RU2788046C1 - Method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: air traffic control.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network. To monitor air traffic, information is exchanged on the basis of a distributed, peer-to-peer, self-organizing network with a mesh topology, where UAVs are considered as network nodes and can act as repeaters, transmitting information to other traffic participants or to a ground control and surveillance point. The transmitted information includes identification data, parameters of its position and movement, environmental parameters. The ground control point processes the information received to determine the presence of dangerous areas for each UAV and issues warning messages or evasion recommendations if any.

EFFECT: flight safety is improved.

4 cl, 1 dwg

Description

Technical field

The claimed invention relates to the field of air traffic control systems/methods for unmanned aerial vehicles (hereinafter referred to as UAVs) and can be used to monitor and control UAV air traffic.

State of the art

From the prior art there is known a method of organizing air traffic with the formation of the principles of artificial intelligence for safe joint flights of manned and unmanned aircraft in common airspace (see Patent RU 2750509 dated 29.06.221). To organize air traffic for each regional center, a single information field is formed using automated airborne and ground-based software systems that manage and control manned and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). To carry out UAS flights, they are registered in the database with a registration number assigned, their technical condition is recorded, and an application is submitted for a specific flight. In each of the regional control centers, in the area of responsibility of which the UAS flight is carried out, they receive information characterizing the current technical condition and traffic of the UAS flight, compare it with the agreed flight parameters, identify deviations from the authorized flight, and, based on the results of the analysis, make a decision to continue the flight or its termination. EFFECT: increased safety of flights of manned and unmanned aircraft in the common airspace. Information is transmitted either directly from the UAS, or, in the absence of direct visibility with it, by retransmission through other UAS located in the zone of direct control of this regional center, when the UAS passes into the zone of control of another regional center, control is transferred to this regional center, and also transmitted to this region all UAS flight and technical information for inclusion in the information field of this regional center, in addition, they additionally calculate the current flight traffic parameters of other UAS from Doppler measurements, which are relayed via communication channels to ground air traffic control services, if necessary, change route during the flight, UAS generates a corresponding request online, which is automatically processed and analyzed for the possibility of its implementation, taking into account the traffic of all aircraft in the control area of this regional center, and give recommendations for changing the route, at the same time, the information field is adjusted for all UAS located in the flight zone, and in an emergency, the regional center automatically changes the information field of all UAS, changes are subject to strict implementation.

A known method of controlling one or more unmanned aerial vehicles in the airspace (see patent US10505622 dated 12/10/2019), including determining the flight zone in the airspace for UAVs; determination for the UAV in the airspace of the established regulated flight zone; updating the outer boundary of the flight zone established by the regulations at least once during the operation of the UAV; initiation of a fail-safe protocol when crossing the external border and notification of a collision with a UAV. The invention provides a platform that functions as a "Virtual Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Radar System" (DVRS).

The closest in technical essence to the claimed method is a security system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (see patent US10586462 dated March 10, 2020), which ensures the safe flight of the UAV in airspace, initiating various actions depending on the position of the UAV relative to one or more flight zones and / or relative to another aircraft in the airspace. The invention provides a platform that functions as a "virtual unmanned aerial vehicle radar system" (DVRS) that can be integrated with existing UAVs, making them visible to civil aviation in the event of a UAV flight control malfunction or when the drone poses a potential hazard to a manned aircraft. The DVRS monitors the real-time status and speed of the drone it is mounted on. In additional embodiments of the invention, DVRS allows UAVs located in close proximity to each other to connect in a wireless peer-to-peer network. One of the drones in the network can be designated as the master node (or "master drone"), and in the event that a civilian aircraft deviates too close to the network drones, the master drone can initiate a collision warning on behalf of the network.

The disadvantages of the methods described above include the transmission of data only on the parameters of its movement, the lack of transmission of environmental observation data and the absence of an individualized account of hazards for each UAV.

Distinctive characteristics of the proposed method:

- transmission of environmental monitoring data, and not just UAV movement parameters;

- dynamic assessment of environmental hazards based on intelligent processing of 4D observation data from the UAV;

- individualized account of dangers for each UAV;

- dynamic warning of the UAV about the dangers of the external environment.

Disclosure of invention

To ensure the efficient and safe operation of UAVs, an accurate knowledge of the weather, and in particular wind conditions, is essential because UAVs are small lightweight structures that are very vulnerable to wind, precipitation and icing conditions. Accurate knowledge of weather conditions is especially important at low altitudes, when wind speed and direction can change dramatically, and numerical weather model data have poor spatial and temporal resolution and lack accuracy at low altitudes.

In particular, studies show that the energy efficiency of UAV delivery can be significantly reduced due to the influence of wind factors: UAV energy costs can be 3-10 times higher than the energy needs of electric vehicles in conditions of medium and high wind speeds. Therefore, to determine the effectiveness of the use of UAVs, it is necessary to accurately measure wind conditions and optimize flight schedules, routes, and profiles.

In this regard, in the method of monitoring the air situation, it is proposed to consider UAVs not only as sources of data on air traffic, but also as mobile sensors of atmospheric parameters, primarily wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, and pressure.

