Honeywell International Inc.
AUTOMATIC SAFE-LANDING-SITE SELECTION FOR UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEMS

Abstract:

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation system is configured to automatically identify a suitable UAV landing site, for example, in forced-landing (e.g., emergency) scenarios. In some examples, the system receives two or more overlapping images depicting a landscape underneath an airborne unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); generates, based on the two or more overlapping images, a depth map for the landscape; identifies, based on the depth map, regions of the landscape having a depth variance below a threshold value; determines, for each of the regions of the landscape having a depth variance below the threshold value, a landing zone quality score indicative of the depth variance and a semantic type of the region of the landscape; identifies, based on the landing zone quality scores, a suitable location for landing the UAV; and causes the UAV to automatically navigate toward and land on the suitable location.