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US 9,505,494 B1Granted
Enhanced unmanned aerial vehicles for damage inspection
AssigneeAllstate Insurance Company
InventorsClint J. Marlow, Bryan Keith Corder
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for performing insurance damage inspection by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are provided. A computing device may receive a request to inspect a vehicle, the request comprising a location of the vehicle. The computing device may identify a UAV from a plurality of UAVs that is located closest to the location of the vehicle from other UAVs in the plurality of UAVs. The computing device may instruct the UAV to travel to the location of the vehicle. The computing device may instruct the UAV to collect damage information on the vehicle using one or more onboard sensors of the UAV. The computing device may determine an amount of insurance payout to approve for repairs to the vehicle based on the damage information collected by the UAV.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an insurance system server;
- and
- an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in communication with the insurance system server via a network, the UAV further including:
- an energy source to power the UAV;
- a processor;
- and
- memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the UAV to:
- receive, from the insurance system server, an instruction to travel to a location of a real estate property corresponding to a damage incident;
- receive, from the insurance system server, an instruction to collect information on at least one aspect of the real estate property;
- identify one or more onboard sensors of the UAV to collect the information on at least one aspect of the real estate property;
- collect the information on the at least one aspect of the real estate property using the identified one or more onboard sensors;
- identify, based on the collected information on the at least one aspect of the real estate property, a type of damage incurred on the at least one aspect of the real estate property;
- receive, from the insurance system server, an instruction to deliver a payment to an insurance policyholder associated with the real estate property for the identified type of damage;
- and
- deliver the payment to the insurance policyholder.
12 more elements
A system comprising:
- an insurance system server having a first processor, a communication interface and a first memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the insurance system server to:
- identify a real estate property to be inspected;
- identify an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a plurality of UAV's, the identified UAV having a location within a predefined proximity of a location of the real estate property to be inspected;
- and
- transmit, to the UAV, an instruction to collect information about a condition of the real estate property using one or more onboard sensors of a plurality of onboard sensors of the UAV;
- and
- the UAV in communication with the insurance system server via a network, the UAV further including:
- an energy source to power the UAV;
- at least a second processor;
- and
- at least a second memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least a second processor, cause the UAV to:
- receive the instruction to collect information about the condition of the real estate property;
- identify at least one onboard sensor of the plurality of onboard sensors of the UAV to collect each different type of a plurality of different types of information about the condition of the real estate property;
- collect, via the identified at least one onboard sensor to collect each different type of the plurality of different types of information, the different types of information about the condition of the real estate property;
- and
- transmit, to the insurance system server, the collected different types of information about the condition of the real estate property;
- the insurance system server further including instructions that, when executed, cause the insurance system server to:
- receive, from the UAV, the different types of information collected by the one or more onboard sensors;
- determine an insurance underwriting decision based on the plurality of different types of information captured by the UAV;
- and
- transmit an instruction to the UAV to deliver the insurance underwriting decision;
- the UAV further including instructions that, when executed, cause the UAV to:
- deliver the insurance underwriting decision.
20 more elements
A system comprising:
- an insurance system server having a first processor, a communication interface and a first memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the insurance system server to:
- receive, at a first time, first information about a condition of a real estate property of an insurance policyholder;
- determine an insurance risk associated with the real estate property based on the first information;
- transmit an instruction to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to collect second information about the condition of the real estate property at a second time, wherein the UAV is instructed to collect information associated with the determined insurance risk;
- and
- the UAV in communication with the insurance system server via a network, the UAV further including:
- an energy source to power the UAV;
- at least a second processor;
- and
- at least a second memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least a second processor, cause the UAV to:
- receive the instruction to collect the second information;
- identify at least one onboard sensor of a plurality of onboard sensors to collect the second information;
- collect the second information;
- and
- transmit the collected second information to the insurance system server;
- the insurance system server further including instructions that, when executed, cause the insurance system server to:
- determine a payment amount that the insurance policyholder is eligible to receive for the real estate property based on the first information and the second information collected by the UAV;
- transmit the determined payment amount to the UAV and instruct the UAV to deliver the determined payment amount;
- and
- the UAV further including instructions that, when executed, cause the UAV to:
- deliver the payment amount.
18 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.