Autonomous aerial vehicle hardware configuration
An introduced autonomous aerial vehicle can include multiple cameras for capturing images of a surrounding physical environment that are utilized for motion planning by an autonomous navigation system. In some embodiments, the cameras can be integrated into one or more rotor assemblies that house powered rotors to free up space within the body of the aerial vehicle. In an example embodiment, an aerial vehicle includes multiple upward-facing cameras and multiple downward-facing cameras with overlapping fields of view to enable stereoscopic computer vision in a plurality of directions around the aerial vehicle. Similar camera arrangements can also be implemented in fixed-wing aerial vehicles.
1 . An aerial vehicle comprising:
a body comprising first and second body components, each body component including:
a housing including walls substantially surrounding an interior space;
first and second assemblies arranged on a first side within the interior space of the housing, each of the first and second assemblies including a motor, the motor coupled to one or more rotor blades;
first and second image capture devices, each of the first and second image capture devices arranged on a second surface of the housing opposite the first surface and substantially within the interior space of the housing; and
a third image capture device arranged on the second surface of the housing substantially within the interior space of the housing along a central axis of the first body component of the aerial vehicle;
wherein the first and second body components converge and overlap to form the body of the aerial vehicle; and
wherein the first, second and third image capture devices of the first and second body components are oriented so as to enable trinocular image capture of a physical environment above and below the aerial vehicle, respectively.
2 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the motor of each of the first and second assemblies is arranged substantially within the interior space proximate to a first end of the housing and wherein the image capture device is arranged substantially in the interior space proximate to a second end of the rotor housing, the second end of the rotor housing opposite the first end of the rotor housing.
3 . The aerial vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the motor and image capture device are substantially aligned along an axis through the interior space of the rotor housing, wherein the axis extends from the first end to the second end of the housing.
4 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein each of the first, second and third image capture devices includes a lens for receiving light from the surrounding physical environment, and wherein the lens extends through an opening in a wall of the rotor housing.
5 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the motor is a brushless electric motor.
6 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising: a motion damper arranged substantially within the interior space of the housing, the motion damper configured to isolate the image capture device from vibrations caused by the motor, while in use.
7 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising: an electromagnetic shield arranged substantially within the interior space of the housing between the motor and the image capture device, the electromagnetic shield configured to isolate the image capture device from electromagnetic interference caused by the motor, while in use.
8 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first, second, and third image capture devices is a fisheye camera having has a field of view of at least 180 degrees.
9 . An aerial vehicle comprising:
a central body including a first body component and a second body component; and
wherein the first body and the second body component converge and overlap on the central body;
wherein the first body component includes:
a first housing including walls substantially surrounding a first interior space;
a plurality of rotor assemblies arranged proximate to a bottom side of the first housing, wherein each rotor assembly includes: a motor coupled to one or more rotor blades that are external to the first housing; and
first, second and third image capture devices arranged on a top side of the first housing substantially within the first interior space and oriented so as to enable trinocular image capture of a physical environment in a direction above the aerial vehicle, while in use; and
wherein the second body component includes:
a second housing including walls substantially surrounding a second interior space;
a plurality of rotor assemblies arranged proximate to a top side of the second housing, wherein each rotor assembly includes a motor coupled to one or more rotor blades that are external to the second housing; and
first, second, and third image capture devices arranged on a bottom side of the second housing substantially within the second interior space and oriented so as to enable trinocular image capture of the physical environment in a direction below the aerial vehicle, while in use.
10 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein fields of view of the first, second, and third image capture devices overlap in a common region to enable depth estimation from trinocular parallax.
11 . The aerial vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the common region is above the rotor assembly to support obstacle avoidance during ascent and hover.
12 . The aerial vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the common region is below the rotor assembly to support landing detection and ground-proximity estimation.
13 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller configured to: receive synchronized image frames from the first, second, and third image capture devices; and
generate a depth map for navigation of the aerial vehicle.
14 . The aerial vehicle of claim 13 , wherein the controller is further configured to: degrade to stereo depth using images from two of the image capture devices upon failure of a third device.
15 . The aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the image capture devices is mounted to a vibration-isolated substructure within the rotor housing.
16 . The aerial vehicle of claim 9 , wherein fields of view of the first, second, and third image capture devices of the first body component and the second body component overlap in a common region to enable depth estimation from trinocular parallax.
17 . The aerial vehicle of claim 16 , wherein the common region is above the rotor assembly to support obstacle avoidance during ascent and hover.
18 . The aerial vehicle of claim 16 , wherein the common region is below the rotor assembly to support landing detection and ground-proximity estimation.
19 . The aerial vehicle of claim 9 , further comprising:
a controller configured to: receive synchronized image frames from the first, second, and third image capture devices of the first body component and/or the second body component; and
generate a depth map for navigation of the aerial vehicle.
20 . The aerial vehicle of claim 19 , wherein the controller is further configured to: degrade to stereo depth using images from two of the image capture devices upon failure of a third device.