Sony Group Corporation

Sony Europe B.v.

Sony Corporation

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation

Shaun Lee

Peter Exner

Anders Isberg

Hannes Bergkvist

Pär Spjuth

Ola Karl Thörn

Antonio Avitabile

Salvatore Finatti

An animal detecting device includes circuitry configured to: obtain one or more images; perform image processing on the one or more images, wherein the image processing includes detecting the presence of an animal in one of the one or more images, produce, when the presence of an animal is detected, image representation data associated with the one or more images according to a result of the image processing; and send, in the event of a predetermined condition being met, the image representation data to another device over a communication link.

Animal detecting device, system, method and computer program

A control system in a delivery system performs a method of controlling unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, which are organized in a group or swarm to perform one or more missions to deliver and/or pick up goods. The method includes obtaining drag data indicative of air resistance for one or more UAVs in the group, determining, as a function of the drag data, a respective relative position of at least the one or more UAVs within the group, and controlling at least the one or more UAVs to attain the respective relative position. Such adjustment in the relative position of one or more UAVs enables improved energy efficiency and may be made to reduce energy consumption, increase reach or decrease travel time of at least one UAV in the group.

Controlling a group of unmanned aerial vehicles for delivery of goods

A scheduling device performs a method of scheduling transports by a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, to enable improved utilization of the fleet. The method includes computing, for the fleet, aggregated cost data, ACM, that associates utilization cost with distributed sub-regions within a geographic region, the utilization cost of a respective sub-region representing an estimated cost for directing at least one of the UAVs to the respective sub-region. The method further includes receiving a query indicative of one or more potential locations for pick-up or delivery of a payload, determining, based on the ACM, a transportation price for at least one potential location, and presenting the transportation price for the at least one potential location. The scheduling device thereby provides an interactive ordering system that enables utilization of the fleet to be automatically optimized by swarm intelligence.

Utilization of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles for delivery of goods

A monitoring system detects and mitigates traffic risks among a group of vehicles. The group of vehicles includes a ground-based vehicle (GBV), e.g. an automotive vehicle, and an air-based vehicle (ABV), e.g. a drone, which is operated to track a ground-based object (GBO), e.g. an unprotected road user or an animal. The monitoring system performs a method comprising: obtaining () predicted navigation data for the ground-based vehicle and the air-based vehicle, processing () the predicted navigation data to obtain one or more future locations of the ground based-object and to detect an upcoming spatial proximity between the ground-based object and the ground-based vehicle, and causing (), upon detection of the upcoming spatial proximity, an alert signal to be provided to at least one of the ground-based object and the ground-based vehicle.

Monitoring vehicle movement for traffic risk mitigation

A control system in a delivery system performs a method to deliver a payload by an unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, without requiring presence of the recipient even if the payload comprises sensitive or vulnerable goods. The method comprises obtaining a designated location for delivery of the payload, obtaining at least one payload vulnerability index for the payload, and obtaining a pick-up time indicative of a time point when the payload is expected to be retrieved by the recipient. The method further comprises selecting a final delivery area at or near the designated location as a function of the at least one payload vulnerability index and the pick-up time, and operating the UAV to deliver the payload to the final delivery area.

Safeguarded delivery of goods by unmanned aerial vehicles

A system performs a control method to launch an unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV. The control method includes calculating a selected altitude, relative to a reference level, for launching the UAV, operating a lifting arrangement to vertically elevate the UAV to the selected altitude, and causing the UAV to be launched from the selected altitude. Elevating the UAV may improve the performance of the UAV in terms of range, power consumption, ability to carry payload, transit time to destination, etc. The selected altitude may be calculated as a function of parameter data representing any of the UAV, the lifting arrangement, or surrounding conditions. An apparatus is further provided to determine an optimal location of the system in relation to a plurality of destinations of UAVs to be elevated by the system.

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Winchester, United Kingdom

Shaun Lee