Patent ID: 11861549
Assignee: FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. An airborne drone based system for maintaining a plurality of broadcast-enabled devices and adaptively providing communication hub services to the broadcast-enabled devices, comprising:
a delivery vehicle for maintaining the broadcast-enabled devices while transporting the broadcast-enabled devices, the delivery vehicle comprising: an interior storage area that maintains the broadcast-enabled devices, and a drone storage area disposed within the delivery vehicle; and
an aerial communication drone paired to the delivery vehicle, the aerial communication drone further comprising:
a main housing,
an onboard controller disposed within the main housing,
a plurality of lifting engines coupled with respective lifting rotors, each of the lifting engines being fixed to a different portion of the main housing and responsive to flight control input generated by the onboard controller as part of maintaining a desired flight profile, and
a communication hub interface comprising a multi-transceiver and coupled to the onboard controller, the communication hub interface being operative to establish a plurality of wireless data communication paths to at least two of the broadcast-enabled devices within the delivery vehicle by using the multi-transceiver for the communication paths to the at least two broadcast-enabled devices; and

wherein the onboard controller of the aerial communication drone is operative to:
change the desired flight profile to cause the lifting engines to move the aerial communication drone from a secured position within the drone storage area of the delivery vehicle to a first deployed airborne position within the interior storage area of the delivery vehicle, the first deployed airborne position corresponding to a highest concentration of wireless devices within the delivery vehicle, wherein causing the aerial communication drone to move to the first deployed airborne position comprises causing the aerial communication drone to move to a plurality of positions within the delivery vehicle, to detect a concentration of wireless devices at each of the plurality of positions within the delivery vehicle, to determine that the highest concentration of wireless devices occurs at the first deployed airborne position, and in response to determining that the highest concentration of wireless devices occurs at the first deployed airborne position, to return to the first deployed airborne position,
cause the communication hub interface to establish a first wireless data communication path to a first of the broadcast-enabled devices within the delivery vehicle,
cause the communication hub interface to establish a second wireless data communication path to a second of the broadcast-enabled devices within the delivery vehicle, and
cause the multi-transceiver of the communication hub interface on the aerial communication drone to couple the first wireless data communication path and the second wireless data communication path for at least the first of the broadcast-enabled devices and the second of the broadcast-enabled devices.