Systems and methods for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11518510-B1
Application number	US-201615287702-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 6, 2016
Priority date	Oct 6, 2016
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle. Boundaries of a user-defined space may be obtained. The boundaries of the user-defined space may be fixed with respect to some reference frame. A user-defined operation associated with the user-selected space may be obtained. Position of the unmanned aerial vehicle may be tracked during an unmanned aerial flight. Responsive to the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space, the unmanned aerial vehicle may be automatically controlled to perform the user-defined operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle, the system comprising:
one or more physical processors configured by machine readable instructions to:
obtain boundaries of a user-defined space, the boundaries of the user-defined space being fixed with respect to a reference frame and being set by a user by dragging and dropping one or more selected geometric shapes within an area of a map via a user interface or by specifying a point associated with a boundary including a default shape and size on the map via the user interface;
obtain a user-defined operation associated with the user-defined space, the user-defined operation including an aerial maneuver operation and a capture operation;
track position of the unmanned aerial vehicle during an unmanned aerial flight;
responsive to a determination that the unmanned aerial vehicle is within a predefined distance of entering the user-defined space, generate alert information indicating the unmanned aerial vehicle is within the predefined distance of entering the user-defined space;
effectuate transmission of the alert information to a client computing platform, wherein the alert information comprises providing a likelihood of the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space; and
responsive to the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space, automatically control the unmanned aerial vehicle to perform the user-defined operation.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein generation of the alert information includes generating instructions to present a notification within the client computing platform based upon the alert information.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the notification includes a graphical representation of the alert information.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the graphical representation includes a distance between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the graphical representation includes different colors representing different distances between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the notification includes a predicted length of time before the unmanned aerial vehicle enters the user-defined space.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the notification includes an audible representation of the alert information.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the audible representation of the alert information includes an audible distance between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more physical processors are further configured by machine readable instructions to:
responsive to the alert information, allow a user to override control of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the likelihood is a verbal level selected from very low, low, medium, high, and very high.

11. A system for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle, the system comprising:
one or more physical processors configured by machine readable instructions to:
obtain boundaries of a user-defined space, the boundaries of the user-defined space being fixed with respect to a reference frame and being set by a user by dragging and dropping one or more selected geometric shapes within an area of a map via a user interface or by specifying a point associated with a boundary including a default shape and size on the map via the user interface;
obtain two or more user-defined operations associated with the user-defined space, the two or more user-defined operations including an aerial maneuver operation and a capture operation;
track position of the unmanned aerial vehicle during an unmanned aerial flight;
responsive to a determination that the unmanned aerial vehicle is within a predefined distance of entering the user-defined space, generate alert information indicating the unmanned aerial vehicle is within the predefined distance of entering the user-defined space;
effectuate transmission of the alert information to a client computing platform, wherein generation of the alert information generates instructions to present a notification that comprises a predicted length of time before the unmanned aerial vehicle enters the user-defined space; and
responsive to the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space, automatically control the unmanned aerial vehicle to perform the two or more user-defined operations.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the alert information includes a likelihood of the unmanned aerial vehicle to enter the user-defined space.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the notification is presented within the client computing platform based upon the alert information.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the notification includes a graphical representation of the alert information, the graphical representation including a distance between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space and including different colors representing different distances between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the notification includes an audible representation of the alert information, the audible representation including an audible distance between the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more physical processors are further configured by machine readable instructions to:
responsive to the alert information, allow a user to override control of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the reference frame includes a geography of the Earth, a Cartesian coordination system, or a polar coordinate system.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the aerial maneuver operation includes an aerobatics trick, instructions to hover at a boundary of the user-defined space, or a change in an altitude, a longitude, a latitude, a geographical location, a heading, a direction, an elevation, and a speed of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the capture operation includes adjustments of an aperture timing, an exposure, a focal length, an angle of view, a depth of field, a focus, a light metering, a white balance, a resolution, a frame rate, an object of focus, a capture angle, a zoom parameter, a video format, a sound parameter, and a compression parameter of a sensor control subsystem of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

20. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a position component that tracks a position of the unmanned aerial vehicle during a flight and a location tracking system to determine an altitude, longitude, latitude, geographical location, heading, and/or speed of the unmanned aerial vehicle so that the predicted length of time before the unmanned aerial vehicle enters the user-defined space is predicted based upon a flight path of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Assignees

• Gopro Inc

Inventors

• Gohl Pascal
• Omari Sammy

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

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

• B64C2201/108

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B64C2201/141

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B64C39/024 Primary

  of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV · CPC title

• B64C2201/024

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic