# US 10,768,623 B2 · Drone path planning > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,768,623 B2 - Document ID: US10768623B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/851,273 - Filed: 2017-12-21 - Published: 2019-06-27 - Granted: 2020-09-08 - Earliest claimed: 2017-12-21 - Assignees: Intel Corporation - Applicants: Intel Corporation - Inventors: Rodrigo Aldana Lopez; Leobardo Campos Macias; David Gomez Gutierrez; Jose Parra Vilchis; Rafael De La Guardia Gonzalez - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10768623B2 ## CPC - G08G 5/21: located onboard the aircraft - G05D 1/00: Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots (drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00) - G05D 1/0202: {specially adapted to aircraft} - G06V 20/13: Satellite images - G06V 20/17: taken from planes or by drones - G08G 5/32: for flight plan preparation - G08G 5/34: for flight plan modification - G08G 5/55: for a single aircraft - G08G 5/57: for unmanned aircraft - G08G 5/80: Anti-collision systems - B64U 10/14: with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters - B64U 2101/31: for surveillance - B64U 2101/64: for parcel delivery or retrieval - B64U 2201/10: autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS] - G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93}) - G05D: SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING - B64U: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES [UAV]; EQUIPMENT THEREFOR ## Abstract Various systems and methods for drone path planning are described herein. A system for drone path planning for a drone, the system to perform the operations: storing a current location of the drone as a current waypoint in a set of waypoints, the set of waypoints to include the current waypoint and a previous waypoint; detecting a current set of frontiers from the current location; storing the current set of frontiers in a list of active goals, the current set of frontiers associated with the current location; determining whether a target is discovered in the current set of frontiers; exploring the current set of frontiers to attempt to find the target; and exploring a previous set of frontiers from the list of active goals, when exploring the current set of frontiers does not, discover the target, the previous set of frontiers associated with the previous waypoint. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for drone path planning for a drone, the system comprising: a processor subsystem; and memory comprising instructions, which when executed by the processor subsystem, cause the processor subsystem to perform the operations comprising: storing a current location of the drone as a current waypoint in a set of waypoints, the set of waypoints to include the current waypoint and a previous waypoint; detecting a current set of frontiers from the current location; storing the current set of frontiers in a list of active goals, the current set of frontiers associated with the current location; determining whether a target is discovered in the current set of frontiers; exploring the current set of frontiers to attempt to find the target; and exploring a previous set of frontiers from the list of active goals, when exploring the current set of frontiers does not discover the target, the previous set of frontiers associated with the previous waypoint. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the current set of frontiers are regions that spatially extend an environmental model. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein detecting the current set of frontiers comprises: using a sensor to detect the current set of frontiers. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The system of claim 3, wherein the sensor comprises a light detecting and ranging sensor. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The system of claim 3, wherein the sensor comprises a depth camera. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein determining whether the target is discovered comprises: using image analysis to determine whether the target is in a field-of-view of the drone. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: exploring each frontier in the current set of frontiers. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: from a given frontier in the current set of frontiers, storing the given frontier as a new waypoint in the set of waypoints and detecting additional frontiers from the given frontier, and processing the additional frontiers. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: maintaining the list of active goals as the frontiers in the current set of frontiers are explored. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein exploring the previous set of frontiers comprises: navigating the drone to the previous waypoint; and exploring the previous set of frontiers from the previous waypoint. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising: rotating the drone to capture additional frontiers from a particular waypoint; and exploring the additional frontiers. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the target is a human user. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the target is a geographic location. ### Claim 14 At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions for drone path planning for a drone, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the operations comprising: storing a current location of the drone as a current waypoint in a set of waypoints, the set of waypoints to include the current waypoint and a previous waypoint; detecting a current set of frontiers from the current location; storing the current set of frontiers in a list of active goals, the current set of frontiers associated with the current location; determining whether a target is discovered in the current set of frontiers; exploring the current set of frontiers to attempt to find the target; and exploring a previous set of frontiers from the list of active goals, when exploring the current set of frontiers does not discover the target, the previous set of frontiers associated with the previous waypoint. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the current set of frontiers are regions that spatially extend an environmental model. ### Claim 16 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein detecting the current set of frontiers comprises: using a sensor to detect the current set of frontiers. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the sensor comprises a light detecting and ranging sensor. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the sensor comprises a depth camera. ### Claim 19 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein determining whether the target is discovered comprises: using image analysis to determine whether the target is in a field-of-view of the drone. ### Claim 20 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: exploring each frontier in the current set of frontiers. ### Claim 21 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: from a given frontier in the current set of frontiers, storing the given frontier as a new waypoint in the set of waypoints and detecting additional frontiers from the given frontier, and processing the additional frontiers. ### Claim 22 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: maintaining the list of active goals as the frontiers in the current set of frontiers are explored. ### Claim 23 (depends on 14) The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein exploring the previous set of frontiers comprises: navigating the drone to the previous waypoint; and exploring the previous set of frontiers from the previous waypoint. ### Claim 24 A method of drone path planning for a drone, the method comprising: storing a current location of the drone as a current waypoint in a set of waypoints, the set of waypoints to include the current waypoint and a previous waypoint; detecting a current set of frontiers from the current location; storing the current set of frontiers in a list of active goals, the current set of frontiers associated with the current location; determining whether a target is discovered in the current set of frontiers; exploring the current set of frontiers to attempt to find the target; and exploring a previous set of frontiers from the list of active goals, when exploring the current set of frontiers does not discover the target, the previous set of frontiers associated with the previous waypoint. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The method of claim 24, wherein exploring the current set of frontiers comprises: from a given frontier in the current set of frontiers, storing the given frontier as a new waypoint in the set of waypoints and detecting additional frontiers from the given frontier, and processing the additional frontiers.