Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with improved reliability are provided, wherein onboard sensors are located on said UAV at a position separated from onboard electrical components. Therefore, interference experienced by onboard sensors from onboard electrical components is reduced. In addition, user-configuration or assembly of electrical components is minimized to reduce user's errors.
Abstract:
A system and method is described for controlling flight trajectories of at least two flying vehicles towards goal positions. The system includes at least two flying vehicles with onboard inertial measurement units for determining and updating orientation, angular velocities, position and linear velocities of the at least two flying vehicles, a motion capture system to detect current position and velocity of each of the at least two flying vehicles, and a base controller in communication with the motion capture system and in communication with the plurality of flying vehicles. The base controller calculates for each of the flying vehicles, at predetermined intervals of time, optimum trajectory paths using piece-wise smooth polynomial functions, applying weighting factors, and enforcing overlap constraints. The base controller also sends, based on the calculated optimum trajectory path, commands to each of the flying vehicles to control, individually, their state, causing the at least two flying vehicles to follow the calculated optimum trajectory path while avoiding collisions.
Abstract:
An aircraft defining an upright orientation and an inverted orientation, a ground station; and a control system for remotely controlling the flight of the aircraft. The ground station has an auto-land function that causes the aircraft to invert, stall, and controllably land in the inverted orientation to protect a payload and a rudder extending down from the aircraft. In the upright orientation, the ground station depicts the view from a first aircraft camera. When switching to the inverted orientation: (1 ) the ground station depicts the view from a second aircraft camera, (2) the aircraft switches the colors of red and green wing lights, extends the ailerons to act as inverted flaps, and (3) the control system adapts a ground station controller for the inverted orientation. The aircraft landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.
Abstract:
A method and apparatus in an unmanned aircraft traffic management system are described. Flight data is received from a network device. The flight data includes data about an event related to a flight of the UAS in an airspace, a timestamp associated with the event, and a cryptographic key associated with the UAS. A determination of whether the network device is authorized to record the flight data is performed. The determination is performed, based at least in part on the cryptographic key associated with the UAS. In response to determining that the network device is authorized to record the flight data, a record including the data about the event, the timestamp associated with the event, and the cryptographic key associated with the UAS is created; and the record is added to a block-chain database of flight data.
Abstract:
An aircraft, such as an unmanned aircraft, can include a forward propulsion system comprising one or more engines and one or more rotors coupled to a corresponding engine; a vertical propulsion system comprising one or more vertical propulsion engines and one or more corresponding rotors coupled thereto; a sensor package comprising one or more sensors to detect an operating parameter of the aircraft. It may further include an automatic recovery system that includes an input coupled to the sensor package; an output coupled to an aircraft controller; a processor to monitor one or more operating parameters of the aircraft, detect a failure of the forward propulsion system based on the operating parameters, and transition the aircraft to the vertical propulsion system for landing.
Abstract:
An unmanned aircraft includes a forward propulsion system comprising one or more forward thrust engines and one or more corresponding rotors coupled to the forward thrust engines; a vertical propulsion system comprising one or more vertical thrust engines and one or more corresponding rotors coupled to the vertical thrust engines; a plurality of sensors; and a yaw control system, that includes a processor configured to monitor one or more aircraft parameters received from at least one of the plurality of sensors and to enter a free yaw control mode based on the received aircraft parameters.
Abstract:
Examples disclosed herein relate to control of a drone. In one example, aerial movement of the drone is controlled. In the example, it is determined, based on a plurality of devices, whether the drone is within a line- of-sight with at least a respective one of a plurality of humans within a physical proximity to a respective one of a the devices.. In the example, the devices are used by the drone to track the humans. In the example, when the drone is determined to lack the !ine-of-sight, aerial movement of the drone is controlled to move the drone to become within the line-of-sight.
Abstract:
An apparatus includes an image collection module (130) that monitors at least one parameter to dynamically regulate an amount of data and resolution to be allocated to at least one object in a scene collected from an image data set. A situational awareness interface (SAI) (110) renders a 3-D video of the scene to an operator based on the amount of data and resolution allocated from the image data set by the image collection module (130) and receives operator commands for an unmanned vehicle (UV) that interacts with the scene.