SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CONTROL OF A VEHICLE

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to providing control of a vehicle, and relates more particularly, though not exclusively, to control of a vehicle in a gameplay environment.

BACKGROUND

Space and terrestrial exploration are often carried out using unmanned vehicles. These vehicles normally comprise highly advanced and complex technology for specialized purposes such as image capture and signal transmission, and are very costly to produce and operate. As such, they are traditionally the property of specialized research and development or exploration organizations, and operated only by specially trained staff belonging to these organizations.

Nevertheless, outer space continues to fascinate the common man as it not only represents the unknown, but is also often the background against which exciting futuristic possibilities are set in books, films. Being an astronaut is an occupation that many have dreamt of, but, in reality, few can aspire to.

SUMMARY

The invention aims to provide persons with an experience of remotely controlling a vehicle in real time, the experience being purchasable as a consumer service for a fee. Preferably, the vehicle is a spacecraft in astronautical space. Astronautical space is taken to include the Earth's mesosphere as well as regions above the Karman line

within the reach of space flight control, or where a vehicle may be separated from the Earth's surface by a balance of gravitational and dynamic forces generated independently from any fluid in which the vehicle may be travelling.

A computer user interface may be provided for remotely controlling the vehicle. The user interface and the vehicle are telemetrically connected via at least one transmitting station that transmits radio-frequency signals between the transmitting station and the vehicle. The user interface may be connected to the transmitting station via internet, or the computer interface may be provided to a user via a dedicated console.

A payment transaction system is provided through which a user gains access to the user interface. Transactions on the payment transaction system may comprise registering a user with the communication system and maintaining a log of time spent controlling the vehicle. A user may make payment through the payment transaction system in order to gain access to the communication system, as well as for time spent controlling the vehicle and for instructions sent to the vehicle or executed by the vehicle under the user's control.

An interactive screen environment is provided within which the vehicle is remotely controlled by the user. The screen environment may comprise live images obtained by an imaging device on the vehicle. The live images may be integrated or superimposed with computer graphics, sampled scenery obtained via photography or other artwork. Preferably, a gameplay scenario is provided in the interactive screen environment. The gameplay scenario may be co-operative, competitive, combative, or may require one or

more users to accomplish pre-set tasks in a challenge game. Two or more vehicles being remotely controlled by two or more users may interact with one another via the gameplay scenario. Preferably, the two or more users are connected with each other via internet. The invention also allows more than one user to have control over one vehicle, so that a vehicle may be controlled by a team of users. Users may perform gaming tasks at different levels of involvement.

According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of controlling a vehicle. The method comprises the steps of providing the vehicle; communicating instructions from a user interface to the vehicle via a communication system comprising radio-frequency transmissions between a transmitting station and the vehicle; communicating information from the vehicle to the user interface via the communication system; providing a payment transaction system for permitting access to the user interface; and performing a transaction on the payment transaction system.

According to a second aspect, there is provided a system comprising a vehicle; a user interface; a payment transaction system for permitting access to the user interface and performing a transaction on the payment transaction system; and a communication system for communicating instructions from the user interface to the vehicle and communicating information from the vehicle to the user interface. The communicating system comprises a transmitting station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily put into practical effect there shall now be described by way of non-limitative example only exemplary embodiments, the description being with reference to the accompanying illustrative drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is flow diagram of a method for providing control of a vehicle;

FIG. 2 is an architecture diagram of a system for providing control of a vehicle; FIG. 3 is an architecture diagram of a ground station;

FIG. 4 is an architecture diagram of a plurality of ground stations and user interfaces;

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a miniature spacecraft;

FIG. 6 is a schematic front view of the miniature spacecraft of FIG. 5; and FIG. 7 is an architecture diagram of control of the miniature spacecraft of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 and 2 show a method 100 and system architecture 10 for providing control of a vehicle 12 respectively. The vehicle 12 is provided 102 in telemetric connection with a user interface 14. Instructions from a computer user interface 14 are communicated to the vehicle 12, 104 via a communication system 15 for a user to remotely control the vehicle 12.

