AUTOMATIC FLIGHT CONTROL FOR UAV BASED SOLID MODELING
First Claim
1. An automatic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control system for solid modeling, the system comprising:
- a UAV with an onboard camera;
a controller capable of communicating with a flight control module of the UAV, the controller configured to;
determine an initial movement path based on an estimate of a structure to be modeled;
capture images of the structure to be modeled;
form surface hypotheses for unobserved surfaces based on the captured images;
determine missing surface information from the surface hypotheses; and
determine a least impact path for the UAV based on the missing surface information and desired flight parameters.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Technologies are generally described for controlling a flight path of a UAV based image capture system for solid modeling. Upon determining an initial movement path based on an estimate of a structure to be modeled, images of the structure to be modeled may be captured and surface hypotheses formed for unobserved surfaces based on the captured images. A normal vector and a viewing cone may be computed for each hypothesized surface. A set of desired locations may be determined based on the viewing cones for the entire structure to be modeled and a least impact path for the UAV determined based on the desired locations and desired flight parameters.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. An automatic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control system for solid modeling, the system comprising:
-
a UAV with an onboard camera; a controller capable of communicating with a flight control module of the UAV, the controller configured to; determine an initial movement path based on an estimate of a structure to be modeled; capture images of the structure to be modeled; form surface hypotheses for unobserved surfaces based on the captured images; determine missing surface information from the surface hypotheses; and determine a least impact path for the UAV based on the missing surface information and desired flight parameters. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for controlling a flight path of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based image capture system for solid modeling, the method comprising:
-
determining an initial movement path based on an estimate of a structure to be modeled; capturing images of the structure to be modeled; forming surface hypotheses for unobserved surfaces based on the captured images; computing a normal vector and a viewing cone for each hypothesized surface; determining a set of desired locations based on the viewing cones for the entire structure to be modeled; and determining a least impact path for the UAV based on the desired locations and desired flight parameters. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for controlling a flight path of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based image capture system for solid modeling, the instructions comprising:
-
determining an initial movement path based on an estimate of a structure to be modeled; capturing images of the structure to be modeled; guiding the flight path by; forming surface hypotheses for unobserved surfaces based on the captured images; computing a normal vector and a viewing cone for each hypothesized surface; determining a set of desired locations based on the viewing cones for the entire structure to be modeled; and determining a least impact path for the UAV based on the desired locations and one or more of a total flight time, available UAV power, a noise limitation, and/or a user defined restriction for the UAV. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification