US-12628243-B2 - Flight area management method for uncrewed aerial vehicle and related apparatus

Abstract

A flight area management method for an uncrewed aerial vehicle and a related apparatus, where the method includes: An access and mobility management function (AMF) obtains flight area exception information of an uncrewed aerial vehicle, where the flight area exception information indicates that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in a normal flight area. The AMF sends a flight area exception notification message to an uncrewed aerial system traffic management (UTM), where the flight area exception notification message is used to indicate that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in the normal flight area. When flight area exception occurs on the uncrewed aerial vehicle, using the UTM to control the uncrewed aerial vehicle can improve controlling safety for the uncrewed aerial vehicle.

Inventors

• Chengchen Zhang
• Lin Shu
• Wenfu WU

Assignees

• HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20220330

Priority Date

20190930

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method comprising: receiving, by an unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM), a flight area exception notification message, wherein the flight area exception notification message indicates that an uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in a normal flight area; sending, by the UTM in response to the flight area exception notification message, a first controller switching notification message, wherein the first controller switching notification message comprises first control indication information, and wherein the first control indication information instructs a controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle to stop controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle; sending, by the UTM, a second controller switching notification message, wherein the second controller switching notification message comprises second control indication information, and wherein the second control indication information indicates that the UTM is the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle based on session policy information corresponding to both the uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle; receiving, by the UTM, a controller switching request from the uncrewed aerial vehicle; and sending, by the UTM, a controller switching response to the uncrewed aerial vehicle, wherein the controller switching response indicates that the UTM accepts the controller switching request.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the session policy information comprises route forwarding information.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second control indication information indicates that the UTM is the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle in a context of a session corresponding to both the uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein before sending the first controller switching notification message, the flight area management method further comprises sending, by the UTM, a notification about the uncrewed aerial vehicle leaving the normal flight area to the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, wherein the notification comprises third control indication information, wherein the third control indication information indicates that the uncrewed aerial vehicle has left the normal flight area, and wherein the third control indication information instructs the controller to control the uncrewed aerial vehicle to enter the normal flight area.
5. 5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein sending the first controller switching notification message comprises: starting, by the UTM, a timer; and sending, after the timer expires, the first controller switching notification message responsive to determining that the UTM does not receive a notification message from an access and mobility management function (AMF) before the timer expires, wherein the notification message notifies the UTM that the uncrewed aerial vehicle has entered the normal flight area.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first control indication information indicates to release a session between the uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle such that the controller stops controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending, by the UTM, a subscription request message to an access and mobility management function (AMF).
8. 8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the subscription request message requests to subscribe to a flight area change event of the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
9. 9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising subscribing, by the UTM, to the flight area change event of the uncrewed aerial vehicle from the AMF.
10. 10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the subscription request message comprises identification information of the uncrewed aerial vehicle and normal flight area of the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from an access and mobility management function (AMF), the flight area exception notification message.
12. 12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the first controller switching notification message to a policy control function (PCF).
13. 13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the first controller switching notification message to a session management function (SMF).
14. 14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the first controller switching notification message to the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
15. 15 . A method comprising: obtaining, via a session modification command or a session release command from a session management function (SMF) and by a controller of an uncrewed aerial vehicle message responsive to determining that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in a normal flight area, control indication information of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, wherein the control indication information instructs the controller to stop controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle; and performing, by the controller, an operation indicated by the control indication information on the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
16. 16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein message responsive to determining that the control indication information instructs the controller to stop controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle, obtaining the control indication information comprises: receiving, by the controller, a first controller switching notification message received from an unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM), wherein the first controller switching notification message comprises the control indication information; and obtaining, by the controller, the control indication information from the first controller switching notification message.
