Patent ID: 6856894

Claim:
A method for navigating a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) the method comprising: receiving in a remote control device a user's selection of a GUI map pixel that represents a waypoint for UAV navigation, the pixel having a location on the GUI (Graphical User Interface); mapping the pixel's location on the GUI to Earth coordinates of the waypoint; transmitting the coordinates of the waypoint to the UAV; reading a starting position from a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver on the UAV; piloting the UAV, under control of a navigation computer on the UAV, from the starting position to the waypoint in accordance with a navigation algorithm; and changing from piloting the UAV under control of a navigation computer on the UAV to piloting the UAV under manual control; and while piloting the UAV under manual control: reading from the GPS receiver a sequence of GPS data representing a flight path of the UAV; and depicting the flight of the UAV with 3D computer graphics, including a computer graphic display of a satellite image of the Earth, in dependence upon the GPS data.