Commercial and General Aircraft Avoidance using Light Pattern Detection

摘要

This disclosure is directed to a detection and avoidance apparatus for an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) and systems, devices, and techniques pertaining to automated object detection and avoidance during UAV flight. The system may detect objects within the UAV's airspace through acoustic, visual, infrared, multispectral, hyperspectral, or object detectable signal emitted or reflected from an object. The system may identify the source of the object detectable signal by comparing features of the received signal with known sources signals in a database. The features may be, for example, a light arrangement or number of lights associated with the object. Furthermore, a trajectory envelope for the object may be determined based on characteristic performance parameters for the object such as cursing speed, maneuverability, etc. The UAV may determine an optimized flight plan based on the trajectory envelopes of detected objects within the UAV's airspace to avoid the detected objects.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
capturing, over a period of time, by one or more optical sensors coupled to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), sensor data representing images of an airspace surrounding the UAV; detecting, in the sensor data, information representative of a plurality of lights associated with a flying object; determining an estimated distance between the UAV and the flying object; determining one or more characteristic features of the plurality of lights based at least in part on the sensor data and the estimated distance between the UAV and the flying object; identifying, using a characteristic feature database, the flying object based at least in part on the one or more characteristic features of the plurality of lights; determining an estimated airspeed of the flying object based at least in part on the sensor data; determining a trajectory envelope of the flying object based at least in part on performance parameters associated with the identified flying object and the estimated airspeed of the flying object; and updating a flight plan of the UAV based at least in part on the trajectory envelope of the flying object.