System and method for remote viewing of vehicles using drones

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, from a remote terminal, a request to remotely view a vehicle using an aerial drone;
• transmitting, to the remote terminal, a list of potential views of the vehicle;
• receiving, from the remote terminal, a selected view from the list of potential views of the vehicle;
• generating a first flight path for the aerial drone by:
• receiving coordinates for the vehicle;
• receiving an orientation of the vehicle;
• calculating, based on the orientation and the list of potential views of the vehicle, a plurality of locations of the aerial drone which respectively allow a camera of the aerial drone to capture views from the list of potential views of the vehicle;
• identifying routes between the plurality of locations which are traversable by the aerial drone;
• and
• connecting the routes, forming the first flight path;
• identifying a first location within the plurality of locations corresponding to the selected view;
• generating a second flight path for the aerial drone by:
• identifying flight paths of other aerial drones within a predetermined distance of the vehicle;
• identifying locations of other vehicles within the predetermined distance of the vehicle;
• and
• calculating a shortest path from a current location of the aerial drone to the first location while avoiding flight paths of the other aerial drones and not flying over the locations of the other vehicles, resulting in a second flight path;
• transmitting, to the aerial drone using a wireless transmitter, the first flight path and the second flight path;
• and
• transmitting, to the aerial drone using the wireless transmitter, drone instructions for the aerial drone to proceed from the current location to the first location using the second flight path.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, at a server from a remote terminal, a first request to remotely view a vehicle using an aerial drone, wherein the remote terminal electrically contacts the server across a network;
• providing, from the server to the remote terminal, a list of predetermined views of the vehicle;
• receiving, at the server from the remote terminal, a selection of a first predetermined view from the list of predetermined views;
• generating a flight path for the aerial drone by:
• receiving coordinates for the vehicle;
• receiving an orientation of the vehicle;
• calculating, based on the orientation and the first predetermined view, coordinates for the first predetermined views of the vehicle;
• transmitting the coordinates from the server to the aerial drone and instructing the aerial drone to proceed to the coordinates;
• receiving, from the aerial drone, a video feed bitstream from a camera on the aerial drone while the aerial drone hovers at a specific location at the coordinates;
• and
• transmitting, to the remote terminal, the video feed bitstream while the aerial drone hovers at the specific location.