The objective of the proposed invention is to create a method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network.

The technical result of the proposed invention is to ensure safe flights of manned and unmanned aircraft in the general airspace.

The invention is illustrated in FIG. 1.

To achieve the task and the specified technical result, it is proposed to create a method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network, which consists in the fact that the method of exchanging information between UAVs, between a separate UAV and its ground control point, as well as between a separate UAV and a ground-based air traffic monitoring center based on a distributed, peer-to-peer, self-organizing network with mesh topology, in which UAVs are considered as network nodes and can act as repeaters, transmitting information about other UAVs to other air traffic participants, as well as to ground control and surveillance points, with In this case, the transmitted information is of a specialized nature: UAV identification data, parameters of its position and movement, environmental parameters, and the ground-based air traffic monitoring center includes a system for intelligent processing of observation data on the state of the environment. (SIO DOS), which provides a dynamic calculation based on the received observational data coming from all UAVs, the current and predicted state of the environment, determines the presence and occurrence of hazardous areas of the environment for each UAV, which can lead to the loss of the UAV, and generates appropriate warning messages or avoidance advice and relaying it to the appropriate UAV and its remote pilot.

Unlike the traditional monitoring method, in which only data on the coordinates of the aircraft is transmitted, in the proposed method, UAVs can also act as repeaters, transmitting information about other UAVs to other air traffic participants, as well as to ground control and observation points. With this method of organizing the transmission of UAV movement data, small-sized UAVs are observed at any distance by other air traffic participants, as well as by ground stations, which is not feasible with the traditional monitoring method due to the low power of the small-sized UAV transmitter, as well as the presence of closing zones (for example, in conditions difficult terrain or in urban areas).

The exchange of information is carried out at least using data transmission channels such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 4G / 5G.

This method of organizing UAV surveillance eliminates the problem of leaving the visibility zone of ground-based surveillance and control facilities, and also guarantees the visibility of all air traffic participants of everyone, which is critical for solving the problems of detecting and preventing potential conflict situations between air traffic participants.

Implementation of the invention

In this section of the description, the most preferred embodiment of the invention will be given, which, however, does not limit other possible embodiments explicitly following from the application materials and understandable to a person skilled in the art.

In the claimed method, it is proposed to consider UAVs not only as sources of data on air traffic, but also as mobile sensors of atmospheric parameters, primarily wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, and pressure. Using the capabilities of a distributed, peer-to-peer, self-organizing network with a mesh topology, the UAV ensures the transmission of this data to other traffic participants, as well as by an external pilot and to the ground air traffic monitoring center. The Ground Air Traffic Monitoring Center includes an Intelligent Environmental Observation Data Processing System (SIO DOS), which provides dynamic calculation based on the received observational data from all UAVs, the current and predicted state of the environment, including estimates of the three-dimensional wind field in flight area and vertical profiles of temperature and humidity in the lower surface layer of the atmosphere. Based on these data, SIO DOS provides dynamic continuous assessment, personalized by UAV types, of weather-restricted flight zones (dynamic weather geozoning). The criteria for determining restricted areas can be:

- dangerous wind speed for a particular type of UAV;

- high level of turbulence;

- icing conditions,

- as well as other criteria.

Dynamic continuous estimation of 3D wind fields improves flight safety by providing accurate input for conflict resolution, and reduces the chance of loss of UAV stability and control due to strong winds or turbulence.

SIO DOS provides feedback of weather data and dynamic weather geofencing to air traffic participants. The transmission of this data can be both broadcast and personalized, if the information about dangerous flight conditions applies only to UAVs of a particular type. In this case, the SIO DOS generates appropriate warning messages or recommendations for evasion and transmits them only to the appropriate UAVs and their remote pilots.

Claims (4)

1. A method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network, which consists in the fact that the method of exchanging information between UAVs, between an individual UAV and its ground control point, as well as between an individual UAV and a ground air traffic monitoring center is based on a distributed , a peer-to-peer, self-organizing network with a mesh topology, in which UAVs are considered as network nodes and can act as repeaters, transmitting information about other UAVs to other air traffic participants, as well as to ground control and surveillance points, while UAVs transmit identification data, parameters of their position and movement and environmental parameters, and the ground-based air traffic monitoring center includes an intelligent processing system for environmental observation data, which provides dynamic calculation based on the received observation data from all UAVs, the current and predicted state environmental analysis that determines the presence and occurrence of dangerous areas of the environment for each UAV that can lead to the loss of the UAV, generates appropriate warning messages or avoidance recommendations and transmits them to the corresponding UAV and its remote pilot. 2. A method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network according to claim 1, in which the exchange of information is carried out at least using data transmission channels such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 4G/5G. 3. A method for monitoring air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network according to claim 1, in which the intelligent processing of environmental observation data provides dynamic calculation based on an assessment of a three-dimensional wind field in the flight area and vertical profiles of temperature and humidity in the lower surface layer of the atmosphere. 4. A method for monitoring the air traffic of unmanned aerial vehicles based on an intelligent mesh network according to claim 1, in which data transmission can be both broadcast and personalized if information about dangerous flight conditions applies only to UAVs of a particular type.

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