Smart Drone Tracks, Anticipates Target’s Movement
The scenario is nothing new: a drone to follows its dongle or transmitter, capturing video or photos of its user. Lily, or most higher-end quads offer this feature. However, as the present patent application illustrates, drones do not anticipate their target’s movement.
For example, suppose you want a video of you surfing. Here is the relevant paragraph from the application: “After powering on the autonomous vehicle, a user may paddle out and begin to surf. In some embodiments, when the user desires that the autonomous vehicle begin to follow the user, the user may issue a start command to the autonomous vehicle. In some embodiments, the start follow command may be a data command sent over a wireless network. For example, a user may issue a command by way of a motion tracking device associated with the user. Alternately or additionally, a user may issue a command using signaling, such as waving a hand. Alternately or additionally, the autonomous vehicle may issue a start follow command based on certain conditions. For example, the autonomous vehicle may issue a start follow command when the autonomous vehicle detects a wave of certain size, an expiration of a timer, a particular acceleration of a motion tracking device, user, or object, or based on some other factor or event.”
Not only will the drone extrapolate the user’s position, but it will calculate how the position may be affected due to wind. The drone will also take into account and avoid collisions with user’s sports gear such as a kite, sail, and the user’s body.
Claim 1 is quite broad, perhaps too broad, and may read onto prior art.
- A method for an autonomous vehicle to follow a target, the method comprising:
- obtaining a position and a velocity of a target;
- obtaining a position of an autonomous vehicle;
- obtaining a path that encloses the position of the target;
- determining a path rate for the autonomous vehicle to move along the path based on the velocity of the target;
- determining a path position along the path based on the position of the autonomous vehicle;
- determining a change in the position of the autonomous vehicle based on the path position, the path rate, and the velocity of the target;
- and adjusting a velocity and a direction of the autonomous vehicle to achieve the change in the position of the autonomous vehicle.
Title: “AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE OPERATION”
US Patent Application No: 20160018822
Filed (US Prov): Jul. 20, 2014
Published: January 21, 2016
Applicant: HELICO AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES SIA, Riga, LV
