US 11,755,041 B2
Objective-based control of an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle
Jack Louis Zhu, Redwood City, CA (US); Hayk Martirosyan, Emerald Hills, CA (US); Abraham Bachrach, San Francisco, CA (US); Matthew Donahoe, Redwood City, CA (US); Patrick Lowe, Burlingame, CA (US); Kristen Marie Holtz, Redwood City, CA (US); and Adam Bry, Redwood City, CA (US)
Assigned to Skydio, Inc., San Mateo, CA (US)
Filed by Skydio, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 28, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/360,495.
Application 17/360,495 is a continuation of application No. 16/240,394, filed on Jan. 4, 2019, granted, now 11,048,277.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/621,243, filed on Jan. 24, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0019248 A1, Jan. 20, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G05D 1/12 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); B64C 39/02 (2023.01); G06T 7/20 (2017.01); G05D 1/10 (2006.01); H04N 5/272 (2006.01); H04N 23/695 (2023.01); B64U 101/30 (2023.01)
CPC G05D 1/12 (2013.01) [B64C 39/024 (2013.01); G05D 1/0094 (2013.01); G05D 1/101 (2013.01); G06T 7/20 (2013.01); H04N 5/272 (2013.01); H04N 23/695 (2023.01); B64U 2101/30 (2023.01); B64U 2201/10 (2023.01); G06T 2207/30241 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30261 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configured for autonomous flight through a physical environment, the UAV including:
an application programming interface (API) configured to:
expose parameters of a behavioral objective to a third-party application,
wherein the behavioral objective defines a goal or target affecting autonomous control of the UAV;
process a call received from the third-party application, the call configured to set or modify parameters of the behavioral objective;
transmit an instruction to set or modify the parameters of the behavioral objective in a multi-objective trajectory generation process;
a motion planning system configured to:
set or modify the parameters of the behavioral objective in the multi-objective trajectory generation process responsive to receiving the instruction;
receive perception data based on images of the physical environment;
feed the perception data into the multi-objective trajectory generation process to generate a trajectory that satisfies the behavioral objective in view of another behavioral objective or constraint; and
a flight controller configured to cause the UAV to autonomously maneuver based on the trajectory.