Gopro, Inc.

Skydio, Inc.

Joseph Anthony Enke

Stepan N Moskovchenko

Benjamin P Tankersley

Pascal Gohl

Sammy Omari

Nenad Uzunovic

Adam Fenn

Axel Murguet

Garance Bruneau

Jean-Bernard Berteaux

Nicholas D Woodman

Pablo German Lema

Michael Paterson

Sean Flanigan

Anupam Joshi

Kielan C Crow

Yevgeniy Kozlenko

Bich Nguyen

Patrick Allen Lowe

Benjamin Scott Thompson

Jeffrey S Youel

Asher Mendel Robbins-Rothman

Donald Allen Severns

Christopher Brian Grasberger

Mehran Ferdowsi

John Michael Spall

Andreas Jäger

Mark Petersen

Tim Oberhauser

David Boone

Adrian Matthew Cooke

Blair Williams

Logan Sweet

Miles Hansen

Kevin Fry

Simon Doessegger

Adam Nathan Lebovitz

Jack Zi Qi Ye

Enyu Luo

Benjamin Tankersley

Brian Kubisiak

Ryan Hornung

Vivian Zhou

Sean Michael Flanigan

An unmanned aerial vehicle system that includes an unmanned aerial vehicle and an attachment. The unmanned aerial vehicle includes an attachment interface located on a side of the unmanned aerial vehicle. The attachment is configured to removably couple to the attachment interface such that the attachment is positioned adjacent to the side of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Attachment interface and attachments for an unmanned aerial vehicle

An apparatus that includes a controller of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a cover, and antennas integrated into the cover and electrically connect to circuitry of the controller. The controller includes control elements configured to receive inputs. The cover is coupled to the controller and movable between a closed position, in which the control elements are covered, and an open position in which the control elements are exposed. The cover includes one or more ribs integrated into an interior surface of the cover and defining cavities of the cover. The cover also includes a conductive plane coupled to the one or more ribs that encloses the cavities.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controller

The present teachings provide a system and method. The system and method include receiving images or video frames at a wireless receiver interface from a wireless transmitter. The system and method include performing decoder nudging while decoding the images or the video frames received by the wireless transmitter. Overclocking a display of a controller to an overclocked frequency. Outputting decoded images or decoded video frames to the display of the controller at the overclocked frequency.

Pipelined video interface for remote controlled aerial vehicle with camera

Described herein are systems and methods using a security key for an unmanned aerial vehicle. For example, some methods include during flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle, encrypting, using a public key stored by the unmanned aerial vehicle, a symmetric key that is used to encrypt media data captured using one or more sensors of the unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain encrypted media data; landing the unmanned aerial vehicle; connecting a key device to the unmanned aerial vehicle via a serial port connector of the key device and a serial port connector of the unmanned aerial vehicle; while the key device is connected to the unmanned aerial vehicle, decrypting, using a private key stored on the key device, the encrypted symmetric key, which in turn is used to decrypt a portion of the encrypted media data to obtain decrypted media data; and transmitting a portion of the decrypted media data.

Security key for unmanned aerial vehicle

A method includes determining an altitude of a camera of an aerial vehicle, determining a field of view (FOV) of a camera, generating a localized map, determining a relative position of the aerial vehicle on the localized map, and determining a relative heading of the aerial vehicle.

Map view

Described herein are systems for the production, communication, routing, service, authentication, and consumption of cryptographically authenticable contextual content produced by cryptographically authenticable devices; example implementations of the architecture for a Trusted Contextual Content Device which produces Trusted Contextual Content; and example implementations of the architecture for a Trusted Drone Device which produces Trusted Contextual Content. For example, some of the methods used may include accessing a first set of sensor data from one or more sensors; receiving, a first trusted contextual content that includes a first digital signature; generating a data structure including the first trusted contextual content and data based on the first set of sensor data; signing the data structure using a signing key to generate a second trusted contextual content including a second digital signature; and storing or transmitting the second trusted contextual content.

