The technology described herein relates to autonomous aerial vehicle technology and, more specifically, to environment illumination for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles. In some embodiments, a UAV includes upward-facing image capture devices, downward-facing image capture devices, one or more illumination sources, and a computer system. The computer system is configured to direct the one or more illumination sources to selectively emit light into a surrounding physical environment while the UAV is in flight, process images captured by any one or more of the plurality of upward-facing image capture devices or the plurality of downward-facing image capture devices to estimate a position and/or orientation of the aerial vehicle, generate a planned trajectory for the aerial vehicle through a physical environment based on the processing of the images, and control a propulsion system and/or flight surface of the aerial vehicle to cause the aerial vehicle to autonomously maneuver along the planned trajectory.


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    Title :

    Environment Illumination For Autonomous Aerial Vehicles



    Publication date :

    2021-08-12


    Type of media :

    Patent


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English


    Classification :

    IPC:    B64C AEROPLANES , Flugzeuge



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