Waypoint directory in air traffic control systems for passenger drones and unmanned aerial vehicles
AssigneeETAK Systems, LLC
InventorLee Priest
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods include communicating with a plurality of passenger drones via one or more wireless networks comprising at least one cellular network; receiving updates related to an obstruction status of each of a plurality of waypoints from a plurality of passenger drones, wherein the plurality of waypoints are defined over a geographic region under control of the ATC system; and managing flight paths, landing, and take-off of the plurality of passenger drones in the geographic region based on the obstruction status of each of the plurality of waypoints, wherein the plurality of waypoints each comprise a latitude and longitude coordinate defining a point about which an area is defined for covering a portion of the geographic region.
Claims20
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to perform steps of:
- communicating with a plurality of passenger drones via one or more wireless networks comprising at least one cellular network;
- and
- managing flight paths, landing, and take-off of the plurality of passenger drones in the geographic region based on the obstruction status of each of the plurality of waypoints,
- wherein the plurality of waypoints each comprise a latitude and longitude coordinate.
An Air Traffic Control (ATC) system for passenger drones using waypoint management, the ATC system comprising:
- a network interface and one or more processors communicatively coupled to one another, wherein the network interface is communicatively coupled to a plurality of passenger drones via one or more wireless networks;
- an obstruction database comprising a data structure for each of the plurality of waypoints defining a unique identifier of a location and the obstruction status, and wherein the obstruction status comprises one of clear, obstructed, and unknown;
- and
- memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to
- communicate with a plurality of passenger drones via one or more wireless networks comprising at least one cellular network;
- and
- manage flight paths, landing, and take-off of the plurality of passenger drones in the geographic region based on the obstruction status of each of the plurality of waypoints.
A waypoint management method for an Air Traffic Control (ATC) system passenger drones, the waypoint management method comprising:
- communicating with a plurality of passenger drones via one or more wireless networks comprising at least one cellular network;
- managing flight paths, landing, and take-off of the plurality of passenger drones in the geographic region based on the obstruction status of each of the plurality of waypoints;
- and
- scoring each passenger drone's updates for the plurality of waypoints to determine reliability and accuracy of the updates.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.