Position-based control of unmanned aerial vehicles

A method for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle, the method comprising:

• determining sensor data for one or more sensors of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
• responsive to determining that a sensor data value of the sensor data satisfies one or more thresholds, determining a delta value as a difference between a first altitude measurement and a second altitude measurement of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
• determining an altitude of a controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the delta value;
• and
• determining a position of the controller within a three-dimensional space based on the sensor data and the altitude.

A controller of an unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:

• a first sensor that produces first sensor data based on a geolocation of the controller;
• a second sensor that produces second sensor data based on a barometric pressure of an environment in which the controller is located;
• a filter mechanism that filters a first altitude measurement of the first sensor data and a second altitude measurement of the second sensor data to generate filtered sensor data by:
• responsive to determining that a sensor data value of the first sensor data satisfies a quality threshold, determining a delta value as a difference between a first altitude measurement and a second altitude measurement of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
• determining an altitude of the controller based on the delta value;
• determining a position of the controller within a three-dimensional space based on the sensor data and the altitude;
• and
• transmitting the position of the controller within the three-dimensional space to the unmanned aerial vehicle to cause a change in a position of the unmanned aerial vehicle within the three-dimensional space.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising processor-executable routines that, when executed by a processor, facilitate a performance of operations for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle, the operations comprising:

• determining sensor data of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
• responsive to determining that the sensor data satisfies a quality threshold, determining a difference between a first altitude and a second altitude of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
• determining an altitude of a controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the difference;
• and
• determining a position of the controller based on the sensor data and the altitude.