Trusted contextual content

An aerial vehicle, comprising: one or more motors, one or more sensors, and a flight sub-system. The one or more sensors configured to detect data. The flight sub-system includes an attitude controller module; a rate controller module; and a compensator module. The compensator module is configured to: determine a maximum RPM of the one or more motors or a maximum torque of the one or more motors; receive a torque vector from the rate controller module; determine a rotational speed of the one or more motors to generate a desired flight orientation based upon the torque vector; and consider sensor data from the one or more sensors to adjust the rotational speed of the one or more motors.

Variable condition motor controller

A device includes a mechanical stabilization system is used in image signal processing. The mechanical image stabilization system has an operating bandwidth and includes a motor to control an orientation of an image sensor. A processing apparatus of the device determines a temperature of the motor and adjusts a cutoff frequency of the operating bandwidth based on the temperature of the motor.

Combined mechanical and electronic image stabilization

A pipeline in a controller may be configured to interface between sensors and actuators. The pipeline may elements such as drivers, filters, a combine, estimators, controllers, a mixer, and actuator controllers. The drivers may receive sensor data and pre-process the received sensor data. The filters may filter the pre-processed sensor data to generate filtered sensor data. The combine may package the filtered sensor data to generate packaged sensor data. The estimators may determine estimates of a position of a vehicle based on the packaged sensor data. The controllers may generate control signals based on the determined estimates. The mixer may modify the generated control signals based on limitations of the vehicle. The actuator controllers may generate actuator control signals based on the modified control signals to drive the actuators.

Synchronized pipeline flight controller

Systems and methods are disclosed for image signal processing. For example, methods may include, based on a sequence of orientation estimates for an image sensor and an orientation setpoint, invoking a mechanical stabilization system to adjust an orientation of the image sensor toward the orientation setpoint; receiving an image from the image sensor; determining an orientation error between the orientation of the image sensor and the orientation setpoint during capture of the image; and, based on the orientation error, invoking an electronic image stabilization module to correct the image for a rotation corresponding to the orientation error to obtain a stabilized image.

Controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle to traverse a portion of an operational environment of the unmanned aerial vehicle may include obtaining an object detection type, obtaining object detection input data, obtaining relative object orientation data based on the object detection type and the object detection input data, and performing an object avoidance operation based on the relative object orientation data. The object detection type may be monocular object detection, which may include obtaining the relative object orientation data by obtaining motion data indicating a change of spatial location for the unmanned aerial vehicle between obtaining the first image and obtaining the second image based on searching along epipolar lines to obtain optical flow data.

Adaptive object detection

A system including an image capture module and a handheld module. The image capture module includes a body; an image sensor; and a mechanical stabilization system comprising a first gimbal, a second gimbal, and a third gimbal connected to the body and configured to control an orientation of the image sensor of the image capture module relative to the body. The handheld module defines a slot that is keyed to the body of the image capture module. The image capture module, when located within the handheld module, has a low profile so that the third gimbal is protected from damage by the handheld module.

Modular image capture systems

Ultrasonic ranging state management for a UAV is described. A transducer transmits an ultrasonic signal and receives an ultrasonic response thereto using a gain value. A noise floor estimation mechanism determines a noise floor estimate. A state mechanism sets an ultrasonic ranging state used by the transducer to a first ultrasonic ranging state. The transducer transmits an ultrasonic signal and responsively receive an ultrasonic response to the ultrasonic signal using a gain value according to the noise floor estimate. The state mechanism processes the ultrasonic response to determine whether to determine a new noise floor estimate, adjust the gain value used by the transducer, or change the ultrasonic ranging state of the UAV to a second ultrasonic ranging state. The configurations of the first and second ultrasonic ranging states differ as to, for example, power and gain levels used by the transducer to receive ultrasonic responses.

Ultrasonic ranging state management for unmanned aerial vehicles

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controller may have control elements configured to receive inputs from a user. A cover may be coupled to the controller. The cover may be movable between a closed position in which the control elements are covered and an open position in which the control elements are exposed. An antenna may be integrated in the cover. The antenna may be electrically connected to circuitry in the controller for communicating with a UAV. In some implementations, a conductive plane and/or an insulating plane may be integrated in the cover. In some implementations, a heatsink, a fan, and/or a support mechanism may be arranged on an under portion of the controller. In some implementations, a circuit board including a cutout may be arranged inside the controller.

Growing community of inventors

Campbell, CA, United States of America

Joseph Anthony Enke