Southwest Research Institute

Anthony J Wagner

Stephen A Geiger

Justin B Daniel

Logan A Elliott

An on-board navigation system for an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operating in an unknown environment. A point-cloud sensor system generates point cloud data representing the unknown environment. An on-board processing system processes the point cloud data to generate both a 2-D occupancy grid and a 3-D voxel map, with the 2-D occupancy grid having cells with known (seen) and unknown data. Additional processing determines an amount of known-to-unknown (transitional) data in each cell, thereby determining unexplored regions. A cost is assigned to each unexplored region, based at least in part on the amount of transitional data in cells of the region. The unexplored regions are then sorted based on their costs, thereby determining an optimal region to explore. The 3-D voxel map is used to find a safe area within the optimal region where the UAS may fly. A flight path to the optimal region is then calculated.

Growing community of inventors

San Antonio, TX, United States of America

Anthony J Wagner