Estimating a condition of a physical structure

• Main Authors: Jordan, II, Jackie O, Schmidgall, Roger D, Maurer, Jonathan D, Tofte, Nathan L, Christopulos, Nicholas U, Boyer, Patrick H, Freeman, James M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 05.04.2022
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; AVIATION; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COSMONAUTICS; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; DEAF-AID SETS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; HELICOPTERS; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKEACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; MEASURING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TESTING; TRANSPORTING

In a computer-implemented method and system for capturing the condition of a structure, the structure is scanned with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Data collected by the UAV corresponding to points on a surface of a structure is received and a 3D point cloud is generated for the structure, where the 3D point cloud is generated based at least in part on the received UAV data. A 3D model of the surface of the structure is reconstructed using the 3D point cloud.