Drone-based microbial analysis system

{
  "publication_number": "US9447448B1",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B1",
  "title": "Drone-based microbial analysis system",
  "abstract": "A drone-based microbial analysis system includes an electronic drone control facility including an electronic storage memory device. The storage memory device stores information including a location of at least one possible contaminated area previously determined to contain at least one positively-tested microbe. At least one drone vehicle is in signal communication with the drone control facility and autonomously navigates to the at least one possible contaminated area to collect a specimen. The drone control facility performs a microbial analysis based on the collected specimen and confirms the at least one possible contaminated area is a positively contaminated area that contains at least one microbe based on the microbial analysis.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method of performing a microbial analysis, the method comprising: determining at least one possible contaminated area; autonomously navigating at least one drone vehicle to the at least one possible contaminated area to collect at least one specimen; performing a microbial analysis based on the collected at least one specimen; and confirming the at least one possible contaminated area is a positively contaminated area that contains at least one microbe based on the microbial analysis.",
    "2. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing at least one decontamination operation to decontaminate the positively contaminated area in response to determining that the at least one possible contaminated area tests positive.",
    "3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting location data indicating the at least one possible contaminated area to the at least one drone vehicle such that the drone vehicle autonomously navigates to the at least one possible contaminated area.",
    "4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one drone vehicle autonomously returns to the electronic drone control facility in response to collecting at least one specimen to deliver the collected at least one specimen.",
    "5. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing the microbial analysis on the at least one specimen delivered by the at least one drone vehicle.",
    "6. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting specimen data to the electronic drone control facility.",
    "7. The method of claim 6, further comprising performing the microbial analysis based on at least one of the delivered specimens and the transmitted specimen data.",
    "8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a lookup table (LUT) populated with the at least one possible contaminated area previously determined to contain at least one positively-tested microbe and updating the LUT in based on a result of the microbial analysis."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/687,101, filed Apr. 15, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.\n\nThe present invention relates to microbial contamination prevention, and more particularly, to a microbial analysis and disinfection control system.\n\nVarious environments such as agriculture environments and healthcare environments, for example, are plagued by microbes such as, for example, antibiotic resistant bacteria, mold, pathogens, spores, viruses, or other contaminants. Traditionally, human workers were tasked with the responsibility to detect and disinfect contaminated areas. The demands on these workers include constant vigilance to prevent contaminated areas and opportunities for transmission, as well as costly management of host carriers. In addition, the workers themselves can become colonized by these strains of microbes, and can experience health effects or job loss or as a result. As workloads increase with cost-cutting measures, workers are faced with the challenge to manage the cognitive load of identifying likely contaminated areas, disinfect positively identified contamination areas, and prevent the future spread of microbes.\n\nAccording to at least one embodiment, a drone-based microbial analysis system includes an electronic drone control facility including an electronic storage memory device. The storage memory device stores information including a location of at least one possible contaminated area previously determined to contain at least one positively-tested microbe.",
  "cpc": [
    "C12Q 1/04",
    "B64C 2201/12",
    "B64C 2201/141",
    "B64C 39/024",
    "B64D 1/22",
    "B64U 2101/00",
    "B64U 2201/10",
    "G01N 1/02",
    "G05D 1/106"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B64C 39/02",
    "C12Q 1/04",
    "G05D 1/00"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "International Business Machines Corp"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "James R. Kozloski",
    "Timothy M. Lynar",
    "Clifford A. Pickover",
    "John M. Wagner"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2015-06-19",
  "publication_date": "2016-09-20",
  "grant_date": "2016-09-20",
  "priority_date": "2015-04-15",
  "application_number": "US-201514744663-A",
  "family_id": "56896057",
  "cited_by_count": 41,
  "citations": [
    "US20090228355A1",
    "US20160144358A1"
  ]
}