US 9,817,396 B1Granted

Supervisory control of an unmanned aerial vehicle

AssigneeX Development LLC

InventorsLeila Takayama, Brandon Alexander, Roger William Graves, Justin Sadowski, Abraham Bachrach

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is disclosed that may allow for supervisory control interaction by a remote operator to assist with navigation to a target location. The UAV may navigate to a target area and capture and send an image of the target area to the remote operator. The remote operator can then provide a user input that indicates a target location within the target area. Upon receiving an indication of the target area, the UAV can then autonomously navigate to the target location. In some examples, after reaching the target location, the UAV may initiate delivery of a payload at the target location using a retractable delivery system while the UAV hovers above.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising:

an image capture system;
a communication system configured for wireless communications;
and
a control system configured to:
use output from a navigation module to autonomously navigate the UAV in a forward-flight mode to a target area;
in response to determining that the UAV is located in the target area:
(i) operate the UAV in a hover mode, (ii) operate the image capture system to capture image data of at least a portion of the target area, and (iii) operate the communication system to send a first data communication based on the captured image data, wherein the first data communication is directed to a remote terminal;
receive, in response to the first data communication, a second data communication comprising an indication of a target location within the target area;
use a first image coordinate associated with the received indication of the target location, a second image coordinate associated with a point of view of the image capture system, and a current elevation of the UAV as a basis to determine a translational offset to the target location relative to a current location of the UAV;
determine flight-control commands to navigate the UAV from a current location within the target area to the target location within the target area, wherein the flight-control commands include one or more commands to cause the UAV to traverse the determined translational offset in hover mode;
and
cause the UAV to navigate, in hover mode, to the target location in accordance with the determined flight-control commands.

9 more elements

A method comprising:

causing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to navigate, in a forward-flight mode, to a target area;
in response to determining that the UAV is located in the target area:
(i) operating the UAV in a hover mode, (ii) operating an image capture system to capture image data of at least a portion of the target area, and (iii) sending a first data communication based on the captured image data, wherein the first data communication is directed to a remote terminal;
in response to the first data communication, receiving a second data communication comprising an indication of a target location within the target area;
using a first image coordinate associated with the received indication of the target location, a second image coordinate associated with a point of view of the image capture system, and a current elevation of the UAV as a basis for determining a translational offset to the target location relative to a current location of the UAV;
determining flight-control commands to navigate the UAV from a current location within the target area to the target location within the target area, wherein the flight-control commands include one or more commands to cause the UAV to traverse the determined translational offset in hover mode;
and
causing the UAV to navigate, in hover mode, to the target location in accordance with the determined flight-control commands.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/587,091Filed 31 Dec 2014 · us provisional application
Priority: 9 Jun 2014
Granted: 14 Nov 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification22 codes

G05D 1/667
Interaction with payloads or external entities: delivering or retrieving payloads
G06V 20/17
Terrestrial scenes: taken from planes or by drones
G05D 1/00
Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or
G05D 1/0038
Associated with a remote control arrangement: by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard…