Unmanned aerial vehicle avoiding obstacles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11017681-B2
Application number	US-201616304176-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2016
Priority date	Jun 24, 2016
Publication date	May 25, 2021
Grant date	May 25, 2021

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle may include a flight control circuit configured to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to provide a flight path based at least on an actual position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a desired target position for the unmanned aerial vehicle; and at least one sensor configured to monitor an environment of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to detect one or more obstacles in the environment; wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to determine a local flight path to avoid a collision with one or more detected obstacles, and to superimpose the flight path with the local flight path, thereby generating a flight path to the desired target position avoiding a collision with the one or more detected obstacles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
a flight control circuit configured to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to provide a flight path based on an actual position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a desired target position for the unmanned aerial vehicle; and
at least one sensor configured to monitor an environment of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to detect one or more obstacles in the environment;
wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to:
determine a local flight path to avoid a collision with one or more detected obstacles based on an angle of the target position relative a coordinate frame of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and
superimpose the flight path with the local flight path, thereby generating a flight path to the desired target position avoiding a collision with the one or more detected obstacles.

2. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is configured to provide the flight path based on a plurality of waypoints between the actual position and the desired target position.

3. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is configured to provide the flight path based on tracking a movable target, wherein the movable target defines the desired target position.

4. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 3 ,
wherein the target is tracked at least one of optically and based on GPS-information.

5. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is configured to provide the flight path based on a user input, wherein the user input defines a flight direction from the actual position to the desired target position.

6. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is configured to remain the flight path unchanged if no obstacle is detected in the environment of the unmanned aerial vehicle to directly head to the target position.

7. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one sensor is configured to monitor the environment in a radius of about 50 m around the unmanned aerial vehicle.

8. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to determine an actual flight direction and an actual attitude of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to adjust the attitude to align a heading of the unmanned aerial vehicle with the actual flight direction.

9. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a motor arrangement, wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to control one or more motors of the motor arrangement based on the flight path.

10. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect a distance from the unmanned aerial vehicle to an obstacle.

11. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one sensor defines a sensing direction substantially aligned with the heading of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

12. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a camera mount holding a camera, the camera mount is configured to move the camera around at least two different axes.

13. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 12 , further comprising:
a camera control circuit configured to receive image data from the camera.

14. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 13 ,
wherein the camera control circuit is further configured to determine camera mount control data to control movement of the camera mount based on the image data.

15. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
at least one sensor configured to sense obstacles and to provide obstacle position data;
an obstacle avoidance controller configured to:
receive obstacle position data from the at least one sensor and determine obstacle avoidance data based on the obstacle position data,
receive a first signal representing a first 3D-movement vector of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the first 3D-movement vector comprising a first 3D-direction and a first 3D-velocity, and
generate a second signal based on the first signal and the determined obstacle avoidance data, the second signal representing a second 3D-movement vector of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the second 3D-movement vector comprising a second 3D-direction and a second 3D-velocity, wherein at least the second 3D-direction differs from the first 3D-direction and the second 3D-velocity prevents the unmanned aerial vehicle from stopping proximate the detected obstacles; and

a motor controller configured to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the second signal generated by the obstacle avoidance controller.

16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15 ,
wherein the first signal represents a difference of an actual position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a desired target position of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

17. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 16 ,
wherein the second signal equals the first signal if no obstacle is detected by the at least one sensor and wherein the first signal is altered to the second signal if at least one obstacle is detected by at least one sensor.

18. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15 ,
wherein the second 3D-velocity differs from the first 3D-velocity.

19. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
a flight control circuit configured to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle along an overall flight path; and
at least one sensor configured to monitor a local environment of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to detect one or more obstacles in the local environment;
wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to:
predetermine a collision event based on the overall flight path and at least one detected obstacle in the local environment, and,
in case a collision event is predetermined,
determine a local collision avoidance path in the environment, the local collision avoidance path comprising a collision avoidance velocity of the unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein the collision avoidance velocity prevents the unmanned aerial vehicle from stopping proximate the at least one detected obstacle, and
generate a collision free flight path by superimposing the overall flight path and the collision avoidance path;

wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to control flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle along the flight path, thereby generating the flight path to the desired target position avoiding a collision with the one or more detected obstacles.

20. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 19 ,
wherein the flight control circuit is further configured to determine an actual flight direction and an actual attitude of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to adjust the attitude to align a heading of the unmanned aerial vehicle with the actual flight direction.

Assignees

• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Achtelik Markus
• Stumpf Jan
• Gurdan Daniel

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

  autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS] · CPC title

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• G08G5/80 Primary

  Anti-collision systems · CPC title

• B64U20/83

  Electronic components structurally integrated with aircraft elements, e.g. circuit boards carrying loads · CPC title

• B64U60/40

  foldable or retractable · CPC title