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3D modeling of cell sites and cell towers with unmanned aerial vehicles

  • US 10,231,133 B2
  • Filed: 05/20/2016
  • Issued: 03/12/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for modeling a cell site with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the method comprising:

  • causing the UAV to fly a given flight path about a cell tower at the cell site, wherein the UAV takes a plurality of flights about the cell tower and a launch location and launch orientation is defined for the UAV to take off and land at the cell site via a zone indicator at the cell site which marks a location on the ground such that each flight of the plurality of flights has the same launch location at the cell site and launch orientation where the UAV is facing during the take off;

    obtaining a plurality of photographs of the cell site during the plurality of flights, wherein each of the plurality of photographs is associated with one or more location identifiers;

    subsequent to the obtaining, processing the plurality of photographs to define a three dimensional (3D) model of the cell site based on the associated with one or more location identifiers and one or more objects of interest in the plurality of photographs, wherein the 3D model further includes the zone indicator for future flights; and

    subsequent to creation of the 3D model, relaunching the UAV from the launch location based on the zone indicator in the launch orientation to obtain updated photographs and updating the 3D model with the updated photographs.

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