METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR VEHICLE CONTROL

A drone is deployed from a vehicle, e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, to assist in vehicle control, e.g. in situations in which the vehicle's embedded sensors may not provide sufficient information to perform a desired operation safely, e.g. backing up, parking in a tight environment, traversing a very narrow road, navigating a sharp corner, or bypassing an obstruction, etc. The deployed drone includes sensors, e.g. cameras, radars, LIDARs, etc, which capture sensor data from a position offset from the vehicle. Captured sensor data is communicated from the drone to a vehicle control system in the vehicle and/or to a remote control system, e.g., including an operator who can make decisions. Based on the captured sensor data, which supplements sensor data collected by the vehicle's embedded sensors, vehicle movement is controlled.