INFRASTRUCTURE INSPECTION OPERATION BY USING MULTIPLE DRONES

Abstract

A mobile drone communication and control system comprises a mobile drone station configured to be driven to a work area; a scanning drone carried by the mobile station and configured to scan an image of the work area and transmit the scanned image to the mobile station via a private WIFI network; an edge computer configured to analyze the scanned images and select the failure suspect points with an exact position identified coordinates; an inspection drone configured to fly out to the identified points and to perform a detailed inspection and equipped with a high pressure water or an air jet cleaner to clean the suspect points for detailed images; and a remote pilot center configured to program the routing plans of the scanning drone, the inspection drone and the mobile drone station.

Claims

1. A mobile drone communication and control system, comprising: a mobile station configured to be driven to a work area; a scanning drone carried by the mobile station and configured to scan images of the work area and transmit the scanned images to the mobile station via a private WIFI network; an edge computer configured to analyze the scanned images and identify the failure suspect points with an exact position identified coordinates; an inspection drone configured to fly out to the identified failed suspect points and to perform a detailed inspection and is equipped with a high pressure water or an air jet cleaner to clean the failure suspect points for the detailed images; and a remote pilot center configured to program the routing plans for the scanning drone, the inspection drone and the mobile drone station.

2. The mobile drone communication and control system of claim 1, wherein the detailed images taken from the inspection drone, are sent to the mobile drone station and then forwarded to the remote pilot center to be reviewed by a human expert.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the disclosure, illustrate aspects of the disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the disclosure. This patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

[0013] In the drawings:

[0014] FIG. 1 is a representation of the mobile drone communication and control system for the infrastructure inspection using a mobile drone station (100) carrying the multiple task drones (201), (202) according to the present disclosure; and

[0015] FIG. 2 is a view showing the example working area of the infrastructure inspection site that the scanning drone (201) is scanning the working area (400) and the inspection drone (202) is doing a detailed inspection task for the identified failure suspect points.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] Reference will now be made in detail to the aspects of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0017] In order to achieve the highly efficient inspection, the mobile drone station works with multiple drones, a scanning drone (201) and an inspection drone (202) with a support of the image analysis edge computer system (104) as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

[0018] The role for the remote pilot center (300) is configuring a drone flight reservation permission process; providing a drone identification number, drone flight routing (401) and time information to the local drone traffic management authority as well as is configuring a routing plan of the mobile drone station (100) according the drone flight routing plan. The scanning drone (201) is scanning the work area (400) following the route (401) as programmed by the remote pilot center (300). The scanning drone sends the image of the work area to the mobile drone station (100) via a private WIFI (102). The scanned images will then be analyzed by using the edge computer (104) and then identify the failure suspect points (402).

[0019] The inspect drone (202) is flying over the identified failure suspect points and is taking the detailed photos of the failure suspect points (402). In case, a simple cleaning is necessary, the built in high pressure water or air jet cleaner (203) is cleaning the suspect point for the detailed images of the failure suspect points (402). The detailed image is then transmitted to the mobile drone station (100) via a private WIFI (102) and it is then forwarded to the remote pilot center (300) via a commercial wireless network (101) for a human expert review at the remote pilot center.

[0020] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the mobile drone communication and control system of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit or scope of the aspects. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure covers the modifications and variations of the aspects provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.