UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE DESCENT

摘要

Described are systems and methods for surveying a destination as an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) descends toward the destination. To confirm that the destination is clear of objects and includes a safe landing or delivery location, such as a substantially planar surface, the UAV may capture and process images at different altitudes during the descent. Feature points of a first image captured at a first altitude may be paired with feature points of a second image captured at a second, different altitude. A homography may be computed to confirm that the paired feature points lie in the same plane and then the two images may be registered based on the paired feature points. The registered images may then be processed to determine depth information and determine if descent of the UAV is to continue or be aborted.

主权项

1. A method to determine a substantially planar surface area at a destination, the method comprising:
obtaining with a camera of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), at a first altitude above the destination, a first image of the destination; obtaining with the camera of the UAV, at a second altitude above the destination, a second image of the destination; determining a first plurality of feature points of the first image; for each of the first plurality of feature points of the first image:
associating a feature point of the first plurality of feature points with a corresponding feature point of the second image to form a paired feature point that includes a first feature point of the first image and a second feature point of the second image; determining a first plurality of paired feature points in which the first feature point of the first image and the second feature point of the second image are in a same plane; registering the first image and the second image based at least in part on the first plurality of paired feature points to generate a registered image set; generating a depth disparity map of the destination based on the registered image set; and determining, based at least in part on the depth disparity map, that a substantially planar surface of sufficient size to accept at least one of a package from the UAV or the UAV is available at the destination.