17. 17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising: sending, by the controller, a session release request to the SMF, wherein the session release request requests the SMF to release a session between the controller and the uncrewed aerial vehicle; and receiving, by the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, a session release response.
18. 18 . A terminal device, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to cause the terminal device to: obtain, via a session modification command or a session release command from a session management function (SMF), control indication information of an uncrewed aerial vehicle responsive to determining that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in a normal flight area, wherein the control indication information instructs the terminal device to stop controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle; and perform an operation indicated by the control indication information on the uncrewed aerial vehicle.
19. 19 . The terminal device of claim 18 , wherein message responsive to determining that the control indication information instructs the terminal device to stop controlling the uncrewed aerial vehicle, the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to cause the terminal device to obtain the control indication information from a first controller switching notification message received from an unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM).
20. 20 . The terminal device of claim 19 , further comprising a transceiver configured to: send a session release request to the SMF to request the SMF to release a session between the terminal device and the uncrewed aerial vehicle; and receive a session release response.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2020/118868, filed on Sep. 29, 2020, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201910962176.8, filed on Sep. 30, 2019. The disclosures of the aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a flight area management method for an uncrewed aerial vehicle and a related apparatus. BACKGROUND In recent years, uncrewed aerial vehicles are used in more application scenarios such as aerial photography in consumer application; agriculture application, forestry application, meteorology application, resource exploration, power inspection, and surveying and mapping in industrial application; and military application. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has been discussing to develop standards for uncrewed aerial vehicles to access a 3GPP system. In future application scenarios, a controller of an uncrewed aerial vehicle may access the 3GPP system as well as the uncrewed aerial vehicle. The uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller of the uncrewed aerial vehicle communicate using a network connection service provided by the 3GPP system. An uncrewed aerial system traffic management (e.g., Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM)) is a 3GPP entity introduced for networking of uncrewed aerial vehicles in the 3GPP discussion. The UTM has functions such as performing authentication on an uncrewed aerial vehicle (e.g., Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)), authorizing an uncrewed aircraft system (e.g., Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)) service, managing a UAS policy, and controlling UAV traffic. An authorized user (for example, an aerial traffic control department and a public safety agency) or the like may query information such as an identifier of the UAV, an identifier of a controller of the UAV, metadata, and a flight status via the UTM. The uncrewed aerial vehicle that accesses the 3GPP system communicates with the controller of the UAV through a network connection provided by the 3GPP system. The uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller may fail to continue communicating with each other beyond the network connection service provided by the 3GPP system. Due to particularity of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, a location of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, namely, an area in which the uncrewed aerial vehicle is allowed to fly, needs to be restricted. When the uncrewed aerial vehicle flies outside the area in which the uncrewed aerial vehicle is allowed to fly, the 3GPP system may consider the uncrewed aerial vehicle as an unauthorized uncrewed aerial vehicle. Therefore, the 3GPP system is highly likely to stop providing the network connection service for the uncrewed aerial vehicle. In other words, if the uncrewed aerial vehicle flies outside the area in which the uncrewed aerial vehicle is allowed to fly, the uncrewed aerial vehicle and the controller may fail to continue communicating with each other. This may cause the uncrewed aerial vehicle to lose control, bringing forth potential safety risks for the uncrewed aerial vehicle. SUMMARY Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a flight area management method for an uncrewed aerial vehicle and a related apparatus, to improve controlling safety for the uncrewed aerial vehicle using a UTM to control the uncrewed aerial vehicle when flight area exception occurs on the uncrewed aerial vehicle. According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a flight area management method for an uncrewed aerial vehicle. The method includes: An access and mobility management function (AMF) receives a subscription request message from an uncrewed aerial system traffic management (UTM), where the subscription request message is used to request to subscribe to a flight area change event of the uncrewed aerial vehicle. The AMF obtains flight area exception information of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, where the flight area exception information indicates that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in a normal flight area. The AMF sends a flight area exception notification message to the UTM, where the flight area exception notification message is used to indicate that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in the normal flight area. In the foregoing embodiment, the AMF receives the subscription request information from the UTM. After obtaining the flight area exception information of the uncrewed aerial vehicle, the AMF sends the flight area exception notification message to the UTM, such that the AMF may notify the UTM in a timely manner that the uncrewed aerial vehicle is not located in the normal flight area after obtaining the flight area exception of the uncrewed aerial vehicle. In this way, the UTM may control the uncrewed aerial vehicle, thereby improving controlling safety