Preferably, a plurality of vehicles 12 and user interfaces 14 are provided. The user interface 14 may be provided via internet as a web service to a user at home or at an internet cafe or anywhere else a user having a internet connection and a computer may be. Alternatively, the user interface 14 may be provided via a dedicated console. A plurality of dedicated consoles may be provided in a specialist gaming shop that can serve multiple users at a time. Multiple users may also gather at an internet cafe and register with the communication system to gain access to control of the vehicles 12. Multiple users may further be in separate locations, each having access to the communication system via internet connection. The plurality of user interfaces 14 may be connected to each other via a common network such as the internet, LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), or a combination thereof.

Instructions sent by a user via the user interface 14 are transmitted via radio-frequency transmissions to the vehicle 12 by a transmitting station 16. A ground station 18 may interconnect the plurality of user interfaces 14. A plurality of transmitting stations 16 may be provided and preferably also connected via internet with the ground station 18. The ground station 18 thus serves to collect instructions from the plurality of user interfaces 14 and to distribute the instructions to respective transmitting stations 16 for onward transmission to the plurality of vehicles 12 respectively.

Similarly, information from the vehicle 12 is communicated to the user interface 14, 106. For example, relevant telemetric data obtained from the vehicles 12 for aiding remote control of the vehicles 12 are sent from the vehicles 12 and received by the transmitting stations 16, then channeled through the ground station 18 to the user

interfaces 14 accordingly. One or more relay satellites may be provided to ensure continuous connectivity by amplifying signals to cover the long distance between the vehicle 12 and the ground station 18. A relay satellite may communicate with the vehicle 12 by radio waves, optical beams, or wires.

Preferably, as shown in FIG. 3, the ground station 18 is equipped with at least one antenna 182 mounted on a directing system enabling the antenna to be directed towards the vehicle 12. The directing system is typically actuated by servo-motors 184 controlled by an antenna controller 186 that receives coordinates of the vehicle 12 from a computer server 188 where the path of the vehicle 12 is memorized or retrieved from a data base. Alternatively, the antenna controller 186 may calculate the coordinates of the vehicle 12 based on the path received by the computer server 188. The computer server is typically connected to a modem 187 and a radio 189 for sending and receiving information to and from the antenna 182. A standard RS232 interface may be used to connect the computer server 188 with the antenna controller 186 and the modem 187.

A plurality of ground stations 18 may be provided for maximizing constancy of connectivity to one or more vehicles 12 provided in astronautical space, as shown in FIG. 4. This may be achieved by switching the connection between a vehicle 12 from one ground station to another ground station when the vehicle 12 disappears under the horizon. The plurality of ground stations 18 may be connected (through a radio/computer 130) via internet 140 (dotted lines) or dedicated links 160 (solid lines) with one or more computer servers 188. Each of the computer servers 188 may be configured to serve different geographical groups of users. The computer servers 188

may be connected to various user interfaces 14 via dedicated links 160 (solid lines) or via internet 140 (dashed lines). Each computer server 188 includes a control software engine for performing various functions of the computer server 188.

Transmissions to and from the user interface 14 and the vehicle 12 are preferably cryptographically encoded for avoiding unwanted interference to the telemetric connection. Preferably, all data exiting the computer server 188 is encrypted and all data entering the computer server 188 is decrypted by the control software engine. Encryption also helps to prevent theft of transmissions between the user interface 14 and the vehicle 12. For example, data packages such as live images received from the vehicle 12 may be decrypted by the computer server 188, analyzed, recomposed with other data, and encrypted again to be sent to the user interface 14 via internet 140. Different encryption/decryption systems are preferably used for connection between the computer server 188 and a vehicle 12, and between the computer server 188 and a user interface 14.

The communication system 15 preferably also comprises a delimiting feature for the control software engine of the computer server 188 to filter control commands made by a user via the user interface 14. For example, a user may issue commands that would lead to undesirable events such as an unnecessary expense of fuel, damage to the vehicle 12, movement of the vehicle 12 beyond telemetric range, or damage to another object. The delimiting feature is configured to prevent such maneuvers from taking place despite the user's commands, so as to prevent such undesirable events from occurring. Preferably, the control software engine internally simulates the effect of

every command issued by a user and forecasts its effect before accepting it and commanding its execution. The system architecture 10 may further comprise a database of flight formation and vehicle orbit information to coordinate movement paths of multiple vehicles 12 in order to avoid collisions.

