etc.) may be used to provide the connectivity between the vehicle and the UAV. In some cases, a vehicle may drive into a designated area and the UAV and/or the vehicle may initiate connectivity with the other and start UAV assisted positioning services within the designated area.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- monitoring, by a first UAV, a predefined area;
- determining, at the first UAV, that a vehicle has entered the predefined area;
- establishing communication between the first UAV and with the vehicle;
- receiving, at the first UAV, global position system (GPS) data associated with the vehicle via the communication;
- determining, at the first UAV, that the vehicle has left the predefined area based at least on the GPS data;
- sending, by the first UAV, a transmission to a second UAV instructing the second UAV to communicate with the vehicle after the vehicle has left the predefined area;
- and
- returning the first UAV to an initial position in response to determining that the vehicle has left the predefined area.
A first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- memory storing instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- monitoring, by a first UAV, a predefined area;
- determining, at the first UAV, that a vehicle has entered the predefined area;
- establishing communication between the first UAV and with the vehicle;
- receiving, at the first UAV, first global position system (GPS) data associated with the vehicle via the communication;
- determining, at the first UAV, that the vehicle has left the predefined area based at least on the GPS data;
- sending, by the first UAV, a transmission to a second UAV instructing the second UAV to communicate with the vehicle after the vehicle has left the predefined area;
- and
- returning the first UAV to an initial position in response to determining that the vehicle has left the predefined area.
A method performed by a computing device comprising:
- monitoring, by the computing device, a predefined area;
- determining, at the computing device, that a vehicle has entered the predefined area;
- sending an instruction to a first UAV to establish communication between the first UAV and the vehicle;
- receiving, at the computing device, first global position system (GPS) data associated with the vehicle via the communication;
- determining, at the computing device, that the vehicle has left the predefined area based at least on the GPS data;
- sending, by the computing device, a transmission to a second UAV instructing the second UAV to communicate with the vehicle after the vehicle has left the predefined area;
- and
- sending, by the computing device, an instruction to return the first UAV to an initial position in response to determining that the vehicle has left the predefined area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.