Systems and methods for autonomous perpendicular imaging of test squares

• US 9,886,632 B1
• Filed: 09/20/2017
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2016
• 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): Pham, Nam
• Application Number:
  US15/710,221
• Time in Patent Office: 139 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/02 Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10032 Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30184 Infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/94 based on local image properties, e.g. for local contrast enhancement
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/30 Determination of transform parameters for the alignment of images, i.e. image registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/38 Registration of image sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/13 Satellite images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/17 taken from planes or by drones
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/00 Teaching, or communicating with, the blind, deaf or mute audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04; devices or methods for replacing direct visual or auditory perception by another kind of perception A61F9/08, A61F11/04; audible indication of meter readings or of colour G01D7/12; watches for blind persons G04B25/02; speech analysis, speech recognition G10L; sound-recording or reproducing, per se G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/30 Simulation of view from aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/301 by computer-processed or -generated image
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/302 the image being transformed by computer processing, e.g. updating the image to correspond to the changing point of view
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assessment and reporting system may utilize one or more scanning techniques to provide useful assessments and/or reports for structures and other objects. The scanning techniques may be performed in sequence and optionally used to further fine tune each subsequent scan. The system may include shadow elimination, annotation, and/or reduction for the UAV itself and/or other objects. A UAV may be used to determine a pitch of roof of a structure. The pitch of the roof may be used to fine tune subsequent scanning and data capture to capture perpendicular images at target fields of view and/or target distances to capture images of sample regions having defined square footage.

Claims

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assessment system for capturing orthogonal images of sample regions of having a target square footage, comprising:

a camera to capture images of at least a portion of a roof of a structure;

a pitch determination system to determine a pitch of a surface of the roof that is at an angle relative to a downward direction; and

an imaging system to;

adjust a tilt angle of the camera of the UAV to a non-zero angle relative to the downward direction to align an optical axis of the camera substantially perpendicular to the surface of the roof of the structure, and

capture an image of a portion of the roof of the structure at a distance and field of view that corresponds to a sample region of the surface of the roof having a target square footage with the optical axis of the camera aligned perpendicular to the surface of the roof by adjusting the tilt angle of the camera of the UAV, based on the determined pitch of the surface of the roof.

2. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the pitch determination system is configured to determine the pitch of the surface of the roof based on a rise over run determination in which a rise is equal to a vertical distance downward between a location of the UAV and the roof of the structure and in which the run is equal to a horizontal distance to the roof of the structure, such that the roof represents a hypotenuse of a right triangle with the UAV positioned at a 90-degree corner of the right triangle.

3. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the pitch determination system is configured to determine the pitch of the surface of the roof based on at least two distance measurements taken from at least two different locations of the UAV.

4. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the sample region is square.

5. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the sample region is rectangular.

6. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the sample region is triangular.

7. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the sample region comprises an n-side polygon.

8. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the sample region of the surface of the roof having the target square footage fills an entire frame of the captured image.

9. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the captured image of the sample region of the surface of the roof having the target square footage is cropped to fill an entire frame of the captured image with the target square footage.

10. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the pitch determination system is configured to determine the pitch of a surface of the roof by identifying a standardized pitch based on a measured pitch.

11. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the target square footage comprises 100 square feet.

12. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the distance at which the image is captured and the field of view of the camera is user-specified.

13. The UAV assessment system of claim 1, wherein the camera comprises one of a visible light imaging camera and an infrared imaging camera.

14. A method for determining a pitch of a roof and imaging sample regions having a target square footage, comprising:

determining, via a pitch determination system, a pitch of a surface of a roof of a structure during a flight of a UAV proximate the structure, wherein the roof is at an angle relative to a downward direction; and

capturing an image of at least a portion of the surface of the roof of the structure using an imaging system with an optical axis of a camera

(i) aligned perpendicular to the surface of the roof at a non-zero angle relative to the downward direction by adjusting a tilt angle of the camera of the UAV, based on the determined pitch of the surface of the roof, and

(ii) at a distance and field of view that results in the captured image including a sample region of the surface with a predefined square footage.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the camera includes an image sensor having an effective aspect ratio that is one of 2:

2, 4;

3, and 16;

9.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the sample region of the surface of the roof having the target square footage fills an entire frame of the captured image without cropping.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein an image sensor of the camera includes a rectangular aspect ratio and the captured image is cropped as a square such that the predefined square footage fills an entire square frame.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein an image sensor of the camera includes a rectangular aspect ratio, and wherein the predefined square footage fills an entire rectangular frame.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the sample region is one of:

rectangular, square, and triangular.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the pitch determination system is configured to determine the pitch of a surface of the roof by identifying a standardized pitch based on a measured pitch.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the target square footage comprises a 100 square-foot test square.