UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE VISUAL POINT CLOUD NAVIGATION

Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for unmanned aerial vehicle flight operations near physical structures or objects. In particular, a point cloud of the physical structure is generated using aerial images of the structure. The point cloud is then referenced to determine a flight path for the UAV to follow around the physical structure, determine whether a planned flight path to desired locations around the structure is possible, determine the fastest route to return home and land from a given position around the physical structure, determine possibility of inflight collision to surface represented in point cloud, or determine an orientation of a fixed or gimballed camera given a position of the UAV relative the point cloud.