Locating a Target Using an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a crucial component of modern-day technology because of their wide array of applications ranging from disaster management, wildlife surveillance, and agriculture to military applications. One important role of UAVs is to scout territories and take note of certain markers or targets using installed sensors. In many of these cases, it is not practical, safe, or possible for humans to manually monitor the ground. Thus, the need for UAVs that can autonomously proceed to locate their targets without human intervention is an inevitable reality in our increasingly automatized world. However, conventional UAV systems use predetermined flight paths to search for targets on the ground, often resulting in inefficiencies such as unnecessary coverage of non-target areas and targets missed because of a lack of precise geolocation. Moreover, these methods often rely on fixed sensor orientations, that can significantly affect a system's target acquisition abilities. The current approach also lacks adaptability and dynamic responses to changing conditions on the ground. Without real-time adjustments to the flight path, the current solutions spend an extensive amount of resources in time, fuel, and equipment to sustain the search processes. Therefore, there is need for improved, adaptive approaches that account for real-time changes and optimize search efficiency while reducing resources spent and enhancing accuracy.

Technology Description

The drone system described herein is an advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that integrates sensor data to autonomously and efficiently find a ground-based target. The system employs a unique two-stage approach. The first stage involves a randomized flight, such as Lévy flight, that allows the drone to search vast ground spaces. The second phase includes a geolocalization process like a simplex minimization process, effectively guiding the drone toward the desired target. Unlike other UAVs that typically rely on predefined flight patterns and simple sensor data, this system's standout feature is its utilization of statistical methods to optimize target search time. The combination of Lévy flights and simplex minimization methods enables the drone to cover a wide range and fine-tune its location accurately. This level of autonomy and efficiency makes it a hugely differentiated capability in UAV technology.