The method 100 and system 10 preferably include providing an interactive screen environment at the user interface such that controlling each vehicle 12 takes place within the interactive screen environment. The interactive screen environment preferably includes a gameplay scenario under the control of a game controller program in the computer server 188. The gameplay scenario is preferably composed of live images obtained by an imaging device on the vehicle 12. The live images may be filtered by the control software engine of the computer server 188, and are preferably graphically enhanced by graphical illustrations that may be superimposed, recomposed with or otherwise integrated on the live images by the computer server 188. The graphical illustrations are preferably provided through the game controller program and may comprise sampled scenery obtained via photography, computer graphics or other artwork suitable for creating the gameplay scenario. The graphical illustrations may include still pictures as well as animation.

The communication system 15 preferably allows two or more vehicles 12 being remotely controlled by two or more users to interact with each other. More preferably, multiple users are allowed to interact with each other via the gameplay scenario in a gaming experience. Alternatively, multiple users may have control over one vehicle 12 via separate user interfaces 14 each, with each user having control over a specific aspect

of the vehicle 12. For example, the multiple users may have designations such as flight engineer, navigator and commander. The system architecture 10 is configured to allow users to access sequentially and/or in parallel the vehicle 12 to perform in different phases or levels of a game or different functions in a game. Users may also participate via their respective user interfaces 14 in a particular gameplay scenario as passengers on a vehicle 12 being controlled by other users.

In one embodiment, the gameplay scenario may require teams of users (with each team operating a vehicle 12) to engage each other via their respective vehicles 12. Engagement may be collaborative or competitive or even combative. For example, each vehicle 12 may be fitted with a laser "gun" and catadioptric reflecting or other sensitive surfaces and teams may score game points by making successful "hits" on the vehicle 12 of another team. The catadioptric surfaces on a vehicle 12 may represent aiming areas where an incident beam of light sent by a beam emitting device on another vehicle 12b may be reflected back to the sending vehicle 12' in a direction parallel to the incident beam, to be detected by a photosensitive device placed proximate to the beam emitting device.

The gaming experience may be enhanced for greater user enjoyment by use of appropriate graphical illustrations. For example, a successful hit may be accompanied by computer generated virtual explosions and virtual damage shown that is superimposed upon real-time views of the vehicle 12 that has been hit and displayed to a user via the user interface 14.

In another embodiment, the gameplay scenario may comprise challenge games where users are provided with tasks to be performed by their respective vehicles 12. The tasks may be decided by another user, another team of users, or selectable from a plurality of predetermined tasks provided in the system architecture 10. Tasks suited to a vehicle 12 that is in space orbit include making an aligned flight to a celestial body such as the Moon, taking a photograph of an earth-bound location, shooting a laser beam at another vehicle 12 from a specified distance, making flights of specified trajectories e.g. around another vehicle 12 etc. Game points scored may depend on the level of success achieved in completing the assigned tasks.

In a further embodiment, as an addition or alternative to gameplay scenarios, the method 100 and system 10 may provide users with an exploratory or "tourist" experience using the vehicles 12 as exploratory vehicles in new environments. For example, multiple users may register for use of multiple vehicles 12 at a time in order to obtain a broader or higher resolved view of a viewing target. Multiple views of a single viewing target obtained via multiple vehicles 12 may also be used to reconstruct a three dimensional model of the viewing target, or to obtain multispectral information of a target such as its infrared signature and to perform thermal analysis of the target. Multiple views may further be combined in order to improve image resolution when imaging a distant object such as a star.

The user interface 14 is preferably provided with at least one program with a capability of creating the interactive screen environment independently or in combination with the computer server 188. The user interface 14 is configured to receive input from a user

via an input device such as a joystick, a keyboard or a mouse. The program may also generate signals for use with a servo-actuated gaming seat to simulate movement of the vehicle 12. Preferably, the program is configured for decrypting data arriving at the user interface 14 via internet and for encrypting commands sent via internet from the user interface 14 to the ground station 18. Depending on an individual user's level of participation in a game, the program may present varying levels of data and images from the vehicle 12 and game to the individual user.

Preferably, the vehicle 12 is a finely stabilized, remotely controllable and comparatively inexpensive miniature spacecraft 13 in astronautical space, as shown in FIG. 3.

