Patent attributes
An autonomous driving system includes an aerial vehicle and an autonomous vehicle. The aerial vehicle includes an imaging device configured to obtain map data, an optical-to-electrical transducer configured to convert optical power to electrical power for operating the aerial vehicle, one or more processors, one or more memory modules, and machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules of the aerial vehicle that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the aerial vehicle to output the map data. The autonomous vehicle includes an optical power generator configured to transmit an optical power beam to the optical-to-electrical transducer of the aerial vehicle. The autonomous vehicle receives the map data output by the imaging device from the aerial vehicle.