Electronic image stabilization of unmanned aerial vehicle video streams with intentional motion handling

A system for operating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the system comprising:

• one or more camera sensors for capturing a raw video stream input;
• and
• at least one computing device disposed onboard the UAV and operably coupled to the one or more camera sensors, the at least one computing device configured to:
• quantify characteristics of motion of the UAV as commanded by a user of the UAV;
• quantify characteristics of total motion of the one or more camera sensors including the motion commanded by the user;
• subtract the characteristics of the motion commanded by the user from the characteristics of the total motion to generate data representative of a residual;
• and
• apply electronic image stabilization (EIS) to the raw video stream input based at least in part on the data representative of the residual to generate a stabilized video stream output.

One or more non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon program instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to:

• quantify characteristics of motion of the UAV as commanded by a user of the UAV;
• quantify characteristics of total motion of the one or more camera sensors including the motion commanded by the user;
• subtract the characteristics of the motion commanded by the user from the characteristics of the total motion to generate data representative of a residual;
• and
• apply, based at least in part on the data representative of the residual, electronic image stabilization (EIS) to a raw video stream input captured by one or more camera sensors of the UAV to generate a stabilized video stream output.