UAV Landing Precision via Visual Markers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous landing systems for UAVs in densely populated environments, such as warehouses or distribution centers, face challenges with precision due to reliance on imprecise GPS and lack of orientation considerations, especially when multiple UAVs are operating concurrently, leading to potential collisions and inefficient landing procedures.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a method where UAVs use continuous real-time sensor data, including camera imagery and wireless signaling, to detect and track landing bays with special patterns that provide both location and global orientation information, enabling precise positioning and orientation within a multi-bay landing zone. This system includes exception-handling mechanisms to adjust flight plans and avoid collisions, utilizing computer vision algorithms to identify and track landing patterns and adjust sensor settings for improved data acquisition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS-based navigation is used for autonomous landing, then the UAV can perform basic return-to-launch functionality, but the landing precision is insufficient for densely organized warehouses or limited landing spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces visual markers as intermediary objects placed on the ground that serve as reference points for the UAV's navigation system. These markers act as a mediator between the GPS system and the landing target, providing sub-meter precision by giving the vision system detectable features to track and measure against, thereby resolving the precision limitation of GPS alone without requiring complex active sensing hardware on the ground
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces reliance on purely mechanical/GPS-based navigation with a vision-based optical system. By using cameras and image processing to detect visual markers and calculate position/orientation, the system substitutes the GPS mechanical navigation approach with an optical measurement system that achieves higher precision in localized landing zones
2Productivity
If multiple UAVs operate concurrently in a limited landing zone, then the landing capacity increases, but the risk of collisions and coordination conflicts increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the landing zone into multiple discrete landing bays, each with its own unique visual marker. This segmentation allows multiple UAVs to operate concurrently in different bays independently, increasing landing capacity while maintaining safety through spatial separation. Each bay becomes an independent operational unit that can be targeted and executed without coordinating complex multi-UAV interactions
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses identical visual marker designs replicated across multiple landing bays. This copying approach allows UAVs to recognize and navigate to any bay using the same detection algorithms, simplifying multi-UAV coordination. The standardized markers enable any UAV to understand the function and location of any landing bay without requiring complex communication or negotiation protocols
3Measurement precision
If visual markers are used for precise landing, then the UAV can achieve sub-meter positioning accuracy, but the system requires additional ground infrastructure and may not work without line-of-sight
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies visual markers only at specific landing bay locations rather than throughout the entire environment. This localized approach provides high positioning accuracy precisely where needed (at the landing target) without requiring complex infrastructure everywhere. The markers are placed only at critical points (landing zones) rather than creating a dense global navigation network
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses simple, inexpensive visual markers that can be easily deployed and replaced. These markers are basic graphical patterns printed on the ground rather than expensive active sensors or transmitters. They provide sufficient functionality for precision landing without requiring durable, complex, or powered infrastructure, making the system low-cost and easily reconfigurable
4Loss of information
If the UAV uses camera imagery to detect landing patterns, then the system can identify global orientation and precise location, but the processing complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-structures the visual markers with specific geometric patterns and asymmetries that encode orientation information in their design. This preliminary encoding of information in the marker geometry allows the vision system to extract both position and global orientation through relatively simple image matching and feature detection, rather than requiring complex computational analysis of arbitrary patterns. The orientation is baked into the marker design itself
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments provide methods for controlling landings of a UAV in a landing zone including a plurality of landing bays. Various embodiments include a method implemented on a computing device for receiving continuous real-time sensor data from a transceiver and from sensors onboard the UAV, and detecting a target landing bay within the plurality of landing bays within the landing zone that is available for landing based on the continuous real-time sensor data. Orientation and position coordinates for landing in the target landing bay may be calculated based on the continuous real-time sensor data. Information regarding positions and flight vectors of a plurality of autonomous UAVs may be obtained, and a flight plan for landing in the target landing bay may be generated based on the orientation and the position coordinates, positions and flight vectors of the plurality of autonomous UAVs and a current orientation and position of the UAV.