US 12,148,316 B2
Unmanned aerial vehicle visual point cloud navigation
Joseph Moster, San Francisco, CA (US); Donna Okazaki, San Francisco, CA (US); and Bernard J. Michini, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Skydio, Inc., San Mateo, CA (US)
Filed by Skydio, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US)
Filed on May 6, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/313,754.
Application 17/313,754 is a continuation of application No. 15/869,659, filed on Jan. 12, 2018, granted, now 11,017,679.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/446,334, filed on Jan. 13, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0358315 A1, Nov. 18, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G08G 5/00 (2006.01); B64C 39/02 (2023.01); B64D 47/08 (2006.01); B64U 10/13 (2023.01); G01C 11/02 (2006.01); G01C 21/00 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2024.01); B64U 30/20 (2023.01); B64U 101/26 (2023.01); B64U 101/30 (2023.01)
CPC G08G 5/0069 (2013.01) [B64U 10/13 (2023.01); G01C 11/02 (2013.01); G05D 1/0094 (2013.01); G08G 5/0034 (2013.01); G08G 5/0039 (2013.01); B64U 30/20 (2023.01); B64U 2101/26 (2023.01); B64U 2101/30 (2023.01); B64U 2201/10 (2023.01); B64U 2201/20 (2023.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
obtaining a flight plan including waypoints for navigating an aerial vehicle about a physical structure;
determining, using a point cloud representing the physical structure, a likelihood of the aerial vehicle colliding with the physical structure based on a likelihood of a first buffer associated with the aerial vehicle overlapping a second buffer associated with the point cloud,
wherein the first buffer is determined based on one or more sources of error associated with the aerial vehicle and the second buffer is determined based on one or more sources of error associated with the physical structure or the point cloud;
modifying one or more of the waypoints based on the likelihood of the aerial vehicle colliding with the physical structure exceeding a threshold to establish an updated flight plan; and
autonomously navigating the aerial vehicle about the physical structure according to the updated flight plan.