United States Patent 8,838,289

System and method for safely flying unmanned aerial vehicles in civilian airspace 

 

Application Number 11/736,356

 

Filed 4/17/2007

 

Issued 9/16/2014

 

Jed Margolin

 

 

After two rejections I took it to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The Examiner was partly affirmed and partly reversed. I blogged it. Click here.  This is the patent that resulted. It came with a Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) of 2419 days. If I had paid the maintenance fee it would have expired 20 years from 4/17/2007 plus 2419 days. That would have made the expiration date Wednesday, November 30, 2033.

 


Abstract

A system and method for safely flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), or remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) in civilian airspace uses a remotely located pilot to control the aircraft using a synthetic vision system during at least selected phases of the flight such as during take-offs and landings.

 

Jed Margolin

Virginia City Highlands, NV

September 16, 2014


 

 

References - Listed Separately (PDF)

Patent References

U.S. Patent 5,153,836   Universal dynamic navigation, surveillance, emergency location, and collision avoidance system and method, Fraughton, et al., October 6, 1992.

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U. S. Patent 5,187,485  Passive ranging through global positioning system, Tsui, et al., February 16, 1993.  Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force. 

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U.S. Patent 5,904,724    Method and apparatus for remotely piloting an aircraft issued May 18, 1999 to Margolin.

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U.S. Patent 7,747,364  Methods, apparatus and systems for enhanced synthetic vision and multi-sensor data fusion to improve operational capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles issued June 29, 2010 to Roy et al. 

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U.S. Patent 7,765,038 Mission planning system for vehicles with varying levels of autonomy issued July 27, 2010 to Appleby, et al.

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Publication Number 2005/0004723 Vehicle control system including related methods and components   Duggan, et al., published 1/6/2005

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Publication Number 2006/0174221  Remote component and connection architecture  Kinsella, et al., published 8/3/2006

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Non-Patent References

The listed links are the original links. In some cases they are broken. The PDF version was made from the original link and is the document in the File Wrapper.

Sensing Requirements for Unmanned Air Vehicles, AFRL's Air Vehicles Directorate, Control Sciences Division, Systems Development Branch, Wright-Patterson AFB OH,  June 2004, http://www.afrlhorizons.com/Briefs/Jun04/VA0306.html .

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Presentation: Developing Sense & Avoid Requirements for Meeting an Equivalent Level of Safety given by RUSS WOLFE, Technology IPT Lead, Access 5 Project at UVS Tech 2006. (January 18, 2006)

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Presentation: Integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) given by John Timmerman of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (July 12, 2005)

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Zone Ready for Drone, April 7, 2006, on the web site for the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization Employees,
http://www.ato.faa.gov/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=4&tabid=17&itemid=937&mid=103

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Virtual Cockpit Window for a Windowless Aerospacecraft  NASA Tech Briefs, January 2003 page 40, (http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/Jan03/MSC23096.html)

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Press release from Rapid Imaging Software, Inc. http://www.landform.com/pages/PressReleases.htm
"On December 13th, 2001, Astronaut Ken Ham successfully flew the X-38 from a remote cockpit..."

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Article:  Flying UAVs in Civil Airspace By Using Synthetic Vision by Jed Margolin  http://www.jmargolin.com/todo/uavs.htm

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NTSB Incident Report on crash of Predator on April 25, 2006, northwest of Nogales, NM. NTSB Identification CHI06MA121

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Lockheed's Polecat UCAV Demonstrator Crashes  Aviation Week & Space Technology, AMY BUTLER, 03/19/2007, page 44

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The F-22 Continues to Encounter  Aviation Week & Space Technology, 02/26/2007, page 18

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Gulf of Mexico Helo Ops Ready for ADS-B  Aviation Week & Space Technology, FRANCIS FIORINO, 02/26/2007, page 56

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Embedded Experts: Fix code bugs or cost lives, RICK MERIT, EE Times, 04/10/2006 www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID-184429901

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Entries from the Software Failure Hall of Shame, Part 1, TOM RHINELANDER, July 06,2006, www.g2zero.com/2006/07/notable_entries_from_the_softw_1.html

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Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation, MARTIN GOMEZ, Embedded Systems Design, 11/30/01, www.embedded.com/shoArticle.jhtml?articleID=15201692

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Supreme Court Decision, Boyle v. United Technologies Corp., 487 U.S. 500 (1988)

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Basic Concepts of real-time operating systems, DAVID KALINSKY (Nov. 18, 2003) http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4627965573.html

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The Examiner failed to include these references. They are Exhibits 13 – 15 in my Appeal Brief. If you want to know why the Examiner left them off, see my blog. Click here.

 

Exhibit 13 – Ex parte MAURICE GIVENS Appeal 2009-003414, BPAI Informative Decision, Decided: August 6, 2009

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Exhibit 14 Speech - "Safety Must Come First"; J. Randolph Babbitt, FAA Administrator; November 18, 2009, FAA Web site

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Exhibit 15 Article - Pentagon Accident Reports Suggest Military's Drone Aircraft Plagued With Problems, by David Zucchino, from The Ledger.com, July 6, 2010.

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