Preferably, the spacecraft 13 is a nanosatellite such as a CubeSat. The spacecraft may be 10cm x 10cm x 10cm in size and 1 kg in weight. The spacecraft 13 preferably comprises an orbital engine having at least one micropropulsion thruster 22, electronics for attitude determination 26a and attitude control 26b, an on-board computer 28, micro gyro and/or magnetic sensors 30, a communication and data handling module 32, a GPS (Global Positioning System) 34, a power control 36, a battery pack 38 and a fuel system including a tank 24 for storing the fuel which may be gaseous, liquid or solid and possibly under pressure. An isolation valve is preferably provided in the fuel system for avoiding any risk of fuel leakage, while a fluidic circuit is provided for supplying fuel from the tank 24 to the thrusters 22. A separation element that may be in the form of a membrane in the isolation valve keeps the fuel in the tank 24 totally separated from the fluidic circuit connected to the micropropulsion thruster. Once in astronautical space, the isolation valve may be activated by a command from the user interface 14 to melt or vaporize the separation element in the isolation valve, so that fuel contained under

pressure in the tank 24 is allowed to flow into the rest of the fuel system, ready for use in the micropropulsion thruster 22. Once the fuel is completely used up, or for spacecrafts 13 where fuel is not provided on top of battery power, the spacecraft 13 may still be operated with limited attitude control, running on battery power alone. Control of such spacecrafts 13 with limited functionalities may be transacted for a lower fee. In addition to the fuel system and battery pack 38, solar panels 27 may be provided on the exterior of the spacecraft 13 for harnessing energy from the sun. In order to increase available power (normally supplied by the battery pack 38 and the solar panels 27, the spacecraft 13 may be further equipped with deployable solar panels (not shown) for providing a higher surface to collect energy from the Sun.

Control of the spacecraft 13 includes control over its course and attitude. The spacecraft 13 is preferably maneuvered by remotely controlling the micropropulsion thrusters 22 on the spacecraft 13 via the user interface 14. Preferably, at least two thruster modules 22a, 22b are provided on diametrically opposing locations on the spacecraft 13, as shown in FIG. 6. Each thruster module 22a, 22b may be provided with four nozzles in perpendicular and opposite directions. Control over the attitude of the spacecraft 13 may be achieved by independently firing appropriate nozzles on each of the two thrusters 22 to achieve a resultant net force and/or torque. For example, to only rotate the spacecraft 13 without translating it, nozzles 23a and 23b that fire in opposite directions and at equal distances from the center of mass of the spacecraft 13 should be fired simultaneously with equal force in order to generate a pure torque. Control over the course of the spacecraft 13 may be achieved simply by firing two nozzles 23a, 23c in a same direction to generate a net resultant force passing through the center of mass of the

spacecraft 13, without generating a torque. Various thruster configurations may also be used in combination with reaction wheels 66 and magnetic coils 67 to achieve similar results with varying levels of precision.

The vehicle 12 preferably comprises an imaging device 25 for capturing live images of its environment and, where applicable, of other vehicles 12 it may be interacting with in the interactive environment provided to users. The imaging device may comprise a lens system to focus an image of a subject on a sensor such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS). The image may be impressed upon the sensor and temporarily stored in a memory buffer. The image may then be compressed in a memory-saving format and transferred to a buffer of the communication module 32 for transmission by means of radio waves to the transmitting station 16. The compressed image is then transmitted to the user interface 14 for visualization after having been decompressed by appropriate software.

For a spacecraft 13 in astronautical space, since space images are generally static and geometrically coherent according to the laws of perspective, once a first image is stored, subsequent images can be synthetically generated by the user interface by keeping track of changes in attitude of the spacecraft 13 until a previously defined acceptable visualization error is reached. Another real image may then be taken, stored, compressed and transmitted to the user interface 14. If an object such as another spacecraft 13' is present in the field of view of the imaging device 25, only a portion of an image including the spacecraft 13' may be stored, compressed, transmitted, decompressed and superimposed on an image of the spacecraft 13' synthetically

generated at the user interface 14, based on its relative position on the synthetically generated image. In this way, it will be possible to further save memory and transmission power or bandwidth, by sending complete compressed images at longer time intervals (e.g. 1 second) and only attitude data at shorter intervals (e.g. 0.1 second). Regenerated images may thus be visualized by a mixture of reconstructed interpolated images and real images, at a frequency sufficient for giving a user an impression of uniform motion (e.g. 20 to 30 frames per second).

