Command and control of unmanned vehicles using cellular and IP mesh technologies for data convergence

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• determining, by an unmanned vehicle using an internet protocol mesh hardware module, whether a peer unmanned vehicle is within a predetermined physical distance from the unmanned vehicle to enable creation of a mesh network for network communications between the unmanned vehicle and the peer unmanned vehicle, wherein the unmanned vehicle includes the internet protocol mesh hardware module and a cellular gateway hardware module;
• determining, by the unmanned vehicle using the cellular gateway hardware module, whether the unmanned vehicle can connect to a cellular network;
• determining, using the available networks, a communications path between the unmanned vehicle and a control system that is not a peer unmanned vehicle, that is a separate system from the unmanned vehicle, and which generates navigation commands for the unmanned vehicle;
• creating, using the communications path between the unmanned vehicle and the control system, a network connection with the control system to allow the unmanned vehicle to receive navigation commands from the control system, wherein creating the network connection with the control system comprises creating an encrypted network connection with the control system for use during all network communications with the control system;
• receiving, from the control system via the network connection, navigation commands by receiving, from the control system via the encrypted network connection, encrypted data that includes the navigation commands;
• decrypting the encrypted data to determine the navigation commands;
• and
• using the navigation commands to control movement of the unmanned vehicle.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• determining, by the data processing apparatus using an internet protocol mesh module, whether a peer unmanned vehicle is within a predetermined physical distance from an unmanned vehicle that includes the data processing apparatus to enable creation of a mesh network for network communications between the unmanned vehicle and the peer unmanned vehicle, wherein the unmanned vehicle includes the internet protocol mesh module and a cellular gateway module;
• determining, by the data processing apparatus using the cellular gateway module, whether the unmanned vehicle can connect to a cellular network;
• determining, by the data processing apparatus using the available networks, a communications path between the unmanned vehicle and a control system that includes one or more computers separate from the unmanned vehicle, that is not a peer unmanned vehicle, and which generates navigation commands for the unmanned vehicle;
• creating, by the data processing apparatus using the communications path between the unmanned vehicle and the control system, a network connection with the control system to allow the unmanned vehicle to receive navigation commands from the control system;
• providing, to the control system using the network connection, current location data for the unmanned vehicle;
• receiving, by the data processing apparatus from the control system via the network connection, navigation commands the control system generated using the current location data for the unmanned vehicle, data from an external source, and a mission path for the unmanned vehicle;
• and
• in response to receiving the navigation commands, changing, by the data processing apparatus, a current path of the unmanned vehicle using the received navigation commands.