Patent ID: 11971492
Assignee: RTR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 20:
21. A method, comprising:
operating an unmanned aerial vehicle to hover proximate to a first known location, wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle has a transponder mounted thereon;
operating a range detector comprising a Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter and an RF receiver that utilize different transmit and receive frequencies, wherein the operating of the range detector comprises:
determining first GPS coordinates of the unmanned aerial vehicle hovering proximate to the first known location;
transmitting, via the RF transmitter, a first RF signal at the transmit frequency;
receiving, via the RF receiver, a second RF signal at the receive frequency from the transponder in response to the first RF signal; and
calculating a first distance between the range detector and the transponder based on the first RF signal and the second RF signal; and
moving the unmanned aerial vehicle to hover proximate to a second known location;

wherein the operating of the range detector further comprises:
determining second GPS coordinates of the unmanned aerial vehicle hovering proximate to the second known location;
transmitting, via the RF transmitter, the first RF signal at the transmit frequency;
receiving, via the RF receiver, the second RF signal at the receive frequency from the transponder in response to the first RF signal; and
calculating a second distance between the range detector and the transponder based on the first RF signal and the second RF signal;

wherein the operating of the range detector further comprises:
calculating a position of the range detector relative to the first known location and the second known location based on the first distance, a distance between the first GPS coordinates and the first known location, the second distance, a distance between the second GPS coordinates and the second known location, a distance between the first GPS coordinates and the second GPS coordinates, and a distance between the first known location and the second known location.