The Boeing Company

Ivan Maza

Fernando Caballero

David Scarlatti

Enrique Casado

David Esteban-Campillo

David Esteban Campillo

Enrique Juan Casado Magaña

Victor Perez Villar

Enrique Juan Magana Casado

Fernando Caballero Benitez

David Scarlatti Jiménez

Enrique Casado Magana

A system and method is provided for commanding a payload of an aircraft. A plurality of flight segments, which comprise trajectory information of the aircraft, are received. A plurality of payload commands are generated using statements of payload intents. Each one of the payload commands are synchronized with at least one of the plurality of flight segments. The system and method express the operations to be performed by the payload onboard in order to achieve the established mission goals of the aircraft.

System and method for commanding a payload of an aircraft

And aircraft recharging station is provided for recharging an aircraft provided with a rechargeable battery. The recharging station includes a parking surface with conductive tiles selectively connected to an electrical power supply. The recharging station also includes a controller configured to determine a position of the aircraft on the parking surface by connecting, including being configured to iteratively connect a different pair of tiles to the electrical power supply to provide a circuit including positive and negative tiles connected thereto, and test an electrical circuit condition of the circuit, until a closed circuit condition is determined, thereby indicating that the aircraft is positioned on the positive and negative tiles, and that the battery is thereby rechargeable by the electrical power supply.

Recharging an aircraft battery

An autonomous battery replacement station for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is provided. The UAV includes a replaceable battery. The station includes (a) a landing platform configured to receive the UAV, (b) a storage location configured to store a replacement battery for the UAV, and (c) a means for swapping the replaceable battery on the UAV with a replacement battery from the storage location.

Device and method for use with unmanned aerial vehicles

The present invention provides a co-operative network of unmanned vehicles that participate in co-operative task allocation. Each unmanned vehicle comprises a computer system with an executive level configured to control motion of the unmanned vehicle and an automatic decision level configured to communicate with other unmanned vehicles, to receive task descriptions, to participate in task allocation, and to provide descriptions of tasks to be performed to the executive level for execution. Each unmanned vehicle submits a bid for each task it can perform, the bid reflecting an execution cost for the task. The bids are compared and the task effectively auctioned to the unmanned vehicle with a lowest execution cost. Each unmanned vehicle builds a task plan from its allocated tasks, decomposes the associated task descriptions into elementary task descriptions and forwards the elementary task descriptions in a format suitable for the executive level to execute.

Network of unmanned vehicles

Growing community of inventors

Cadiz, Spain

Ivan Maza