System and method for mission planning and flight automation for unmanned aircraft
AssigneeInsurance Services Office, Inc.
InventorsJeffery D. Lewis, Jeffrey C. Taylor, Corey D. Reed, Troy Tomkinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for mission planning and flight automation for an unmanned aircraft comprising generating an aerial imagery map of a capture area; generating a flight plan based on criteria for capturing images used to create a model of a feature present in the images; comparing the generated aerial imagery map with the generated flight plan; determining whether there is a possible collision between an obstacle associated with the generated aerial imagery map and the unmanned aircraft along a flight path of the generated flight plan; and executing, based on the determination, the generated flight plan.
Claims20
A system for flight planning for an unmanned aircraft, comprising:
- an unmanned aircraft;
- and
- a processor in communication with the unmanned aircraft, the processor:
- generating an aerial imagery map;
- identifying at least one object in the aerial imagery map as at least one flight path obstacle if the at least one object intersects a three-dimensional region defined around at least a portion of a potential flight path of the unmanned aircraft;
- generating at least one geometric buffer around the at least one flight path obstacle;
- generating a flight plan including at least one flight path segment that avoids intersecting the geometric buffer around the at least one flight path obstacle;
- and
- executing the generated flight plan.
A method for mission planning and flight automation for an unmanned aircraft comprising the steps of:
- generating an aerial imagery map;
- identifying at least one object in the aerial imagery map as at least one flight path obstacle if the at least one object intersects a three-dimensional region defined around at least a portion of a potential flight path of the unmanned aircraft;
- generating at least one geometric buffer around the at least one flight path obstacle;
- generating a flight plan including at least one flight path segment that avoids intersecting the geometric buffer around the at least one flight path obstacle;
- and
- executing the generated flight plan to control the unmanned aircraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.