Drone flight management
A system can generate a flight path to ensure a drone is visible to at least one observer at all times in order to meet flight regulations or to provide additional monitoring of the drone in-flight. Locations of one or more observers are retrieved from devices associated with the observers. Based on these observer locations, a flight routing system can automatically generate optimal flight paths that meet the line of sight constraints as well as possibly other criteria (such as minimal distance and/or minimal flight time). In scenarios where there are no flight paths that meet the line of sight constraints, the flight routing system can find optimal flight paths with new target observing locations. These target observing locations are then transmitted to the observers with the expectation that the observers will move to those locations.
1 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a flight path system, a first location and a second location;
identifying, by the flight path system, a set of devices disposed within a geographic region that includes the first location and the second location;
retrieving, by the flight path system, device locations for each device in the set of devices;
determining, by the flight path system using a ray-tracing algorithm, a region of visibility for each device in the set of devices based on geographic information for the geographic region;
generating, by the flight path system, a flight path for a drone between the first location and the second location, wherein generating the flight path includes using the ray-tracing algorithm to determine line of sight conditions between locations along the flight path and the device locations, and wherein the flight path is constrained such that each location along the flight path is within at least one of the regions of visibility;
sending, by the flight path system, the flight path to the drone; and
flying, by the drone, along the flight path.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the region of visibility for each device includes using three-dimensional terrain modeling to account for geographic obstacles that block line of sight.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ray-tracing algorithm simulates light projection through three-dimensional space to identify visibility boundaries for each device.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further includes sending a notification to at least one device in the set of devices.
5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the notification includes information about the flight path.
6 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the notification includes a target observing location for the at least one device.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein generating the flight path also includes considering a flight duration of the flight path.
8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein generating the flight path also includes considering a total distance for the flight path.
9 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a flight path system, a first location and a second location;
identifying, by the flight path system, a set of devices disposed within a geographic region that includes the first location and the second location;
retrieving, by the flight path system, device locations for each device in the set of devices;
determining, by the flight path system using a ray-tracing algorithm, a region of visibility for each device in the set of devices based on geographic information for the geographic region;
generating, by the flight path system, a target observing location for a selected device in the set of devices;
generating, by the flight path system, a flight path for a drone between the first location and the second location, wherein generating the flight path includes considering using the ray-tracing algorithm to determine line of sight conditions between locations along the flight path and the target observing location, and wherein the flight path is constrained such that each location along the flight path is within at least one of the regions of visibility;
sending, by the flight path system, a message including the target observing location to the selected device;
sending, by the flight path system, the flight path to the drone; and
flying, by the drone, along the flight path.
10 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the method includes sending a target observation time with the target observing location to the selected device, and wherein the flight path is generated assuming that the selected device will be at the target observing location during the target observation time.
11 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the method includes sending information about the flight path to the selected device.
12 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein generating the flight path also includes considering a flight duration of the flight path.
13 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein generating the flight path also includes considering a total distance for the flight path.
14 . A drone, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that are can be executed by the one or more processors to:
receive a first location and a second location;
identify a set of devices disposed within a geographic region that includes the first location and the second location;
retrieve device locations for each device in the set of devices;
determine, using a ray-tracing algorithm, a region of visibility for each device in the set of devices based on geographic information for the geographic region;
generate a flight path for a drone between the first location and the second location, wherein generating the flight path includes using the ray-tracing algorithm to determine line of sight conditions between locations along the flight path and the device locations, and wherein the flight path is constrained such that each location along the flight path is within at least one of the regions of visibility; and
control the drone to fly along the flight path.
15 . The system according to claim 14 , wherein the set of devices are associated with a predetermined network of observers that observe drone flights.
16 . The drone according to claim 14 , wherein the flight path comprises a three-dimensional path through space between the first location and the second location.
17 . The drone according to claim 14 , wherein the instructions are further executable to send notifications to one or more devices in the set of devices.
18 . The drone according to claim 17 , wherein the notifications include information about the flight path.
19 . The drone according to claim 17 , wherein the notifications include a target observing location.
20 . The drone according to claim 14 , wherein the ray-tracing algorithm simulates light rays through three-dimensional space to determine visibility boundaries around geographic obstacles.