Granted Patent B2

US 12,347,325 · App. 18/601,359 · Granted Jul 1, 2025

Inventors: Ian Andreas Villa (San Francisco, CA); Eric Mueller (San Francisco, CA); Christabelle Bosson (Mountain View, CA); Thomas Prevot (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: Joby Aero, Inc.

G08G5/30G01C21/20G06Q10/047B64C29/0008

Abstract

Claims (57)

1. A system for dynamic allocation of skylanes of multi-skylane flight corridors, the system comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:

accessing a route between two locations;

accessing a corridor associated with the route, the corridor having a plurality of skylanes;

accessing data descriptive of a demand pattern associated with the route that indicates a first demand data for a first direction along the route and a second demand data for a second direction along the route;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a first number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a first interval and a first number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the first interval;

transmitting first routing instructions to cause, for the first interval, one or more first vehicles to fly along the first number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the first number of second skylanes in the second direction;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a second number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a second interval and a second number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the second interval; and

transmitting second routing instructions to cause, for the second interval, one or more third vehicles to fly along the second number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the second number of second skylanes in the second direction.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:

determining, for a first vehicle of the one or more first vehicles, a first operations volume for a first skylane based on one or more first characteristics for the first vehicle.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first operations volume comprises a plurality of segments that are respectively associated with a plurality of nodes of a flight path along the route.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of segments are linear.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of nodes correspond to a precision of the route, wherein the precision is a spatial precision or a temporal precision.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more first characteristics comprise performance data describing a physical dimension of the first vehicle.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more first characteristics comprise performance data describing a performance of the first vehicle in a first configuration, and wherein generating the first operations volume comprises:

computing a size of the first operations volume based on the performance data.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the vehicle is a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft that is operable in a plurality of different configurations, the plurality of different configurations comprising:

a cruise configuration; and

a takeoff configuration.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the performance data describes a performance of the VTOL aircraft when climbing vertically.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein:

the first operations volume comprises a three-dimensional representation of the first skylane; and

a second operations volume for a second vehicle of the one or more second vehicles comprises a three-dimensional representation of a second skylane.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein:

the first operations volume comprises a four-dimensional representation of the first skylane; and

the second operations volume comprises a four-dimensional representation of the second skylane.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting the first routing instructions comprises:

broadcasting the routing instructions to other airspace service providers;

communicating the routing instructions to a vehicle that will fly the route;

providing the routing instructions to a system that monitors the one or more first vehicles flying the route to ensure the one or more first vehicles stay within its performance bounds;

causing presentation of a graphical representation of the routing instructions on a user interface of a pilot application; or

providing the routing instructions to a network operations center that is monitoring a fleet of air traffic.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the routing instructions comprise an operations volume for a first vehicle.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of skylines each have a same cost.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the route is an optimized route having a lowest cost between the two locations and the plurality of skylanes each have the same lowest cost.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of skylanes in the corridor includes skylanes at different altitudes.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first vehicles are autonomous aircraft.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the operations comprise:

determining one or more first operations volumes respectively for the one or more first vehicles that indicate where the one or more first vehicles are allowed to fly.

19. A method for dynamic allocation of skylanes of multi-skylane flight corridors, the method comprising:

accessing a route between two locations;

accessing a corridor associated with the route, the corridor having a plurality of skylanes;

accessing data descriptive of a demand pattern associated with the route that indicates a first demand data for a first direction along the route and a second demand data for a second direction along the route;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a first number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a first interval and a first number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the first interval;

transmitting first routing instructions to cause, for the first interval, one or more first vehicles to fly along the first number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the first number of second skylanes in the second direction;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a second number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a second interval and a second number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the second interval; and

transmitting second routing instructions to cause, for the second interval, one or more third vehicles to fly along the second number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the second number of second skylanes in the second direction.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:

accessing a route between two locations;

accessing a corridor associated with the route, the corridor having a plurality of skylanes;

accessing data descriptive of a demand pattern associated with the route that indicates a first demand data for a first direction along the route and a second demand data for a second direction along the route;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a first number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a first interval and a first number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the first interval;

transmitting first routing instructions to cause, for the first interval, one or more first vehicles to fly along the first number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the first number of second skylanes in the second direction;

computing, based on the demand pattern, a second number of first skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the first direction for a second interval and a second number of second skylanes of the plurality of skylanes that are associated with the second direction for the second interval; and

transmitting second routing instructions to cause, for the second interval, one or more third vehicles to fly along the second number of first skylanes in the first direction and one or more second vehicles to fly along the second number of second skylanes in the second direction.

Assignments (4)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (150)

Cited By (1)

US 12,609,039