INTELLIGENT ON-DEMAND CAPTURING OF A PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT USING AIRBORNE AGENTS

• US 20200135035A1
• Filed: 08/15/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Foresight AI Inc.
• Original Assignee: Foresight AI Inc.
• Inventors: YUAN, Chang, WEI, Zhaoyi, CHANG, Chih-Hsiang
• Application Number:
  US16/541,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20200135035A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/35 for science, e.g. meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/042 specially adapted for aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/12 Target-seeking control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to deploying airborne agents to capture data related to a physical environment. An exemplary device comprises one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs that includes instructions for: receiving a user request indicative of a geographical region and a data type; in response to receiving the user request, generating a flight path based on the region; causing the airborne agent to traverse at least a portion of the region based on the generated flight path; causing the airborne agent to gather data based on the data type in the user request; processing the gathered data to obtain a set of data of interest; and providing an output based on the set of data of interest.

Claims

1. A computer-enabled method for deploying an airborne agent to capture data related to a physical environment, the method comprising:

receiving a user request indicative of a geographical region and a data type;

in response to receiving the user request, generating a flight path based on the geographical region;

causing the airborne agent to traverse at least a portion of the geographical region based on the generated flight path;

causing the airborne agent to gather data based on the data type in the user request;

processing the gathered data to obtain a set of data of interest; and

providing an output based on the set of data of interest.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data type is directed to one or more geographical characteristics of the region.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data type is directed to one or more dynamic objects in the geographical region.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data type is directed to one or more dynamic events in the geographical region.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein generating the flight path based on the geographical region comprises:

obtaining a ground map based on the geographical region;

extracting a loop in the geographical region;

calculating, based on an altitude value and a camera-specific value, a buffer width for the extracted loop;

based on the calculated buffer width, generating a way point; and

generating a flight path comprising the way point.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the airborne agent is a drone.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein processing the gathered data comprises:

aggregating one or more point cloud scans, one or more color images, and one or more navigation signals to obtain a colorized and geo-referenced point cloud.

8. The method according of claim 7, further comprising:

based on the colorized and geo-referenced point cloud, obtaining one or more semantic masks.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein processing the gathered data comprises:

selecting a subset of the gathered data for further processing in accordance with a determination that an alignment error exceeds a predetermined threshold.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein processing the gathered data comprises:

selecting a subset of the gathered data for further processing in accordance with a determination that a detected dynamic object is a dynamic object of interest.

11. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving a user request indicative of a geographical region and a data type;

in response to receiving the user request, generating a flight path based on the geographical region;

causing the airborne agent to traverse at least a portion of the geographical region based on the generated flight path;

causing the airborne agent to gather data based on the data type in the user request;

processing the gathered data to obtain a set of data of interest; and

providing an output based on the set of data of interest.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device having a display, cause the electronic device to:

receive a user request indicative of a geographical region and a data type;

in response to receiving the user request, generate a flight path based on the geographical region;

cause the airborne agent to traverse at least a portion of the geographical region based on the generated flight path;

cause the airborne agent to gather data based on the data type in the user request;

process the gathered data to obtain a set of data of interest; and

provide an output based on the set of data of interest.