Fleet management of unmanned aerial vehicles and flight authorization system

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:

• a non-volatile memory storing operational status data and a plurality of operational state flags;
• a communication interface configured to receive a flight plan including navigation information and associated authorization information generated by an external computer system;
• and
• one or more processors configured to:
• verify that the authorization information is valid and that the UAV is identified in the authorization information,
• determine, based on the operational status data persistently stored in the non-volatile memory of the UAV, whether the operational state flags are in operational settings indicating compliance with predefined readiness conditions, the operational state flags including at least a maintenance-status flag, a pre-flight checklist flag, a flight-hour limit flag, and a flight-permission flag indicating whether the UAV may be flown or otherwise navigated, wherein the authorization information sets or modifies one or more of the operational state flags, and wherein the flight-permission flag is placed in an operational setting upon satisfaction of the maintenance-status flag, the pre-flight-checklist flag, and the flight-hour-limit flag,
• perform the determination locally on the UAV prior to enabling propulsion or autonomous flight control,
• in response to the verifying and determining being affirmative, transition the UAV from a non-operational mode to an operational mode, and
• control autonomous navigation of the UAV according to the flight plan within a geofence specified in the navigation information.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), cause the UAV to:

• receive a flight plan including navigation information and associated authorization information generated by an external computer system;
• verify that the authorization information is valid and that the UAV is identified in the authorization information;
• determine, based on operational status data persistently stored in non-volatile memory of the UAV, whether a plurality of operational state flags maintained in the non-volatile memory of the UAV are in operational settings indicating compliance with predefined readiness conditions, the plurality of operational state flags including at least a maintenance status flag, a pre-flight checklist flag, a flight-hour limit flag, and a flight-permission flag indicating whether the UAV may be flown or otherwise navigated, wherein the authorization information sets or modifies one or more of the plurality of operational state flags, and wherein the flight-permission flag is placed in an operational setting upon satisfaction of the maintenance-status flag, the pre-flight checklist flag, and the flight-hour-limit flag;
• perform the determination locally on the UAV prior to enabling propulsion or autonomous flight control;
• in response to the verification and determination being affirmative, transition the UAV from a non-operational mode to an operational mode;
• and
• autonomously navigate the UAV according to the flight plan within a geofence specified in the navigation information.