Unmanned aerial vehicle and landing method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9878779-B2
Application number	US-201615169782-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2016
Priority date	Mar 17, 2016
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a landing method thereof are provided. The landing method includes the following steps. Firstly, a depth image of a scene is obtained. Next, a landing position is determined in accordance with the depth image. Next, a height information of the landing position is obtained. Next, a plurality of relative distances of the landing gears relative to the landing position are adjusted in accordance with the height information to make the relative distances substantially the same. Then, the UAV lands on the landing position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
a fuselage;
a plurality of landing gears disposed on the fuselage;
a 3D image recognition system disposed in bottom of the fuselage for obtaining a depth image of a terrain;
a processor coupled to the 3D image recognition system for determining a landing position in accordance with the depth image; and
a distance sensing unit disposed in each of the plurality of landing gears for obtaining height information of the landing position, such that a height between each landing gear and the terrain respectively below each landing gear is obtained;
wherein the processor independently extends or retracts in a vertical direction with respect to the terrain each of plurality of the landing gears to adjust a vertical position of each of the plurality of landing gears, based on the height information obtained, so as to make the distance between each landing gear and the terrain substantially the same, and land the UAV on the landing position in accordance with the depth image.

2. The UAV according to claim 1 , wherein the 3D image recognition system captures a 2D image of the terrain, divides the 2D image into a plurality of regions, obtains depth values of all pixels in each of the plurality of regions, and calculates average depth values respectively corresponding to each of the plurality of regions to obtain the depth image.

3. The UAV according to claim 2 , wherein the processor obtains a maximum average depth value and a minimum average depth value from the average depth values of the plurality of regions, subtracts the minimum average depth value from the maximum average depth value to obtain a difference value, and determines whether the difference value is smaller than a threshold value;
wherein when the difference value is smaller than the threshold value, the processor determines to land the UAV on the landing position;
wherein when the difference value is larger than the threshold value, the processor determines the 3D image recognition system to re-obtain a depth image of a terrain to search for a suitable landing position.

4. The UAV according to claim 3 , wherein the threshold value is a maximum extension length of each of the plurality of landing gears.

5. The UAV according to claim 2 , wherein the processor aims each of plurality of the landing gears to correspond to each of the plurality of regions.

6. The UAV according to claim 5 , wherein the distance sensing units are infrared sensors.

Assignees

• Inventec Appliances (Pudong) Corp
• Inventec Appliances Corp

Inventors

• Tsai Pei-Lun

Classifications

• G06V20/17

  taken from planes or by drones · CPC title

• G06V20/13

  Satellite images · CPC title

• B64C27/08

  with two or more rotors · CPC title

• G06K9/0063

  Physics · mapped topic

• B64C25/10 Primary

  retractable, foldable, or the like · CPC title