Drone Flight Path Calculation for Multi-Angle Vehicle Imaging
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing drone systems cannot capture images of a traveling vehicle from various angles, including the side and front, as they are limited to tracking and capturing from the rear.
Innovation Solution
A drone system comprising a vehicle and a drone connected via a communication line, where the vehicle sends traveling information to the drone, enabling autonomous flight and image capture. The drone uses a controller with a scene information database to calculate flight paths and adjust camera directions, allowing it to capture images from multiple angles by estimating future vehicle positions and calculating flight paths through relative and absolute positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the drone tracks and follows the traveling vehicle to capture images from the rear side, then the drone can maintain a stable following position, but it cannot move around to the side or front of the vehicle to capture images from various angles
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates multiple flight paths corresponding to different capture angles (rear, side, front views) and stores them in advance. The drone selects and executes the appropriate pre-planned flight path based on the desired capture angle, enabling versatile imaging without real-time complex decision-making
Solution Approach 2:
The drone transitions from static rear-following mode to dynamic multi-angle capture by adjusting its flight path and position relative to the vehicle. The system dynamically switches between different flight paths to achieve various capture angles while maintaining autonomous operation
2Loss of information
If the drone captures images from various angles by moving around the vehicle, then comprehensive scene coverage is achieved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring future vehicle positions increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary estimation of future vehicle positions based on current traveling information before the drone executes flight path maneuvers. This advance calculation ensures the drone can accurately predict where the vehicle will be when the drone reaches different capture positions, preventing information loss
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously receives real-time vehicle information (position, speed, direction) and uses this feedback to refine future position estimates. This closed-loop feedback mechanism maintains accurate predictions of vehicle position even as the vehicle moves, enabling reliable multi-angle capture planning
3Manufacturing precision
If the drone calculates flight paths based on future traveling positions to capture scenes at various angles, then smooth scene transitions are achieved, but the calculation complexity and time required increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple flight paths for different capture angles are pre-calculated and stored in the system. When a scene transition is needed, the drone simply selects from these pre-prepared paths rather than calculating new ones in real-time, significantly reducing calculation time while maintaining smooth transitions
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts between pre-calculated flight paths based on real-time vehicle position updates. While the paths themselves are pre-computed for efficiency, the system dynamically selects and adapts the appropriate path segment to ensure smooth scene transitions match the actual vehicle trajectory
Data Source
AI summary
A controller of a drone includes a storage unit that stores a scene information database containing a plurality of scene information sets arranged in time series of a video, in each of the scene information sets, a relative position with respect to a vehicle in capturing a scene of the video and a duration of the scene are associated with each other, a vehicle information acquisition unit that receives vehicle information from the vehicle, a traveling position estimation unit that estimates a future traveling position of the vehicle based on the vehicle information, and a flight path calculation unit that, based on the estimated traveling position and the scene information database, calculates, for each of the scenes, a flight path that passes through the relative position with respect to the vehicle.