Unmanned aerial vehicle control system

Abstract

Fig 1 A multirotor UAV 10 flies under control of an on-board flight controller(40, fig 2). The UAV 10 has sensors e.g. laser scanner / LIDAR 30, camera 32, GPS 34, compass 35 sending signals to the flight controller (40, fig 2). The UAV 10 uses the three-dimensional depth scanner 30 when flying in close proximity to an external structure (60, fig 4) to create a three-dimensional map of the external structure (60, fig 4) for control of the flight of the UAV 10 proximate thereto. The sensors detect a profile of the structure (60, fig 4) within a predetermined vicinity of the UAV 10 and is used by the flight controller (40, fig 2) to control movement of the UAV 10 to track the profile of the structure (60, fig 4).