Autonomous vehicle navigation system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9562773-B2
Application number	US-201514657160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2015
Priority date	Mar 15, 2014
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle is improved with a navigational system having both cameras and echolocation sensors, each including overlapping fields of view. The cameras and echolocation sensors may be part of an optical and echolocation system, respectively, that may work in conjunction with a global positioning system to determine a course for the autonomous vehicle to reach an objective while detecting and avoid obstacles along the course.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A navigation system for an aerial vehicle, the navigation system comprising:
a housing;
a global positioning system (GPS) transceiver to determine a current position of the housing;
an optical system to generate at least one hundred and eighty degrees of optical field of view about the housing, wherein the optical system is configured to identify a first obstacle within the at least one hundred and eighty degrees of optical field of view about the housing;
an acoustic system to generate at least ten degrees of acoustic field of view about the housing, wherein the acoustic system is configured to identify a second obstacle within the at least one hundred and eighty degrees of optical field of view about the housing; and
a processor to determine a navigational path for the aerial vehicle to a location based at least in part upon signals from the GPS transceiver, the optical system, and the acoustic system,
wherein the processor instructs the aerial vehicle to follow a first navigational path based at least in part on signals from the GPS transceiver,
wherein the processor (1) calculates a dodging maneuver if a second obstacle is detected along the first navigational path so as to avoid the second obstacle and (2) instructs the aerial vehicle to execute the dodging maneuver so as to deviate from the first navigational path until the second obstacle is no longer detected by the acoustic system, whereupon the processor instructs the aerial vehicle to return to the first navigational path,
wherein signals from the acoustic system preempt signals from the GPS transceiver and the optical system.

2. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the processor (1) calculates a second navigational path if a first obstacle is detected along the first navigational path so as to avoid the first obstacle and (2) instructs the aerial vehicle to follow the second navigational path until the first obstacle is no longer detected along the first navigational path by the optical system, whereupon the processor instructs the aerial vehicle to return to the first navigational path.

3. The navigation system of claim 2 , wherein the acoustic system is an echolocation system having an array of echolocation sensors mounted within the housing with a second predetermined overlap in fields of view.

4. The navigation system of claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to identify a visible obstacle within the optical field of view using optical flow and to navigate the aerial vehicle around the visible obstacle and toward the location.

5. The navigation system of claim 4 , wherein the first obstacle is a visible obstacle to the optical system and the second obstacle is smaller than the first obstacle and not visible to the optical system.

6. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the optical system comprises a plurality of cameras mounted within the housing with a predetermined overlap in fields of view and configured to aggregate an image from each of said plurality of cameras to provide the at least one hundred and eighty degrees of optical field of view about the housing in at least one plane through the housing.

7. The navigation system of claim 1 , further comprising a map-based navigation system coupled to the optical system, the map-based navigation system storing a map of an operating environment for the aerial vehicle including one or more objects, and the map-based navigation system configured to determine a position of the aerial vehicle in an absence of data from the GPS transceiver.

8. The navigation system of claim 1 , further comprising a gyroscope within the housing configured to detect rotation of the housing.

9. The navigation system of claim 1 , further comprising an accelerometer within the housing configured to detect linear motion of the housing.

10. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the navigation system further comprises a steering system coupled to the processor to control the aerial vehicle to follow the navigational path.

11. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the optical system aggregates three hundred and sixty degrees of field of view in at least one plane.

12. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic system aggregates at least twenty degrees of field of view.

13. The navigation system of claim 1 , wherein the echolocation system aggregates between ten and forty-five degrees of field of view.

14. A method for navigating an aerial vehicle from a position to an objective, the method comprising:
determining the position with a global positioning system operatively coupled with a processor and a non-transitory memory;
determining a course from the position to the objective using the processor, wherein the course is stored to said non-transitory memory;
optically detecting a first obstacle along the course using one or more cameras;
calculating a revised course to the objective that avoids the obstacle using the processor, wherein the revised course is stored to said non-transitory memory;
acoustically detecting a second obstacle along the course or the revised course using an array of echolocation sensors; and
calculating a dodging maneuver that avoids the second obstacle and returns to the revised course.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising navigating the aerial vehicle to follow the course.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising navigating the aerial vehicle to follow the revised course, wherein the processor instructs the aerial vehicle to return to the course if the first obstacle is no longer optically detected along the course.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising navigating the aerial vehicle to perform the dodging maneuver and return to the revised course.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein navigating the aerial vehicle includes determining the position based upon a previous position from the global positioning system and a source of movement information when position data is not available from the global positioning system.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the source of movement information includes one or more of an analysis of image data from the one or more cameras, data from a gyroscope, and data from an accelerometer.

20. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, navigates an aerial vehicle from a position to an objective by performing the steps of:
determining the position with a global positioning system operatively coupled with the one or more computing devices and the non-transitory computer-readable medium;
determining a course from the position to the objective using the one or more computing devices, wherein the course is stored to said non-transitory computer-readable medium;
optically detecting a first obstacle along the course using one or more cameras;
calculating a revised course to the objective that avoids the first obstacle using the one or more computing devices, wherein the course is stored to said non-transitory computer-readable medium;
acoustically detecting a second obstacle along the course or the revised course using an array of echolocation sensors; and
calculating a dodging maneuver that avoids the second obstacle and returns to the revised course.

Assignees

• Aurora Flight Sciences Corp

Inventors

• Paduano James
• Mckenna Terrence

Classifications

• G01C23/00

  Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration · CPC title

• G01S15/93

  for anti-collision purposes · CPC title

• G01S15/42

  Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates (indirect measurement G01S15/46) · CPC title

• G01S15/86

  Combinations of sonar systems with lidar systems; Combinations of sonar systems with systems not using wave reflection · CPC title

• G01C21/20 Primary

  Instruments for performing navigational calculations (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title