Patent ID: 11972691
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B | IPC B  G

Claim 14:
15. An autonomous aerial vehicle system comprising:
a computer system located in an autonomous aerial vehicle;
a vehicle manager in the computer system, wherein the vehicle manager is configured to:
execute a mission plan for the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the mission plan is located in the autonomous aerial vehicle and comprises mission components;
receive a modified mission component over a communications link to synchronize the mission plan with a copy of the mission plan in a mission work queue of an autonomous aircraft management system separate from the autonomous aerial vehicle that includes the modified mission component such that the mission plan includes the modified mission component;
determine that the modified mission component can be executed in a new mission plan that includes the mission components and the modified mission component;
synchronize the copy of the mission plan including the modified mission component with the mission plan in the autonomous aerial vehicle such that the mission plan includes the modified mission component; and
execute the new mission plan; and

a human machine interface configured to:
display a graphical user interface;
display the mission work queue in the graphical user interface;
display the mission components in the mission work queue in a sequential order relative to a timeline;
display work items for a human operator to perform in the mission work queue in the sequential order relative to the timeline;
receive a vehicle modified mission component for the mission plan from the autonomous aerial vehicle;
display a new work item in the mission work queue in a location within the work items in the sequential order relative to the timeline in the mission work queue in which the location of the new work item is based on an importance of the vehicle modified mission component and in which the new work item is a task in the tasks for determining whether to approve using the vehicle modified mission component;
send a confirmation to the autonomous aerial vehicle to execute the mission plan with the vehicle modified mission component when the vehicle modified mission component is approved; and
display the vehicle modified mission component in the mission work queue when the confirmation has been received by the autonomous aerial vehicle.