Patent Issued for Systems and methods for assessing property development condition (USPTO 11816885): United Services Automobile Association

2023 DEC 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11816885, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Amann, Manfred (San Antonio, TX, US), Beveridge, Meredith (San Antonio, TX, US), Bitsis, Jr., Daniel Christopher (San Antonio, TX, US), Brown, Donnette Moncrief (San Antonio, TX, US), Gray, Emily Margaret (San Antonio, TX, US), Haslam, Justin Dax (San Antonio, TX, US), Kou, Qunying (San Antonio, TX, US), Maciolek, Michael J. (Boerne, TX, US), Mohs, Bobby Lawrence (San Antonio, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Schroeder, Eric David (San Antonio, TX, US), Shipley, Brian F. (Plano, TX, US), Simpson, Robert Wiseman (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US).

This patent was filed on December 12, 2022 and was published online on November 14, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for assessing property development. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to techniques to provide an assessment of development stages of a property being developed over the course of construction and to assemble a model of the property based on the assessment, even in the absence of a physical review of the property. The present disclosure also relates to user interfaces that permit a user to review a model of the property based on the assessment.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.

“In one example, a system is provided that includes an input interface configured to receive a user input identifying a property in a geographic area. The system also includes a processor configured to receive the user input identifying the property; instruct a controller of an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain image data of the property via a flight path in the geographic area at a first time point; receive the image data of the property from the unmanned aerial vehicle; determine a development condition of the property at the first time point based on the image data; generate a development condition output; and provide the development condition output to a user via the communication circuitry.

“In one example, a method is provided that includes the steps of instructing a controller of one or more unmanned aerial vehicles to obtain image data of a property via a flight path over the property at a plurality of time points, wherein each of the plurality of time points is associated with a respective construction stage of the property; receiving the image data of the property from the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles; and rendering a model of the property based on the image data, wherein the model comprises a plurality of layers, wherein each layer of the plurality of layers is associated with the respective construction stage of the property.

“In one example, a system is provided that includes a vehicle fleet of a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles having respective vehicle controllers. The system also includes a processor configured to communicate with each controller of the vehicle fleet; schedule an individual unmanned aerial vehicle of the vehicle fleet to obtain first image data of a property via a flight path in a geographic area at a first time point, wherein the first time point is based on an estimated construction stage of the property; receive the first image data of the property from the individual unmanned aerial vehicle; determine that the construction stage is complete at the first time point based on the first image data; schedule the individual unmanned aerial vehicle or another individual unmanned aerial vehicle of the vehicle fleet to obtain second image data of the property at a second time point, wherein the second time point is selected on an estimated time to complete a subsequent construction stage of the property; validate completion of the construction stage and the subsequent construction stage based on the first image data and second image data; and provide a validation output to a user based on the validating.

“Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation to various aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodiments of the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: communication circuitry configured to communicate with a controller of an unmanned aerial vehicle; and a processor configured to: receive first image data of a property; identify a construction stage of the property based on the first image data; receive weather data corresponding to a time period during the construction stage; determine a development condition of the property based on the weather data and on a presence or absence of a construction feature of the first image data; determine an estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property based on the development condition; and instruct the controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain second image data based on the estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle or an additional unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain the first image data of the property via a flight path.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the construction feature comprises a structural foundation feature.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the construction feature comprises a protective barrier.

“5. The system of claim 1, comprising the unmanned aerial vehicle.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the construction feature is concrete, and wherein the estimated time corresponds to a total curing time of the concrete.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the weather data indicates an occurrence of a rain during the estimated time to complete the construction stage.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain the second image data after the estimated time elapses.

“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to: determine a subsequent construction stage based on the first image data and the second image data; generate a development condition output based on the subsequent construction stage; and output the development condition output to a computing device.

“10. A method, comprising: instructing an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain image data of a property; receiving the image data of the property from the unmanned aerial vehicle; identifying a construction stage of the property based on the image data; receiving weather data corresponding to a time period during the construction stage; determining a development condition of the property based on the weather data and on a presence or absence of a construction feature of the image data; determining an estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property based on the development condition; generating a development condition output based on the estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property; and outputting the development condition output to a computing device.

“11. The method of claim 10, comprising determining that the estimated time to complete the construction stage exceeds a threshold time; and outputting the development condition output based on the estimated time exceeding the threshold time.

“12. The method of claim 10, comprising scheduling the unmanned aerial vehicle or an additional unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain additional image data of the property based on the estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property.

“13. The method of claim 10, comprising rendering a property model based on the estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property.

“14. The method of claim 10, wherein the construction feature is concrete, and wherein the estimated time corresponds to a total curing time of the concrete.

“15. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving first image data of a property; identifying a construction stage of the property based on the first image data; receiving weather data corresponding to a time period during the construction stage; determining a development condition of the property based on the weather data and on a presence or absence of a construction feature of the first image data; determining an estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property based on the development condition; scheduling an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain second image data of the property based on the estimated time to complete the construction stage of the property; and instructing the unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain the second image data in accordance with the estimated time.

“16. The tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising generating a model of the property based on the first image data and the second image data.

“17. The tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: determining a construction defect corresponding to the property based on the first image data and the second image data.

“18. The tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine the construction defect comprises: identifying an additional construction feature in the second image data, wherein the additional constructional feature indicates a subsequent construction stage of the property.

“19. The tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the construction feature comprises a structural foundation feature.

“20. The tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the weather data comprises an average humidity, an amount of rainfall, or both, and wherein the received weather data causes the estimated time to complete the construction stage to be adjusted upwards when the average humidity exceeds a humidity threshold, the amount of rainfall exceeds a rainfall amount threshold, or both.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Amann, Manfred. Systems and methods for assessing property development condition. U.S. Patent Number 11816885, filed December 12, 2022, and published online on November 14, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11816885)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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