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

Claim 0:
1. A ranging system, comprising:
transponders mounted to unmanned aerial vehicles; and
a range detector comprising:
a Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter and an RF receiver that utilize different transmit and receive frequencies; and
a controller configured to determine first GPS coordinates of a first unmanned aerial vehicle when hovering proximate to a first known location, and to determine second GPS coordinates of a second unmanned aerial vehicle when hovering proximate to a second known location;
for each transponder of the transponders mounted to the first unmanned aerial vehicle and the second unmanned aerial vehicle, the controller is configured to direct the RF transmitter to transmit a first RF signal at the transmit frequency, to receive a second RF signal at the receive frequency through the RF receiver from the transponder in response to the first RF signal, and to calculate a distance between the range detector and the transponder based on the first RF signal and the second RF signal;
the controller is further configured to calculate a position of the range detector relative to the first known location and the second known location based on the distance calculated between the range detector and the transponder mounted to the first unmanned aerial vehicle, a distance between the first GPS coordinates and the first known location, the distance calculated between the range detector and the transponder mounted to the second unmanned aerial vehicle, 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.