Unmanned aerial vehicle inspection system

• US 11,203,425 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2017
• Issued: 12/21/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skydio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Skydio, Inc.
• Inventors: Bauer, Mark Patrick, Michini, Bernard J., Bethke, Brett Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US15/638,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20180002010A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0025 the propellers being fixed relative to the fuselage
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/11 using internal combustion piston engines
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/60 Take-off or landing of UAVs from a runway using their own power
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/80 Vertical take-off or landing, e.g. using rockets rotorcrafts B64U10/10; VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0065 for taking-off
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for an unmanned aerial system inspection system. One of the methods is performed by a UAV and includes obtaining, from a user device, flight operation information describing an inspection of a vertical structure to be performed, the flight operation information including locations of one or more safe locations for vertical inspection. A location of the UAV is determined to correspond to a first safe location for vertical inspection. A first inspection of the structure is performed is performed at the first safe location, the first inspection including activating cameras. A second safe location is traveled to, and a second inspection of the structure is performed. Information associated with the inspection is provided to the user device.

Claims

1. A flight planning system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

one or more computer storage media storing instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to;

receive, via a user interface, a selection of a type of vertical structure to be inspected;

in response to receiving the selection, present, via the user interface, a representation of a vertical structure corresponding to the selected type of vertical structure;

receive, via the user interface, input identifying one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);

present, via the user interface, an indication of the one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected; and

determine a flight plan to perform an inspection of a real-world vertical structure corresponding to the representation of the vertical structure, the flight plan determined, at least in part, based on the indicated portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected, wherein the flight plan specifies inspection columns within a threshold distance of the real-world vertical structure, each inspection column associated with a location, a first altitude and a second altitude, and wherein the flight plan causes the UAV to navigate and obtain sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure along a vertical direction at each location from the first altitude to the second altitude.

2. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein the UAV navigates to a subsequent inspection column at the first altitude after completing navigation of a particular inspection column.

3. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein each inspection column is indicated, by a user, as enabling the UAV to freely navigate from the first altitude along the vertical direction to the second altitude.

4. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein the UAV obtains the sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure while navigating along the vertical direction at each location associated with the inspection columns.

5. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein the user interface presents a top-down view of the representation of the vertical structure and representations of the inspection columns set at horizontal positions around the top-down view.

6. The flight planning system of claim 5, wherein the user interface responds to user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the user interactions including one or more of rotating one or more of the inspection columns a same angle about a centroid associated with the real-world vertical structure, moving one or more of the inspection columns closer to the centroid, or moving one or more of the inspection columns farther from the centroid.

7. The flight planning system of claim 6, wherein upon receiving user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the flight planning system determines the flight plan based on the user interactions.

8. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein the indicated portions indicate a portion of the representation of the vertical structure from a particular distance from a top portion of the representation of the vertical structure to a particular distance below the top of the representation of the vertical structure.

9. The flight planning system of claim 1, wherein the representation of the vertical structure comprises a model of the vertical structure, the model rotatable about one or more axes.

10. A method implemented by a flight planning system comprising one or more computer processors for determining flight plans to inspect vertical structures by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the method comprising:

receiving, via a user interface, a selection of a type of vertical structure to be inspected;

in response to receiving the selection, presenting via the user interface, a representation of the vertical structure corresponding to the selected type of vertical structure;

receiving, via the user interface, input identifying one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);

presenting, via the user interface, an indication of the one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected; and

determining a flight plan to perform an inspection of a real-world vertical structure corresponding to the representation of the vertical structure, the flight plan determined, at least in part, based on the indicated portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected, wherein the flight plan specifies inspection columns within a threshold distance of the real-world vertical structure, each inspection column associated with a location, a first altitude and a second altitude, and wherein the flight plan causes the UAV to navigate and obtain sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure along a vertical direction at each location from the first altitude to the second altitude.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the UAV navigates to a subsequent inspection column at the first altitude after completing navigation of a particular inspection column.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each inspection column is indicated, by a user, as enabling the UAV to freely navigate from the first altitude along the vertical direction to the second altitude.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the UAV obtains the sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure while navigating along the vertical direction at each location associated with the inspection columns.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the user interface presents a top-down view of the representation of the vertical structure and representations of the inspection columns set at horizontal positions around the top-down view.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user interface responds to user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the user interactions including one or more of rotating one or more of the inspection columns a same angle about a centroid associated with the real-world vertical structure, moving one or more of the inspection columns closer to the centroid, or moving one or more of the inspection columns farther from the centroid.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein upon receiving user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the flight planning system determines the flight plan based on the user interactions.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicated portions indicate a portion of the representation of the vertical structure from a particular distance from a top portion of the vertical structure to a particular distance below the top of the representation of the vertical structure.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the representation of the vertical structure comprises a model of the vertical structure, the model rotatable about one or more axes.

19. A non-transitory computer storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a selection of a type of vertical structure to be inspected;

in response to receiving the selection, presenting via a user interface, a representation of the vertical structure corresponding to the selected type of vertical structure;

receiving, via the user interface, input identifying one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);

presenting, via the user interface, an indication of the one or more portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected; and

determining a flight plan to perform an inspection of a real-world vertical corresponding to the representation of the vertical structure, the flight plan determined, at least in part, based on the indicated portions of the representation of the vertical structure to be inspected, wherein the flight plan specifies inspection columns within a threshold distance of the real-world vertical structure, each inspection column associated with a location, a first altitude and a second altitude, and wherein the flight plan causes the UAV to navigate and obtain sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure along a vertical direction at each location from the first altitude to the second altitude.

20. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the UAV navigates to a subsequent inspection column at the first altitude after completing navigation of a particular inspection column.

21. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein each inspection column is indicated, by a user, as enabling the UAV to freely navigate from the first altitude along the vertical direction to the second altitude.

22. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the UAV obtains the sensor information associated with the real-world vertical structure while navigating along the vertical direction at each location associated with the inspection columns.

23. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the user interface presents a top-down view of the representation of the vertical structure and representations of the inspection columns set at horizontal positions around the top-down view.

24. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 23, wherein the user interface responds to user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the user interactions including one or more of rotating one or more of the inspection columns a same angle about a centroid associated with the real-world vertical structure, moving one or more of the inspection columns closer to the centroid, or moving one or more of the inspection columns farther from the centroid.

25. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 24, wherein upon receiving user interactions associated with moving the representations of the inspection columns, the operations further comprise:

determining the flight plan based on the user interactions.

26. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the indicated portions indicate a portion of the representation of the vertical structure from a particular distance from a top portion of the vertical structure to a particular distance below the top of the representation of the vertical structure.

27. The non-transitory computer storage medium of 19, wherein the representation of the vertical structure comprises a model of the vertical structure, the model rotatable about one or more axes.