Cooperative Perimeter Patrol System and Method

摘要

A method of patrolling a perimeter of a geographic area, using two or more unmanned vehicles having means for locomotion along a perimeter path. Each vehicle is equipped with at least the following systems: a navigation system operable to autonomously navigate the unmanned vehicle, an anomaly detection system, a communications system, an anomaly tracking system, operable to track, visually or by following, a detected anomaly, and an alert evaluation system. Each vehicle travels the path on a predetermined route, and is operable to broadcast an alert message to all other vehicles if that vehicle detects an anomaly, to perform an evaluation of any received alert message to determine if it will travel to an anomaly based on stored evaluation rules, and to respond to an alert message based on the evaluation.

主权项

1. A method of patrolling a perimeter of a geographic area, using two or more unmanned vehicles having means for locomotion along a perimeter path, comprising:
equipping each vehicle with a navigation system operable to autonomously navigate the unmanned vehicle along the path; equipping each vehicle with an anomaly detection system, operable to detect objects on and near the path while in a continuous detection mode; equipping each vehicle with a communications system operable to communicate at least the following types of messages: anomaly alert messages, anomaly update request messages, and anomaly update messages; equipping each vehicle with an anomaly tracking system, operable to track, visually or by following, a detected anomaly; equipping each vehicle with an alert evaluation system, the evaluation system having memory for storing evaluation rules; wherein each vehicle is operable to: travel the path on a predetermined route while in the continuous detection mode, broadcast an alert message to all other vehicles if that vehicle detects an anomaly, to perform an evaluation of any received alert message to determine if it will travel to an anomaly based on the evaluation rules, and to respond to an alert message based on the evaluation.