GPS World

Tag: patent

  • 1Spatial granted UK patent for spatial data validation

    Photo: 1Spatial
    Photo: 1Spatial

    1Spatial, a company with location master data management (LMDM) software and solutions, has been granted a UK patent for modification and validation of spatial data.

    The UK patent protects the use of 1Spatial’s rules engine technology, which is used in products such as 1Integrate and 1Data Gateway, further strengthening the group’s international patent coverage, which includes a U.S. patent for modification and validation of spatial data.

    The 1Integrate rules engine solves the issue of managing the quality of data in one or more databases.  Ensuring good-data quality, which is also referred to as master data management is an issue for most organizations, especially where databases are large, complex and interconnected with other systems.

    Bad data quality reduces the operational efficiency of organizations and prevents effective decision making. The 1Integrate rules engine solves this issue using a rules-based validation process which checks and cleans the data in order to measure, improve and protect the quality of the data and hence improve the operations, decisions and software implementations that depend on it.

    “As pioneers in the cleansing of location data, we are delighted to have been granted a UK patent for our rules engine technology, recognizing its power as a tool to ensure good quality data and facilitate trust when sharing data,” said Claire Milverton, CEO of 1Spatial. “Our understanding of the complexity of location data formats and sources, the rules that need to be applied and the issues that arise, has seen our technology be selected to power some of the world’s largest location data implementations.”

  • Tesla granted US patent for positioning tech

    Tesla granted US patent for positioning tech

    Tesla has developed a technology aimed at providing more accurate positioning for autonomous cars by sharing data between vehicles, according to a U.S. patent application.

    The patent, “Technologies for vehicle positioning,” was filed in 2017 and made public in December 2018.

    Solutions include cameras detecting matching locations and using other vehicles in its fleet as “cooperative reference stations” to share raw GNSS data and make positioning corrections.

    Tesla describes in the patent, “The inventions increase such positioning accuracy via determining and applying offsets (corrections) in various ways, or via sharing of raw positioning data between a plurality of devices, where at least one knows its location sufficiently accurately, for use in differential algorithms.”

    Techniques include:

    • a reference station sharing a positional offset with an automobile,
    • a reference station calculating and sharing a set of parameters (offsets and corrections) for various error components including atmospheric, orbital and clock,
    • a reference station sharing its raw GNSS data so that vehicles can remove errors through differencing or other calculations.

    Tesla also would correct GPS data by matching camera data with vision maps to detect the exact location of a vehicle. With this vision-map matching localization approach, “a location estimate is varied until the location estimate makes a camera-reported lane boundary coincide with a map-reported lane boundaries,” the patent reads.

    Schematic of Tesla’s system shows two vehicles (102, 120) feeding data to a network, a server and a reference station. (Image: Tesla)
    Schematic of Tesla’s system shows two vehicles (102, 120) feeding data to a network, a server and a reference station. (Image: Tesla)

  • Aquabotix granted patent for underwater camera

    UUV Aquabotix Ltd. has been granted a United States patent for a “Remotely Operated Vehicle Camera Apparatus.”

    Many underwater vehicles operate with a single stationary camera, an interior-based moveable camera or multiple cameras. Each of these configurations may have significant drawbacks and ultimately limit their functionality and usefulness, the company said.

    For example, a forward-facing camera can be used for navigation but is limited if the operator would like to record information around the vehicle in a reconnaissance mission.

    To address this challenge, Aquabotix developed a fully rotatable camera apparatus for attachment to its own or other vehicles. The camera apparatus can be mounted to the side of a vehicle and configured to rotate, enabling an operator to have a completely unobstructed 360-degree view in an underwater environment. This connector can also be used for mounting rotatable underwater light sources.

    Based in Sydney, Australia, and Fall River, Massachusetts, Aquabotix is an underwater robotics company that manufactures and sells commercial and industrial-grade underwater drones for commercial, high-end consumer and military applications. It also offers commercially available swarming underwater drones.

  • IBM patents way to transfer packages between drones

    IBM’s inventors have been granted a patent for transferring packages between drones during flight.

    The invention, described in U.S. Patent No. 9,561,852: In flight transfer of packages between aerial drones, helps to extend the range of drones that are delivering packages from a warehouse to a customer’s home.

    IBM inventors developed this patented system using their supply chain expertise to enable precise delivery services to customers using drones.

    Drones are starting to be used to transport packages to customer locations, but there are still numerous challenges to this delivery method such as limited flight range, theft of unattended packages once delivered, and a lack of delivery network optimization.

    The invention can help to mitigate these challenges by providing in-flight drone-to-drone package transfers to extend package delivery range.

    For example, a customer expecting a package could dispatch a personal drone to receive and securely deliver the package to the customer’s home. Drone delivery network optimization could be provided to autonomous drones via the communications link described in the patent.

    “Drones have the potential to change the way businesses operate and by leveraging machine learning, drones could change ecommerce,” said Sarbajit Rakshit, IBM master inventor and co-inventor on the patent. “Our inventor team is focused on improving how the most valuable cargo is delivered globally. This could create opportunities such as managing drones to deliver postal packages and medicine in developing countries via the most direct route.”

    IBM inventors have patented other inventions related to drones and drone-enabling technologies. However, this is just one aspect of IBM’s Supply Chain and Logistics expertise. IBM manages supply chains for clients on a worldwide basis using IBM Watson Supply Chain. Learn more about IBM patents here.