US 9,809,305 B2Granted

Landing of unmanned aerial vehicles on transportation vehicles for transport

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsDaniel Buchmueller, Scott A. Green, Atishkumar Kalyan, Gur Kimchi

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”) which fly to destinations (e.g., for delivering items) may land on transportation vehicles (e.g., delivery trucks, etc.) for temporary transport. An agreement with the owner of the transportation vehicles (e.g., a shipping carrier) may be made for obtaining consent and determining compensation for landings, and the associated transportation vehicles that are available for landings may be identified by markers on the roof or other identification techniques. The routes of the transportation vehicles may be known and utilized to determine locations where UAVs will land on and take off from the transportation vehicles, and in cases of emergencies (e.g., due to low batteries, mechanical issues, etc.) the UAVs may land on the transportation vehicles for later retrieval.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method to temporarily transport an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) on a transportation vehicle, the method comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, sending instructions to the UAV to begin flying toward a destination of the UAV;
evaluating known routes that a plurality of transportation vehicles are travelling along, wherein the evaluating of each Known route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
selecting the first transportation vehicle for the UAV to land on from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the first transportation vehicle;
not selecting the second transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the second transportation vehicle;
sending instructions to the UAV to fly to a meeting location and to land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during a portion of the known route of the first transportation vehicle to bring the UAV to a departure location that is closer in distance than the meeting location to the destination of the UAV;
sending instructions to the UAV to take off from the first transportation vehicle at the departure location along the known route that the first transportation vehicle continues to travel along;
and
sending instructions to the UAV to fly from the departure location toward the destination of the UAV.

5 more elements

A system for utilizing transportation vehicles for transport, the system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), including:
a propulsion system;
a power module for storing energy with a corresponding energy level, the power module connected to the propulsion system and configured to provide energy to the propulsion system to fly the UAV;
and
a computing system, including:
a processor;
and
a memory coupled to the processor and storing program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to at least:
fly the UAV toward a travel destination for the UAV;
evaluate a known route for each of a plurality of transportation vehicles relative to the travel destination of the UAV, wherein the evaluating of each known route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the travel destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the travel destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
select the first transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles for the UAV to land on to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the first transportation vehicle;
not select the second transportation vehicle from the plurality of transportation vehicles based at least in part on the evaluation of the known route of the second transportation vehicle;
fly the UAV to land on the first transportation vehicle that is traveling alone the respective known route for the first transportation vehicle;
and
remain on the first transportation vehicle for a portion of the known route that will bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination of the UAV.

12 more elements

A computer implemented method, comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, evaluating a route for each of a plurality of transportation vehicles relative to a travel destination of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), wherein the evaluating of each route includes evaluating at least one of a timing factor or an energy savings factor for the travel of the UAV, which includes comparing an expected timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination using each known route to a required timeframe for the UAV to reach the destination, and the plurality of transportation vehicles includes at least a first transportation vehicle and a second transportation vehicle;
selecting the first transportation vehicle for the UAV to land on to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination based at least in part on the evaluation of the route of the first transportation vehicle;
not selecting the second transportation vehicle based at least in part on the evaluation of the route of the second transportation vehicle;
selecting a meeting location that the UAV will fly to and land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during a portion of the route of the first transportation vehicle to bring the UAV closer in distance to the travel destination of the UAV;
and
sending instructions to the UAV to fly to the meeting location and to land on the first transportation vehicle for transport during the portion of the known route of the first transportation vehicle.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.