Autonomous vehicle navigation system and method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An autonomous aerial vehicle comprising,a geolocation system to provide a position of the autonomous aerial vehicle within an operating environment;
- an optical system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle to provide an optical field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the optical system is configured to optically identify obstacles within the optical field of view;
an acoustic system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle to provide an acoustic field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the acoustic system is configured to acoustically identify obstacles within the acoustic field of view, wherein the acoustic field of view overlaps with at least a portion of the optical field of view;
a processor to determine a geolocation navigational path for the autonomous aerial vehicle from the position to an objective location based at least in part upon signals from the geolocation system, wherein the processor is configured to determine a tactical navigational path based at least in part on the geolocation navigational path and environment data reflecting known obstacle locations within the operating environment; and
a steering mechanism to steer the autonomous aerial vehicle along the tactical navigational path in response to commands from the processor, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the steering mechanism to effectuate a dodging maneuver to deviate from the tactical navigational path upon detection of an obstacle by the acoustic system.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An autonomous vehicle is improved with a navigational system having both cameras and echolocation sensors, each including overlapping fields of view. The cameras and echolocation sensors may be part of an optical and echolocation system, respectively, that may work in conjunction with a global positioning system to determine a course for the autonomous vehicle to reach an objective while detecting and avoid obstacles along the course.
-
Citations
31 Claims
-
1. An autonomous aerial vehicle comprising,
a geolocation system to provide a position of the autonomous aerial vehicle within an operating environment; -
an optical system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle to provide an optical field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the optical system is configured to optically identify obstacles within the optical field of view; an acoustic system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle to provide an acoustic field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the acoustic system is configured to acoustically identify obstacles within the acoustic field of view, wherein the acoustic field of view overlaps with at least a portion of the optical field of view; a processor to determine a geolocation navigational path for the autonomous aerial vehicle from the position to an objective location based at least in part upon signals from the geolocation system, wherein the processor is configured to determine a tactical navigational path based at least in part on the geolocation navigational path and environment data reflecting known obstacle locations within the operating environment; and a steering mechanism to steer the autonomous aerial vehicle along the tactical navigational path in response to commands from the processor, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the steering mechanism to effectuate a dodging maneuver to deviate from the tactical navigational path upon detection of an obstacle by the acoustic system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, navigates an aerial vehicle from a position to an objective location by performing the steps of:
-
determining a position of the autonomous aerial vehicle within an operating environment based at least in part on data received from a geolocation system; monitoring for obstacles within an optical field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the optical field of view is captured by an optical system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle; monitoring for obstacles within an acoustic field of view about the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the acoustic field is captured by an acoustic system coupled to the autonomous aerial vehicle, wherein the acoustic field of view overlaps with at least a portion of the optical field of view; determining, via a processor, a geolocation navigational path for the autonomous aerial vehicle from the position to the objective location based at least in part upon signals from the geolocation system, determining, via the processor, a tactical navigational path based at least in part on the geolocation navigational path and environment data reflecting known obstacle locations within the operating environment; steering the autonomous aerial vehicle via a steering mechanism along the tactical navigational path in response to commands from the processor; and instructing the steering mechanism to effectuate a dodging maneuver to deviate from the tactical navigational path upon detection of an obstacle by the acoustic system. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. An autonomous vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aerial vehicle for delivering a payload at an objective location, the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle comprising,
a geolocation system to provide a position of the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle within an operating environment; -
an optical system coupled to the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle to provide an optical field of view about the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle, wherein the optical system is configured to optically identify obstacles within the optical field of view; an acoustic system coupled to the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle to provide an acoustic field of view about the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle, wherein the a processor to determine a geolocation navigational path for the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle from the position to the objective location based at least in part on signals from the geolocation system, wherein the processor is configured to determine a tactical navigational path based at least in part on the geolocation navigational path and environment data reflecting known obstacle locations within the operating environment; and a steering mechanism having a plurality of rotors to steer the autonomous VTOL aerial vehicle, in response to commands from the processor, along the tactical navigational path to deliver the payload at the objective location, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the steering mechanism to effectuate a dodging maneuver to deviate from the tactical navigational path upon detection of an obstacle by the acoustic system. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
-
Specification