Optimizing trajectory of unmanned aerial vehicles

US11164464B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• FACEBOOK, INC. · US

Inventors

• Jack Marriott · Thousand Oaks, US
• Birce Tezel · Redwood City, US
• Zhang Liu · Shanghai, CN
• Nicolas E. Stier-Moses · Palo Alto, US
• Julian Diego Mestre · Palo Alto, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 23, 2019
• Grant date: Nov 2, 2021
• Expiry date: Apr 28, 2040

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T50/50
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed toward methods, non-transitory computer-readable media, and systems for trajectory optimization in a high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft. For example, the systems described herein can generate an optimized flight plan for an aircraft during active flight of the aircraft by utilizing a greedy algorithm with buffering. In one or more embodiments, the systems described herein identify a plurality of possible states and select a predetermined number of the top possible states (based on energy change associated with transitioning to each possible state) at each incremental time period within a flight time window starting from an initial state to a plurality of possible states for a final incremental time period. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the systems described herein select a final state based on a final energy associated with the final state and determine a flight plan for the aircraft from the initial state to the selected final state.