Patent ID: 11932394
Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 17:
18. A system comprising:
at least one machine vision camera onboard an aerial vehicle;
at least one processer onboard the aerial vehicle and operatively coupled to the at least one machine vision camera, the at least one processor comprising:
a depth module configured to receive, from the machine vision camera, image information corresponding to overlapping images of an area over which the aerial vehicle travels, the depth module including a tracking model and a mapping model operatively coupled to the tracking model;
wherein the mapping model is configured to generate a pixelwise depth map and a landing quality pixel map;
wherein the tracking model provides image and pose information to the mapping model, and the mapping model provides depth information to the tracking model;

a multi-sensor pose fusion module configured to receive pose information from the tracking model, the multi-sensor pose fusion module operative to estimate vehicle state data including vehicle orientation; and
a post processing module operatively coupled to the depth module and the multi-sensor pose fusion module, the post processing module configured to calculate one or more potential landing regions in the landing quality pixel map, wherein the one or more potential landing regions is projected in three dimensions using a camera projection matrix and the pixelwise depth map to detect locations of the one or more potential landing regions;

an onboard landing region database operatively coupled to the post processing module and the multi-sensor pose fusion module, the landing region database configured to store the locations of the one or more potential landing regions for a future emergency;
an onboard landing zone tracker operatively coupled to the post processing module, the landing zone tracker configured to receive the locations of the one or more potential landing regions for use in real time; and
an onboard guidance module operatively coupled to the landing region database and the landing zone tracker, the guidance module operative to send a request to the landing region database for a landing region candidate, wherein a best landing region candidate is sent from the landing region database to the guidance module.