Situation-aware, intelligent data-synchronization methods for uav-inspection applications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system comprising:

• a UAV;
• a ground-based computing device;
• and
• processing circuitry configured to:
• acquire data from one or more sensors on the UAV;
• store the data at a local storage device on the UAV;
• maintain a state machine configured to monitor one or more context states of the UAV system;
• determine, based on the one or more context states, that a current situation of the UAV system meets minimum criteria for transferring the data from the UAV to the ground-based computing device;
• and
• automatically transfer, based on the determination, the data from the UAV to the ground-based computing device.

A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• acquire data from one or more sensors on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of a UAV system;
• store the data at a local storage device on the UAV;
• maintain a state machine configured to monitor one or more context states of the UAV system;
• determine, based on the one or more context states, that a current situation of the UAV system meets minimum criteria for transferring data from a UAV to a ground-based computing device;
• and
• automatically transfer, based on the determination, the data from the UAV to the ground-based computing device.