Alternatively, but with less impressive effects for gaming purposes, images may be taken by gimbaled cameras, or fixed cameras equipped with gimbaled mirrors, positioned on one or more points of the vehicle 12 in order to simulate a change in attitude without rotating the vehicle 12, or to simulate a change of point of view such as may arise when an astronaut turns his head while positioned on a stable vehicle. Such images may also be combined synthetically to provide a wider image or a series of images that give an impression of a complete revolution of the vehicle 12.

In an exemplary embodiment of a collaborative task for multiple vehicles 12, images of one subject taken by different vehicles at a sufficient separation distance from each other may be used to produce a three-dimensional stereoscopic image of the subject for purposes such as measuring depths of ground features or of other flying or orbiting vehicles.

As shown in FIG. 7, the onboard computer 28 on the spacecraft 13 sends encrypted data packets of telemetry and images to a transmitter 62 that modulates the data and images

(e.g. via pulse code modulation) and sends them to a transmission antenna 63 for transmission to the ground station 18. A receiving antenna 64 receives command signals from the ground station 18 in the form of radio waves that are transformed into digital data by a receiver 65. The receiver 65 transfers the digital data to the onboard computer 28 for decryption, interpretation and use by the other components of the spacecraft 13.

To service the spacecraft 13, at least one support center 40 may be provided in astronautical space, e.g., at a similar orbit attitude as the spacecraft 13. The support center 40 may be where the spacecraft 13 is stored, maintained, refueled, recharged, where batteries are loaded/changed, and from where it is launched to perform flights requested by users via the user interfaces 14. The spacecraft 13 may be tethered to the support center 40 to relay communications through thin conductive wires, thereby saving power and simplifying the communication system 15. The support center 40 may be used to relay transmissions and to amplify signals coming from the spacecraft 13 before communicating them to the transmitting station 16, thereby reducing power needed on the spacecraft 13.

A special "blackout" function may be provided in the system architecture 10 in order to ensure that sensitive or classified information is not inadvertently divulged to a user controlling the vehicle 12. For example, when the vehicle 12 is over a military installation or other restricted site, the respective user will not be shown live views or other images of the military installation that may otherwise be captured by the vehicle 12.

The vehicle 12 may optionally be provided with space for a sponsor to place an image such as a logo or a banner on the vehicle 12. The image may serve as a form of advertising on the vehicle 12 that can be viewed through another vehicle controlled by another user. A bay in the vehicle 12 may also be provided for carrying cargo. The cargo may be items for a game belonging to a user or a group of users, or items for advertising belonging to a sponsor.

A payment transaction system 42 is provided 108 for allowing transactions to be performed 110. The payment transaction system 42 may provide an initial payment interface for a user to make payment in order to register with the communication system 15 and gain access to the user interface 14. Transactions performed on the payment transaction system may also include maintaining a log of time spent by a user in the communication system 15, and recording how many instructions a user sends to the vehicle 12, whether or not the instruction was executed. For example, a fee may be levied for sending an instruction for the vehicle 12 to fire a thrust in a specific direction for a given time, or to take a high definition picture of a subject even if that subject is not allowed to be pictured for security reasons and therefore the instruction could not be executed. In this way, payment for each session may comprise a time-based charge as well as an instruction/maneuver-based charge that are calculated by a fee calculator according to a pre-determined fee structure. A maneuver-economizer clock may be provided to help a user keep track of maneuver-based charges being incurred by the user. The payment transaction system 42 may further comprise a booking scheduler for users to plan and coordinate their vehicle 12 control sessions and to make reservations for specific time slots. Coordination of the booking scheduler, charging of fees and

other transactions of the payment transaction system 42 are preferably performed by the control software engine of the computer server 188.

The payment transaction system 42 preferably allows users to make payment transactions using known payment formats such as using credit cards, PayPal™ or wire transfers. The fee structure may also comprise a subscription fee that may permit unlimited access, for example. A scale of fees may be provided to accommodate varying levels of user activity on the system 10. Network marketing may be employed to give existing users fee discounts or bonus game points for introducing new users.

Whilst there has been described in the foregoing description exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that many variations in details of design, construction and/or operation may be made without departing from the present invention. For example, instead of the vehicle 12 being in astronautical space, the vehicle 12 may be provided within the Earth's atmosphere as a flying vehicle appropriately configured for flight. In another embodiment, the vehicle 12 may be configured for underwater use and provided in a water body such as an ocean.