Patent ID: 11955020
Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
determining, by a first drone, a drone safety message, wherein the drone safety message is transmitted over a vehicle-to-everything communication and received by a connected vehicle located along a first planned flight path;
transmitting the first planned flight path to a public database for publishing in a manner wherein at least one waypoint along the first planned flight path is omitted because it is indicative of a location that is associated with a non-public or non-pedestrian area, thereby allowing the first drone to maintain anonymity when transmitting the first planned flight path;
determining an emergency condition for the first drone;
transmitting a warning message over the vehicle-to-everything communication that indicates that the first drone is experiencing the emergency condition,
receiving the drone safety message via the vehicle-to-everything communication at an infrastructure roadside unit (RSU), wherein the RSU is a stoplight or a streetlight;
relaying the drone safety message from the RSU to the connected vehicle and a mobile device of a pedestrian when the first drone is within a predetermined distance of the RSU, thereby allowing the connected vehicle and the mobile device to be apprised of a current position of the first drone, even when the mobile device does not have access to the published first planned flight path;
determining a proximity of the first drone to the pedestrian based on a transmission sent from the mobile device to the first drone; determining drone operating evidence as the first drone traverses along the first planned flight path;
storing the drone operating evidence in a distributed ledger, wherein the drone safety message comprises any one or more of the current position, mobility dynamics, and/or the first planned flight path for the first drone,
receiving vehicle safety messages from the connected vehicle; and
altering the first planned flight path to avoid flying over an area where the connected vehicle is present such that the first drone hovers and waits for the connected vehicle to clear a public roadway before crossing the public roadway;
wherein determining the drone operating evidence comprises:
determining, based on the current position and the first planned flight path, that the first drone is near the public roadway,
turning on a camera of the first drone responsive to the emergency condition occurring,
capturing images or video of the public roadway with the camera, and
storing the images or video of the public roadway in the distributed ledger in order to prove that the first drone did not fly over the connected vehicle as it traversed the public roadway.