Patents by Inventor Tobias NÄGELI

Tobias NÄGELI has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11709506
    Abstract: According to the present invention there is provided a drone (1) comprising one or more propellers (2) and one or more actuators (3) for actuating said one or more propellers (2) to generating a thrust force which enables the drone (1) to fly; a controller (4) which is configured such that it can control the flight of the drone (1), wherein the controller (4) comprises a memory (6) having stored therein a plurality of predefined sets of positions which define a virtual rail which can be used to guide the flight of the drone (1) so that the drone can avoid collision with an subject; and wherein the controller further comprises a mathematical model (7) of the drone; wherein the controller (4) is configured to control the flight of the drone by performing at least the following steps, (a) approximating lag error based on the position of the drone (1) measured by a sensor (5) and the virtual rail, wherein the lag error is the distance between a point along the virtual rail which is closest to the drone (1) and an
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: ETH Zurich
    Inventors: Otmar Hilliges, Tobias Nägeli
  • Publication number: 20230069480
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of controlling an UAV along a predefined path and to an UAV positioning system, the system comprising: —at least one flexible positioning stripe (30) comprising markers (32) distributed along said positioning stripe (30) to form different configurations of patterns, each of said configurations of patterns defining a reference position along the flexible positioning stripe (30), wherein said positioning stripe (30) may be positioned along a predefined path, —an UAV (12), —a position estimation module (14) mounted on the UAV and comprising a camera (16) configured to capture images in real-time of said configuration of patterns along the flexible positioning stripe (30)—a control unit (20) configured to control the velocity of the UAV.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2021
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Tobias NÄGELI, Martin RUTSCHMANN, Samuel OBERHOLZER
  • Publication number: 20200409395
    Abstract: According to the present invention there is provided a drone (1) comprising one or more propellers (2) and one or more actuators (3) for actuating said one or more propellers (2) to generating a thrust force which enables the drone (1) to fly; a controller (4) which is configured such that it can control the flight of the drone (1), wherein the controller (4) comprises a memory (6) having stored therein a plurality of predefined sets of positions which define a virtual rail which can be used to guide the flight of the drone (1) so that the drone can avoid collision with an subject; and wherein the controller further comprises a mathematical model (7) of the drone; wherein the controller (4) is configured to control the flight of the drone by performing at least the following steps, (a) approximating lag error based on the position of the drone (1) measured by a sensor (5) and the virtual rail, wherein the lag error is the distance between a point along the virtual rail which is closest to the drone (1) and an
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2018
    Publication date: December 31, 2020
    Inventors: Otmar HILLIGES, Tobias NÄGELI