Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Carl Ryan Kelso

Steven Gregory Dunn

Neil Whitney Woodward, Iii

James Yang

Yves Christian Albers Schoenberg

Techniques for facilitating an autonomous operation, such as an autonomous navigation, of an unmanned vehicle based on one or more fiducials. For example, image data of a fiducial may be generated with an optical sensor of the unmanned vehicle. The image data may be analyzed to determine a location of the fiducial. A location of the unmanned vehicle may be estimated from the location of the fiducial and the image. The autonomous navigation of the unmanned vehicle may be directed based on the estimated location.

Fiducial-based navigation of unmanned vehicles

Disclosed are various embodiments involving use of a multi-scale fiducial by an autonomously controlled aerial vehicle. A first image at a first location is captured, and a first fiducial at a first scale of a multi-scale fiducial is recognized within the first image. The autonomously controlled aerial vehicle is piloted relative to the multi-scale fiducial based at least in part on information contained within the first fiducial. A second image at a second location is captured, and a second fiducial at a second scale of the multi-scale fiducial is recognized within the second image. An action is then performed based at least in part on information contained within the second fiducial.

Use of multi-scale fiducials by autonomously controlled aerial vehicles

Described herein are techniques, systems, and circuits for addressing image data according to blocks. For example, in some cases, the address space may be divided into high order address bits and low order address bits. In these cases, an address circuit may twist an address space by shifting the high order bits and low order bits of an address in a rightward direction, shifting the low order bits of the address in a leftward direction, and shifting the high order bits and the low order bits of the address in the leftward direction. The circuit may modify the address value and untwist the address space. For example, the untwisting may include shifting the high order bits and the low order bits of an address in the rightward direction, shifting the low order bits of the address in the rightward direction, and shifting the high order bits and the low order bits of the address in the leftward direction.

Address circuit

Disclosed are various embodiments of a multi-scale fiducial. A multi-scale fiducial may have three or more scales, where the child fiducials are nested or otherwise linked by a relative position to the parent fiducials. Multi-scale fiducials may facilitate target identification and tracking at varying distances, potentially without the aid of a scale-invariant recognition algorithm. One application of multi-scale fiducials may involve target identification for autonomously controlled aerial vehicles.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Carl Ryan Kelso