PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15905713
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2018-07
Patent Classification: ["701", "004000"]

Abstract:
A system and method for operating an automated aerial vehicle are provided wherein influences of ground effects (e.g., which may increase the effective thrusts of propellers by interfering with the respective airflows) are utilized for sensing the ground or other surfaces. In various implementations, operating parameters of the automated aerial vehicle are monitored to determine when ground effects are influencing the parameters associated with each of the propellers, which correspondingly indicate proximities to a surface (e.g., the ground). Utilizing such techniques, proximities of different portions of an automated aerial vehicle to the ground or other surfaces may be determined (e.g., for detecting issues with an uneven landing area, a sloped ground, etc.).

Claim (Index 21):
An automated aerial vehicle, comprising:\n first and second propellers; first and second propeller motors that rotate the first and second propellers, respectively; a power supply connected to the first and second propeller motors that provides power to the first and second propeller motors; and a control system, comprising:\n one or more processors; and \n a memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing program instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to at least:\n control the first propeller motor to rotate the first propeller, wherein a first parameter is associated with the first propeller and a level of the first parameter is influenced by a first ground effect, the first ground effect corresponding to a condition in which an airflow of the first propeller is directed against a surface which increases an effective thrust of the first propeller and which influences a level of the first parameter; \n control the second propeller motor to rotate the second propeller, wherein a second parameter is associated with the second propeller and a level of the second parameter is influenced by a second ground effect, the second ground effect corresponding to a condition in which an airflow of the second propeller is directed against a surface which increases an effective thrust of the second propeller and which influences a level of the second parameter; and \n determine that a first proximity of a first portion of the automated aerial vehicle is different than a second proximity of a second portion of the automated aerial vehicle to the surface based at least in part on a difference between a level of the first parameter as influenced by the first ground effect and a level of the second parameter as influenced by the second ground effect.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 59.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.88406
- Patent Class: 701.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15606807', '14315952', '15369527', '14315944', '15434741']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.4082534690935991
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5034455807945238
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.4177726802636916
- Mean Citation Score: 248.09298
- Max Citation Score: 297.4741
- Similarity Product: 267.29825266761185

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test