James Keller

US Patent:

20170372617, Dec 28, 2017

Filed:

Aug 11, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/675407

Inventors:

- Melbourne FL, US
James Mathew KELLER - Silver Spring MD, US
Christian RAMSEY - Purcellville VA, US

International Classification:

G08G 5/00
G05D 1/10
G05D 1/04
G05D 1/00
B64C 19/00
G01C 21/20
G01C 21/00
B64C 39/02
G08G 5/04
G05D 1/02

Abstract:

A registration authority (RA) server registers unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their owners/operators (O/O). A UAV is maintained in a flight lock state until a flight plan request from the O/O is approved by the RA, which sends an key-signed approval to unlock the UAV's flight lock. The RA server evaluates a UAV's proposed flight plan based on the attributes of the O/O and UAV, the location and time of the requested flight plan, and a set of flight rules and exclusion zones that are developed in view of privacy assurance, security assurance, flight safety assurance, and ground safety assurance. The flight plan key-signed approval supplied to the UAV by the RA server specifies an inclusion zone that corresponds to a flight plan trajectory to be followed. Once in flight, the UAV maintains real-time knowledge of its position and time to ensure its flight remains within the approved inclusion zone.