Patent ID: 9331773
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: B64D,G05D,H04B,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method of establishing an airborne wireless network between a first network and a second network comprising: establishing a plurality of loiter areas between a first location and a second location, where an access point to the first network is present at the first location and where an access point to the second network is present at the second location, and where each loiter area in the plurality of loiter areas is an area in (x, y) space; deploying a plurality of airborne parafoil units, where each airborne parafoil unit comprises a parafoil and a payload assembly. where the payload assembly comprises wireless network interface circuitry, and where the payload assembly comprises a left trailing line attached to the parafoil, a right trailing line attached to the parafoil, a first actuator connected to the right trailing line, a second actuator connected to the left trailing line, a control unit comprising a trajectory planning unit, and one or more sensors providing an (x, y, z) spatial position of the each airborne parafoil unit, where the control unit is in data communication with the one or more sensors, in data communication with the first actuator, and in data communication with the second actuator, and where the control unit issues control signals to the first actuator and the second actuator based on a difference between the (x, y, z) spatial position reported by the plurality of sensors and a desired flight path reported by the trajectory unit; positioning the plurality of airborne parafoil units by, establishing the airborne wireless network by generating wireless links among the plurality of airborne parafoil units to route packets from a first airborne parafoil unit in the plurality of airborne parafoil units to a second airborne parafoil unit in the plurality of airborne parafoil units, and generating a wireless link between the first airborne parafoil unit and the first network and between the second airborne parafoil unit and the second network, thereby establishing the airborne wireless network between the first network and the second network.