US 12,694,782 B1Granted

Drone crossing arm for stopping wrong-way vehicles

OwnerJames P. Bradleyinventor

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Abstract

A computerized roadway safety system, method, and apparatus are provided for preventing wrong-way collisions on roadways and exit ramps of roadways by maintaining robotic drones at a drone docking station; monitoring the exit ramp with sensors to detect a wrong-way vehicle that enters the exit ramp in a wrong direction; transmitting a wrong-way vehicle detection signal from the sensors upon detecting the wrong-way vehicle; and launching a plurality of robotic drones in response to the wrong-way vehicle detection signal to fly to a position over the exit ramp in front of the wrong-way vehicle, where the plurality of robotic drones automatically hover in a linear formation and at a predetermined distance above the exit ramp to form a crossing arm barrier in front of the wrong-way vehicle to block forward movement of the wrong-way vehicle.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method for stopping wrong way vehicles on a roadway, comprising:

continuously monitoring an exit ramp of a roadway with one or more sensors positioned at an exit end of the exit ramp to promptly detect when any wrong-way vehicle enters the exit end of the exit ramp from a wrong direction;
transmitting a wrong-way vehicle detection signal from the one or more sensors to a computerized roadway safety system upon detecting a wrong-way vehicle entered the exit ramp from the wrong direction;
maintaining a drone docking station that is located within a range of the exit ramp and that houses a plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones that are controlled by the computerized roadway safety system;
launching, in response to the wrong-way vehicle detection signal, a plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones from the drone docking station to fly to a position over the exit ramp in front of the wrong-way vehicle, where the plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones automatically hover in a linear formation and at a predetermined distance above the exit ramp to form a crossing arm barrier in front of the wrong-way vehicle to block forward movement of the wrong-way vehicle;
and
activating light sources on the plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones that project laser light beams to enhance a visual appearance of the crossing arm barrier formed by the plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones while hovering above the exit ramp, where the laser light beams comprise one or more laser light beams between adjacent drones in the plurality of preprogrammed robotic drones.

3 more elements

A roadway safety system, comprising:

one or more sensors connected and configured to continuously monitor a roadway to detect when any wrong-way vehicle that travels on the roadway in a wrong direction;
a vehicle detection and drone control system connected to said one or more sensors to detect a wrong-way vehicle and generate a wrong-way vehicle detection signal;
and
a plurality of battery-powered eVTOL drones which are programmed to respond to the wrong-way vehicle detection signal by flying to a position over the roadway in front of the wrong-way vehicle and to hover in a linear formation and at a predetermined distance above the roadway to form a crossing arm barrier in front of the wrong-way vehicle to block forward movement of the wrong-way vehicle, where each drone in the plurality of battery-powered eVTOL drones comprises one or more laser beam generators that are activated to enhance a visual appearance of the crossing arm barrier formed by the plurality of battery-powered eVTOL drones while hovering above the roadway, where the one or more laser beam generators at each drone are configured and controlled to illuminate an adjacent drone from the plurality of battery-powered eVTOL drones which is flying in the linear formation.

1 more element

An autonomous drone device, comprising:

a first radio frequency transceiver device configured to receive a wrong-way vehicle detection signal from a drone controller;
a second radio frequency transceiver device configured to communicate with one or more additional autonomous drone devices;
a plurality of light sources that project laser light beams;
and
one or more processing devices and one or more computer readable memories for storing operational program code instructions for execution by the one or more processing devices, the operational program code instructions comprising:
program instructions to detect, at the first radio frequency transceiver device, the wrong-way vehicle detection signal from the drone controller;
program instructions to launch the autonomous drone device to fly to a position over a roadway in front of the wrong-way vehicle;
program instructions to communicate with the one or more additional autonomous drone devices through the second radio frequency transceiver device to coordinate positioning of the autonomous drone device and one or more additional autonomous drone devices to hover in a linear formation and at a predetermined distance above the roadway to form a crossing arm barrier in front of the wrong-way vehicle to block forward movement of the wrong-way vehicle;
and
program instructions to activate the plurality of light sources to project laser light beams to enhance a visual appearance of the crossing arm barrier, where the laser light beams comprise one or more laser light beams that are projected onto one or more adjacent autonomous drone devices in the one or more additional autonomous drone devices.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.