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41 AIRS and farmers In March this year, inventor Joseph Heilman and Appareo Systems applied for a US patent for an Aerial Information Request System (AIRS) that will enable a farmer for example to ask over the internet for specific information about crops in a defined area. The system would also enable a UAV to carry out the mission while obeying all safety and privacy rules. These days the agricultural UAV sector is dominated by hobby-driven technology developments, and the vehicles fly under a combination of US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, guidelines from the Academy of Model Aeronautics and an FAA special rule for model aircraft, but changing interpretations of those rules mean this sector lacks the clarity investors want. The FAA also wants new technologies to help it certify and regulate UAV systems to operate safely in the airspace. In its patent application (number US20160071419 A1), Appareo says the solution lies in a range of UAVs equipped with state-of-the-art Automatic Flight Control Systems (AFCS) that implement the tracking and safety systems already in place for manned aircraft while adding extra safety features and redundancy. The UAVs would operate from a network of fixed ground stations for docking, recharging or refuelling and communications, and would feature quick-change sensor packages. The final element is a cloud-based infrastructure to support information requests, flight planning and the definition and management of geographic regions in which restrictions could be applied, ultimately through the AFCS. The user would enter an information request with an input device, which would send the request to a database application for evaluation against information from two other applications, one running a do-not-fly database and the other a flight plan notification system to create a flight profile. The flight plan notification system would also communicate with an existing safety system such as air traffic control or an Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast network and with the UAV. Mobile destinations Giving small package delivery UAVs the ability to cope with moving destinations is the subject of patent application US 14/282,456, published in July and assigned to Verizon Patent and Licensing. A team led by Igor Kantor and including Ashok Srivastava, Douglas Pasko, Hani Batla and Gurpreet Ubhi has invented a system in which a UAV operator such as a delivery company would receive a request on a smartphone, tablet or other connected device for a flight path to an anticipated location associated with a second mobile device, perhaps belonging to a customer travelling in a car. The operator’s device would determine whether the UAV can carry out the task based on information about its components and network-derived information about the current location, direction of travel and speed of the customer’s device. It would then calculate the flight path from its current location to the customer’s anticipated position, generate the required instructions and transmit them to the UAV. The network to which the UAV would be connected would have information on the UAV’s capabilities, weather and obstacles en route, air traffic, road traffic and other details, and using this it would calculate a rendezvous, which may be one of several pre-arranged points. It would then communicate that to the recipient, who would confirm receipt via a mobile app. Security concerns could be addressed by including authentication procedures into the initial flight path request. UAV-related patents | Round-up Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2016 The delivery company would receive a request for a flight path to an anticipated location, perhaps of a customer travelling in a car The AIRS concept will allow farmers to use UAVs to gather information about crops in defined areas (Courtesy of Appareo Systems)