An aerial vehicle is programmed to proceed to a safe landing area upon a loss of GPS signals or other navigational signals. The aerial vehicle is programmed with a location of the safe landing area, and a visual descriptor of a landmark at the safe landing area. The landmark may be any natural or man-made structure or feature associated with the safe landing area, and the visual identifier may be any set of data corresponding to one or more contours, outlines, colors, textures, silhouettes or shapes of the landmark. Upon determining that a GPS position may not be determined, or shortly thereafter, the aerial vehicle proceeds on a course toward the location of the safe landing area, and begins to capture imaging data. The aerial vehicle confirms that it has arrived at the safe landing area upon detecting the visual identifier within the imaging data, and initiates a landing operation.
Safe landing of aerial vehicles upon loss of navigation
2021-06-15
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | G06V / G05D SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES , Systeme zum Steuern oder Regeln nichtelektrischer veränderlicher Größen / B64C AEROPLANES , Flugzeuge / G01C Messen von Entfernungen, Höhen, Neigungen oder Richtungen , MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS / G01S RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING , Funkpeilung |
Image Segmentation to Identify Safe Landing Zones for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ArXiv | 2021
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