Multi-sensor environmental mapping

• Main Authors: Liu, Ang, Ling, Yonggen, Mo, Weiyu
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.01.2021
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; AVIATION; CONTROLLING; COSMONAUTICS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; HELICOPTERS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; NAVIGATION; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; REGULATING; SURVEYING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TESTING; TRANSPORTING

A method for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes receiving first sensor data relative to a first coordinate system and second sensor data relative to a second coordinate system from a first sensor and a second sensor, respectively. The first and second sensor data includes first and second obstacle occupancy information indicative of relative locations of a first and a second sets of obstacles in reference to the UAV in the first and second coordinate systems, respectively. The first and second sets of obstacles have at least a subset of obstacles in common. The method further includes converting the first and second sensor data into a single coordinate system using sensor calibration data to generate an obstacle occupancy grid map based on the first and second obstacle occupancy information, and effecting the UAV to navigate using the obstacle occupancy grid map to perform obstacle avoidance.