Autonomous tracking based on radius
AssigneeGoPro, Inc.
InventorBenjamin Tankersley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a configuration of an autonomous vehicle for autonomously following a moving subject based on a radius of a virtual sphere surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may be an unmanned ground vehicle or an unmanned aerial vehicle, which autonomously follows the subject (e.g., a device, a live entity, or any object) based on the virtual sphere. The radius of the virtual sphere may be dynamically configured according to a velocity of the autonomous vehicle or configurations of a camera coupled to the autonomous vehicle. Accordingly, the autonomous vehicle can follow the subject along a smooth trajectory, and capture images of abrupt movements of the subject in a cinematically pleasing manner.
Claims18
A vehicle comprising:
- a body;
- a camera coupled to the body, the camera configured to capture an image of a subject;
- a radius tracking controller coupled to the body, the radius tracking controller configured to:
- determine a radius of a virtual sphere around the vehicle based on a configuration of the camera, and
- determine an updated target position of the vehicle based on a comparison between (i) a distance between a vehicle position of the vehicle and a previous target position of the vehicle and (ii) the radius;
- and
- a vehicle controller interface module coupled to the body, the vehicle controller interface module configured to move the vehicle towards the updated target position of the vehicle.
A method of following a subject comprising:
- determining a radius of a virtual sphere around a vehicle based on a configuration of a camera coupled to the vehicle, and
- determining an updated target position of the vehicle based on a comparison between (i) a distance between a vehicle position of the vehicle and a previous target position of the vehicle and (ii) the radius;
- and
- moving the vehicle towards the updated target position of the vehicle.
A vehicle comprising:
- a body;
- a radius tracking controller coupled to the body, the radius tracking controller configured to:
- determine a radius of a virtual sphere around the vehicle based on a velocity of the vehicle, and
- determine an updated target position of the vehicle based on a comparison between (i) a distance between a vehicle position of the vehicle and a previous target position of the vehicle and (ii) the radius;
- and
- a vehicle controller interface module coupled to the body, the vehicle controller interface module configured to move the vehicle towards the updated target position of the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.