Patent Issued for Unmanned vehicle service delivery (USPTO 11532050): United Services Automobile Association

2023 JAN 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Allen, Michael J. (San Antonio, TX, US), Castiglione, Anthony G. (San Antonio, TX, US), Farnsworth, Anthony Scott (San Antonio, TX, US), Gingrich, Jess W. (San Antonio, TX, US), Haslam, Justin Dax (San Antonio, TX, US), Newmark, Jordan A. (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US), Swain, Kathleen L. (Kemah, TX, US), Voutour, Teddy Joseph Edmond (Helotes, TX, US), filed on June 26, 2019, was published online on December 20, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11532050 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Unmanned vehicles (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles) are known for their use in combat zones. In combat zones, they are often used to surveille an area, damage a structures, or lethally wound a potential enemy combatant. The use of unmanned vehicles can go far beyond the aforementioned examples, especially outside of a combat zone and in a commercial setting. Businesses of all sorts are now developing innovative ways to use unmanned vehicles to benefit their business.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Unmanned vehicles may be used to survey a property in response to or in anticipation of damage to the property. For example, an unmanned vehicle may us one or more sensors to determine damage to the property. Unmanned vehicles can be terrestrial, aerial, nautical, or multi-mode.

“In one example, a device may include a processor and a memory. The memory may be coupled with the processor and store instructions that when executed the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations such as activating an unmanned vehicle based on a triggering event (e.g., indication of damage to a property); determining a course of action for the unmanned vehicle, wherein the course of action (e.g., mission) is associated with the triggering event relating to a location; generating data from the at least one sensor (e.g., camera) of the unmanned vehicle used during the course of action; and based on the data of the at least one sensor, determining a condition of the property.

“Described herein are systems and methods for facilitating claims processing, such as by utilizing unmanned vehicles. The vehicles can be terrestrial, aerial, nautical, or multi-mode. They can be remotely piloted, operate with an autopilot, or a combination of both. This process may serve the diverse data needs of multiple entities, with only a single entity engaged in the execution of the mission. This allows coordination to be centralized, the safety of other operations, people and property to be maximized, and the effort to gain authority to operate streamlined.

“In one exemplary use, the priorities of the vehicle deployments are ranked based on the value attributed to the mission. Deployments are coordinated with the governing entity and executed to collect the data. The original mission may be modified based on new inputs from customer’s, or based on analysis of the data conducted during the mission (e.g., course of action or objective) that indicates the current or subsequent vehicle deployments can be altered to more effectively and efficiently complete the mission.

“In another example, the location of the data storage can be accessed for upload from the mission components. The customers can access the stored data via application program interfaces. The data available to the individual customers is limited based on the policy previously defined for the customer.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A device comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising: receiving, from an unmanned vehicle, information regarding a location, wherein the information comprises sensor information gathered by at least one sensor of the unmanned vehicle, and wherein the sensor information comprises a plurality of images and wherein at least one image of plurality of images has a higher resolution than another image of the plurality of images: determining, based on the one image of the plurality of images having a higher resolution, damage to a structure at the location; causing a course of action to be performed by the unmanned vehicle, wherein the course of action comprises communicating with the structure and mitigating the damage to the structure based on the communication with the structure.

“2. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise causing the unmanned vehicle to deploy to the location.

“3. The device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a component of the unmanned vehicle.

“4. The device of claim 1, wherein the information comprises an indication of a weather event associated with the location.

“5. The device of claim 1, wherein the information comprises a map associated with the location.

“6. The device of claim 1, wherein the damage is associated with at least one of water, electricity, gas, fire, or a weather condition.

“7. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: determining a proximity of a mobile device to the structure; and based on the proximity of the mobile device to the structure, sending an alert to the mobile device.

“8. A method comprising: receiving, from an unmanned vehicle, information regarding a location, wherein the information comprises sensor information gathered by at least one sensor of the unmanned vehicle, wherein the sensor information comprises a plurality of images and wherein at least one image of the plurality of images has a higher resolution than another image of the plurality of images; determining, based on the portion of the sensor information having a higher resolution, damage to a structure at the location; and causing a course of action to be performed by the unmanned vehicle, wherein the course of action comprises communicating with the structure and mitigating the damage to the structure based on the communication with the structure.

“9. The method of claim 8, comprising causing the unmanned vehicle to deploy to the location.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the information comprises an indication of a weather event associated with the location.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the information comprises a map associated with the location.

“12. The method of claim 8, wherein the damage is associated with at least one of water, electricity, gas, fire, or a weather condition.

“13. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining a proximity of a mobile device to the structure; and based on the proximity of the mobile device to the structure, sending an alert to the mobile device.

“14. A system comprising: an unmanned vehicle; and a computing device configured to: receive, from the unmanned vehicle, information regarding a location, wherein the information comprises sensor information gathered by at least one sensor of the unmanned vehicle, and wherein the sensor information comprises a plurality of images and wherein at least one image of the plurality of images has a higher resolution than another image of the plurality of images; determine, based on the portion of the sensor information having a higher resolution, damage to a structure at the location; and cause a course of action to be performed by the unmanned vehicle, wherein the course of action comprises communicating with the structure and mitigating the damage to the structure based on the communication with the structure.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device is configured to cause the unmanned vehicle to deploy to the location.

“16. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device comprises a component of the unmanned vehicle.

“17. The system of claim 14, wherein the information comprises an indication of a weather event associated with the location.

“18. The system of claim 14, wherein the information comprises a map associated with the location.

“19. The system of claim 14, wherein the damage is associated with at least one of water, electricity, gas, fire, or a weather condition.

“20. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device is further configured to: determine a proximity of a mobile device to the structure; and based on the proximity of the mobile device to the structure, send an alert to the mobile device.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Allen, Michael J. Unmanned vehicle service delivery. U.S. Patent Number 11532050, filed June 26, 2019, and published online on December 20, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11532050)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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