Systems and methods for surface and subsurface damage assessments, patch scans, and visualization

• US 10,102,428 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2017
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Loveland Innovations, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Loveland Innovations, LLC
• Inventors: Loveland, Jim, Larson, Leif, Christiansen, Dan, Christiansen, Tad, Christiansen, Cam
• Primary Examiner(s): Tucker, Wesley J
• Application Number:
  US15/796,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20180247121A1
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/002 Taxiing aids
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/14 with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0038 by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard the vehicle, e.g. tele-operation images analyzed by a computer and used for automatic navigation G05D1/0246
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10032 Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30184 Infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/235 based on user input or interaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/176 Urban or other man-made structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes

Abstract

An unmanned autonomous vehicle assessment and reporting system may conduct patch scan analyses of a roof. Damage points on the roof may be evaluated for severity and assigned a severity value. A remediation status may be objectively developed for one or more faces of the roof based on the number of damage points within a patch region of a defined size and the severity value of each of the damage points within the patch region. A visualization system may overlay markings, such as color-coded markings, to display a representation of a roof, patch regions, damage points, and/or severity values.

Claims

1. An unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) assessment system for visually presenting an analysis of a roof of a structure, comprising:

a receiver to receive data collected by at least one sensor on an unmanned autonomous vehicle, the data including scan data of at least a portion of a roof of a structure;

an analyzer to identify a plurality of defects within a sample region of the roof of the structure based on the received scan data, wherein the sample region corresponds to a sub-portion of the roof and has a defined size characteristic;

a visualization system to generate a visual presentation of;

at least a portion of the roof,

a visible sample region overlay marking visually identifying the sample region in spatial context of the displayed portion of the roof, and

a plurality of visible defect overlay markings in context of the defined size characteristic of the sample region to visually identify at least some of the plurality of defects identified within the sample region.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sample region selection module configured to receive user input defining the size characteristic of the sample region based on at least one of an input size, perimeter, area, shape, and location within which the plurality of defects is to be identified by the analyzer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzer is configured to identify the plurality of defects within the sample region by receiving data from a cloud-based identification system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the sample region is defined as a one of a rectangle and a square encompassing a defined square footage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the scan data of at least a portion of a roof comprises at least one of a surface of a roof and a subsurface of a roof.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an estimation module to prepare an estimate for repairing or replacing at least a portion of the roof associated with the sample region.

7. An unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) assessment system for surface or subsurface analysis, comprising:

a user input device to receive an input from an operator to initiate the surface or subsurface analysis;

a communication receiver to receive data collected by at least one sensor on an unmanned autonomous vehicle, the data including scan data of a portion of a surface or subsurface;

an analyzer to identify one or more defects within a sample region of the surface or subsurface from the scan data, wherein the sample region has a defined size characteristic comprising at least one of;

a defined area, a defined diameter, a defined height, and a defined length;

a visualization system to generate a visual presentation of;

at least a portion of the surface or subsurface;

a visible sample region overlay marking visually identifying the sample region in positional context of the displayed portion of the surface or subsurface, and

at least one visible defect overlay marking in context of the defined size characteristic of the sample region, wherein the displayed defect overlay marking is distinct from the sample region overlay marking for the one or more defects identified within the sample region.

8. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, further comprising a sample region selection module configured to receive input from the operator defining the size characteristic of the sample region based on at least one of an input size, perimeter, area, shape, and location within which the at least one defect is to be identified by the analyzer.

9. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, wherein the analyzer is configured to identify the one or more defects within the sample region by receiving data from a cloud-based identification system.

10. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, wherein the sample region is defined as a rectangle encompassing approximately 100 square-feet.

11. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, wherein the surface or subsurface comprises at least one of a surface of a roof and a subsurface of a roof.

12. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, further comprising an electronic display to display the visual presentation.

13. The UAV assessment system of claim 7, further comprising an estimation module to prepare an estimate for repairing or replacing at least a portion of the surface or subsurface.

14. A visualization system for presenting surface or subsurface analysis data captured by an unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) assessment system, comprising:

a receiver to receive data from an analyzer that identifies at least two defects within a sample region of a surface or subsurface based on scan data collected by at least one sensor on an unmanned autonomous vehicle,

wherein the sample region has a defined size characteristic comprising at least one of;

a defined area, a defined diameter, a defined height, and a defined length; and

a visualization system to generate a visual presentation for display on an electronic display, the visual presentation comprising;

at least a portion of the surface or subsurface;

a visible sample region overlay marking visually identifying the sample region in locational context of the displayed portion of the surface or subsurface, and

at least two visible defect overlay markings in context of the defined size characteristic of the sample region overlay marking to identify at least some of the at least two defects identified within the sample region.

15. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, wherein the size characteristic of the sample region is based on at least one of a user-input size, perimeter, area, shape, and location.

16. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, wherein the scan data comprises visible light images captured by a visible light camera.

17. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, wherein the scan data comprises infrared images captured by an infrared camera and wherein the visual presentation further comprises a false-color representation of infrared images.

18. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, wherein the sample region is defined as a rectangle encompassing approximately 100 square-feet.

19. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, wherein the surface or subsurface comprises at least one of a surface of a roof and a subsurface of a roof.

20. The UAV assessment system of claim 14, further comprising an estimation module to prepare an estimate for repairing or replacing at least a portion of the surface or subsurface.