Patent Document ID: 7761199
Application ID: 11785670
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of creating a map of an area of interest indicating the lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve a glide path of a vehicle to a termination point of the area of interest and a map of vectors of the area of interest indicating direction towards a termination point to control an unmanned vehicle, the method comprising: dividing a map of the area of interest into cells using a grid; selecting at least one cell defining a termination point; determining topographical profile, representing general surface features of the ground of each of the cells; setting the lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve glide path to the termination point for the at least one selected cell defining a termination point to the ground level received from the topographical profile of the termination point and the direction vector to a zero value; computing the lowest allowable flight altitude for cells adjacent to the cell defining the termination point, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the cell defining a termination point and in addition define a direction vector of the computed cell pointing towards the cell defining a termination point; repeating the computing of the lowest allowable flight altitude for cells adjacent to the cell previously computed, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the previously computed cell and in addition define a direction vector of the computed cell pointing towards the cell defining a termination point; and repeating the setting the lowest allowable flight altitude, computing the lowest allowable flight altitude and repeating computing the lowest allowable flight altitude for all selected termination points until all cells of the divided map has received a lowest allowable flight altitude as well as a direction vector.