Patent Issued for Emergency incident detection, response, and mitigation using autonomous drones (USPTO 11875670): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 FEB 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Hayes, Howard (Glencoe, IL, US), Kumar, Surender (Palatine, IL, US), Slusar, Mark V. (Chicago, IL, US), filed on March 29, 2022, was published online on January 16, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11875670, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting and responding to emergency conditions that occur in buildings, homes, warehouses, manufacturing plants, retail stores, and other premises. Existing systems for responding to emergency conditions often rely on human detection of an emergency condition and/or human communication of details regarding the emergency condition to first responders (e.g., police or fire departments, medical, or any other emergency response provider). This manual detection and communication process may introduce errors and delay an effective response. Additionally, existing systems for responding to emergency conditions often rely on waiting for emergency responders to arrive, during which time an emergency condition may worsen. Such delays can lead to significant property damage, endanger safety and lives of people, and increase repair and insurance costs.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Aspects of the disclosure provide effective and efficient technical solutions that help to more accurately detect emergency conditions, relay information about the emergency conditions to reviewers and/or responders for analysis, determine a response plan, and execute the response plan to mitigate the emergency condition both before and after first responders arrive.

“In accordance with one or more embodiments, a computing platform may be configured to detect an emergency condition at a premises; dispatch one or more autonomous drones to a location associated with the emergency condition; receive, from the one or more autonomous drones, sensor data associated with the emergency condition; plan, based on the sensor data, an evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises; and transmit an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to one or more persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, the evacuation route.

“In some aspects, the computing platform may further be configured to detect, based on the sensor data, one or more safe areas in the premises, wherein the evacuation route passes through at least one of the one or more safe areas. In some cases, the emergency condition is a fire, and the computing platform may detect the one or more safe areas based on one or more of temperature data captured by a temperature sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, smoke data captured by a smoke detector onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, and image data captured by a camera onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones. In some cases, the emergency condition comprises a hazardous material, and the computing platform may detect the one or more safe areas based on data captured by a hazardous material sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones.

“In some cases, the evacuation route passes through a locked door, and the computing platform may be configured to transmit an instruction to a premises automation system that causes the locked door to unlock.

“In some embodiments, the computing platform may be configured to determine a location of one or more first responders; determine a location of a person in need of assistance; plan a route from the one or more first responders to the person in need of assistance; and transmit an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to the one or more first responders, the route to the person in need of assistance.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: at a computing platform comprising at least one processor, at least one memory, and at least one communication interface: receiving, by the at least one processor, via the at least one communication interface, from one or more sensors, sensor data associated with a premises; detecting, by the at least one processor, based on the sensor data, an emergency condition at the premises; dispatching, by the at least one processor, one or more autonomous drones to the premises; generating, by the at least one processor, using one of a plurality of templates, a response plan containing response actions for responding to the emergency condition; and transmitting, by the at least one processor, via the at least one communication interface, an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate the response plan.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are at least one of a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, a motions sensor, a water sensor, and an intrusion sensor.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are part of at least one of a security camera, a motion detector, a smoke alarm, a window sensor, a water leak sensor, and the one or more autonomous drones.

“4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: controlling, by the at least one processor, the one or more autonomous drones to mitigate the emergency condition.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein controlling the one or more autonomous drones to mitigate the emergency condition includes at least one of activating a fire extinguisher, shutting off a main water valve, turning off appliances, directing evacuating persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, following the evacuating persons, finding victims that require assistance, and directing first responders to the victims.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the response plan is generated based on at least one of a location of the emergency condition, a type and severity of the emergency condition, and a presence of people in a vicinity of the emergency condition.

“7. The method of claim 1 further comprising: revising the response plan based on additional sensor data.

“8. A computing platform comprising: at least one processor; a communication interface communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; and memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: receive, via the communication interface, sensor data associated with a location and captured by a sensor; detect an emergency condition at the location using the sensor data; dispatch an autonomous drone to the location; generate, based on the emergency condition, a response plan containing response actions for responding to the emergency condition; and transmit, via the communication interface, an instruction that causes the autonomous drone to indicate the response plan.

“9. The computing platform of claim 8, wherein the sensor is at least one of a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, a motions sensor, a water sensor, and an intrusion sensor.

“10. The computing platform of claim 8, wherein the sensor is part of at least one of a security camera, a motion detector, a smoke alarm, a window sensor, a water leak sensor, and the autonomous drone.

“11. The computing platform of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to: mitigate the emergency condition using the autonomous drone.

“12. The computing platform of claim 11, wherein mitigating the emergency condition includes controlling the autonomous drone to at least one of activate a fire extinguisher, shut off a main water valve, turn off appliances, direct evacuating persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, follow the evacuating persons, find victims that require assistance, and direct first responders to the victims.

“13. The computing platform of claim 8, wherein the response plan is generated based on at least one of the location of the emergency condition, a type and severity of the emergency condition, and a presence of people in a vicinity of the emergency condition.

“14. The computing platform of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to: receive additional sensor data; and revise the response plan based on the additional sensor data.

“15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing platform comprising at least a processor, memory, and a communication interface, cause the computing platform to: receive, via the communication interface, sensor data captured by a sensor; detect an emergency condition using the sensor data; dispatch an autonomous drone to a location associated with the emergency condition; generate, based on the emergency condition, a response plan containing response actions for responding to the emergency condition; and transmit, via the communication interface, an instruction that causes the autonomous drone to indicate the response plan.

“16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions of claim 15, wherein the sensor is at least one of a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, a motions sensor, a water sensor, and an intrusion sensor.

“17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions of claim 15, wherein the sensor is part of at least one of a security camera, a motion detector, a smoke alarm, a window sensor, a water leak sensor, and the autonomous drone.

“18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions of claim 15 that, when executed by the computing platform further cause the computing platform to: mitigate the emergency condition using the autonomous drone by controlling the autonomous drone to at least one of activate a fire extinguisher, shut off a main water valve, turn off appliances, direct evacuating persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, follow the evacuating persons, find victims that require assistance, and direct first responders to the victims.

“19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions of claim 15, wherein the response plan is generated based on at least one of the location of the emergency condition, a type and severity of the emergency condition, and a presence of people in a vicinity of the emergency condition.

“20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions of claim 15 that, when executed by the computing platform further cause the computing platform to: revise the response plan based on additional sensor data received from the autonomous drone.”

For more information, see this patent: Hayes, Howard. Emergency incident detection, response, and mitigation using autonomous drones. U.S. Patent Number 11875670, filed March 29, 2022, and published online on January 16, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11875670)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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