Environment illumination for autonomous aerial vehicles

An aerial vehicle comprising:

• a plurality of upward facing cameras;
• a plurality of downward facing cameras;
• a forward facing camera attached to a gimbal;
• a plurality of illumination sources;
• and
• control circuitry communicatively coupled to the plurality of image capture devices and the plurality of illumination sources, the control circuitry configured to:
• selectively direct at least one of the plurality of illumination sources to emit transient bursts of light in a direction such that the bursts of light illuminate only portions of a surrounding physical environment;
• selectively direct one or more of the plurality of upward facing cameras or the plurality of downward facing cameras to capture images of the illuminated portions of the surrounding physical environment,
• wherein the transient bursts of light coincide with exposure periods of the one or more of the plurality of upward facing cameras or the plurality of downward facing cameras;
• process the images of the illuminated portions of the surrounding physical environment to obtain depth measurements;
• and
• generate a planned trajectory for the aerial vehicle through the surrounding physical environment based on the depth measurements.