Drone controlling device and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10310617-B2
Application number	US-201514737322-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2015
Priority date	Jun 11, 2015
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

In embodiments, apparatuses, methods and storage media (transitory and non-transitory) are described that receive sensor data from one or more sensor devices that depict a user gesture in three dimensional space, determine a flight path based at least in part on the sensor data, and store the flight path in memory for use to control operation of a drone. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic drone controlling device comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory coupled with the one or more processors;
a translation module operated by the one or more processors to:
receive sensor data from one or more sensor devices that depict a preflight user drone training gesture along a training path in three dimensional space;
receive one or more of a scale command or a repetition command;
determine a flight path based at least in part on the sensor data;
adjust the flight path based at least in part on one or more of the scale command or the repetition command;
store the adjusted flight path and an identifier associated with the adjusted flight path in the memory; and

a navigation module operated by the one or more processors to retrieve the adjusted flight path from the memory in response to a user selection of the identifier associated with the adjusted flight path, and direct a drone to fly based at least in part on the retrieved adjusted flight path, wherein the preflight user drone training gesture and the one or more of the scale command or the repetition command are to be received before drone flight while the drone is not flying.

2. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensor devices include at least one of a position sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, an ultrasonic sensor, an inertial sensor, or an optical sensor.

3. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the drone includes the one or more sensor devices, and the user gesture is made using the drone.

4. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 3 , wherein the navigation module is further to:
receive a flight modification command from a mobile communications device;
alter the flight path based at least in part on the flight modification command; and
direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the altered flight path.

5. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 4 , wherein the flight modification command includes at least one of a scale command or a repetition command.

6. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 5 , wherein the flight modification command is a voice command.

7. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the navigation module is further to: receive active mode sensor data from a mobile communications device; and direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the active mode sensor data.

8. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 7 , wherein the active mode sensor data is based at least in part on an acceleration of the mobile communications device, and wherein the navigation module is further to:
alter the flight path in a manner proportional to the acceleration; and
direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the altered flight path.

9. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the navigation module is further to: receive a stop flight command from a mobile communications device; and direct the drone to fly to within a predefined distance from the mobile communications device.

10. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the navigation module is further to: receive sensor data from an object; determine a movement path of the object based at least in part on the sensor data; alter the flight path based at least in part on the movement path to generate a mimic object flight path; and direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the mimic object flight path.

11. The electronic drone controlling device of claim 1 , wherein the navigation module is further to: receive object tracking sensor data from one or more object tracking sensors; determine a movement path of an object based at least in part on the object tracking sensors; alter the flight path based at least in part on the movement path to generate a mimic object flight path; and direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the mimic object flight path.

12. A computer implemented drone controlling method comprising:
receiving sensor data, at a computing device, from one or more sensor devices that depict a plurality of preflight user drone training gestures that moves the one or more sensor devices along a training path in three dimensional space while a drone is not flying;
determining, by the computing device, a flight path based at least in part on the sensor data, wherein the flight path is based at least in part on an average version of the plurality of preflight user drone training gestures;
storing, by the computing device, the flight path in a memory;
retrieving the flight path from the memory in response to a user selection of the flight path; and
directing the drone to fly based at least in part on the retrieved flight path.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the drone includes the one or more sensor devices and the user gesture is made using the drone.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein a mobile communications device includes the one or more sensor devices and the user gesture is made using the mobile communications device.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
receiving, by the computing device, a flight modification command; and
directing the drone to fly based at least in part on the flight modification command.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sensor data is included in a first set of sensor data, the method further comprising:
receiving, by the computing device while the drone is flying, a mode command; and
directing the drone to fly based at least in part on a second set of sensor data from a mobile communications device in response to the mode command.

17. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution of the instructions by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
determine whether a preflight training mode has been selected;
receive sensor data from one or more sensor devices that depict a preflight user drone training gesture along a training path in three dimensional space while a drone is not flying in response to a determination that the preflight training mode has been selected;
determine a flight path based at least in part on the sensor data;
store the flight path and an identifier associated with the flight path in a memory;
retrieve the flight path from the memory in response to a user selection of the identifier associated with the flight path; and
direct the drone to fly based at least in part on the retrieved flight path.

18. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the one or more sensor devices include at least one of a position sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, an ultrasonic sensor, an inertial sensor, or an optical sensor.

19. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein, in response to execution of the instructions by the one or more processors of the computing device, the computing device is further caused to transmit the flight path to a drone, and wherein:
a mobile communications device includes the one or more sensor devices; and
the user gesture is made using the mobile communications device.

20. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the preflight user drone training gesture is a first user gesture, the sensor data is included in a first set of sensor data, and, in response to execution of the instructions by one o

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Ekandem Joshua
• Anderson Glen J
• Durham Lenitra M
• Beckwith Richard T
• Raffa Giuseppe
• Sherman Jamie
• Yuen Kathy

Classifications

• G06V20/17

  taken from planes or by drones · CPC title

• B64U2201/20

  Remote controls · CPC title

• G06V20/13

  Satellite images · CPC title

• G05D1/0033

  by having the operator tracking the vehicle either by direct line of sight or via one or more cameras located remotely from the vehicle · CPC title

• G05D1/0022

  characterised by the communication link (data switching networks in general H04L12/00) · CPC title