Provided are flight control mechanisms, such as omnidirectional thrust mechanisms (OTMs), and methods of using such mechanisms. These mechanisms may be positioned in wings, tails, or other components of aircraft. A mechanism may comprise a center member and top and bottom panels. The center member may comprise two curved segments joint at a center edge. The top and bottom panels may be independently pivotable relative to the center member. At high speeds, the top panel and/or the bottom panel may be pivoted outward to change the lift, drag, roll, and/or other flight conditions. The mechanism may also include a gas nozzle to direct compressed gas to the center member. The center member and/or the top and bottom panels redirect this gas resulting in forces in one of four directions, which are used for controlling the aircraft at low speeds, down to hover.

A high-lift device to be provided on a main wing body of an aircraft includes a slat and a slat moving mechanism moving the slat between a deployed position and a retracted position. The slat includes a slat front surface, a slat rear surface, and a fillet surface between the slat front surface and the slat rear surface, the slat rear surface is a curved surface recessed toward inside of the slat, the fillet surface is a curved surface projecting outward the slat, and, in a cross section taken along a plane orthogonal to a pitch axis direction of the aircraft, an inflection point between the slat rear surface and the fillet surface is positioned lower than a vertex on a front side of the main wing body when the slat is retracted.

A high-lift device to be provided on a main wing body of an aircraft includes a slat and a slat moving mechanism moving the slat between a deployed position and a retracted position. The slat includes a slat front surface, a slat rear surface, and a fillet surface between the slat front surface and the slat rear surface, the slat rear surface is a curved surface recessed toward inside of the slat, the fillet surface is a curved surface projecting outward the slat, and, in a cross section taken along a plane orthogonal to a pitch axis direction of the aircraft, an inflection point between the slat rear surface and the fillet surface is positioned lower than a vertex on a front side of the main wing body when the slat is retracted.

A system is controlled. A ruleset is specified based at least in part on a ruleset expression that comprises one or more ruleset operations whose operands include partial rulesets. The ruleset expression is evaluated to produce a compiled ruleset. The compiled ruleset is outputted. The outputted compiled ruleset is applied to control a physical actuator.

A system is controlled. A ruleset is specified based at least in part on a ruleset expression that comprises one or more ruleset operations whose operands include partial rulesets. The ruleset expression is evaluated to produce a compiled ruleset. The compiled ruleset is outputted. The outputted compiled ruleset is applied to control a physical actuator.

In some embodiments, methods and systems of dispensing an insecticide to defend a crop-containing area against crop-damaging pests include an unmanned vehicle having a sensor that detects a crop-damaging pest in the crop-containing area and captures pest detection data, and an insecticide output device including at least one insecticide directed at the pest. The unmanned vehicle transmits the captured pest detection data via the network to the computing device and, in response to receipt of the captured pest detection data via the network from the unmanned vehicle, the computing device accesses an electronic database to determine an identity of the at least one pest. Based on the determined identity of the crop-damaging pest, the computing device transmits a control signal to the unmanned vehicle to cause the insecticide output device of the unmanned vehicle to dispense one or more insecticides specific to the identified crop-damaging pest.

A method and system for managing a control system having triple redundancy for an aircraft. The method comprises receiving a group of messages from a transmitting lane in a controller including three lanes in which a first lane failure has previously occurred. The method identifies an activity indicator, a status generated by each lane in a group of lanes, and a cyclic redundancy check value generated by each lane in the group of lanes in the group of messages. The cyclic redundancy check value generated by a lane in the group of lanes is generated using a key assigned to the lane. The method disables the controller when at least one of an anomaly is indicated in the status, an activity indicator mismatch is present, or a cyclic redundancy check value mismatch is present in the group of messages that indicates a second lane failure has occurred.

A method and system for managing a control system having triple redundancy for an aircraft. The method comprises receiving a group of messages from a transmitting lane in a controller including three lanes in which a first lane failure has previously occurred. The method identifies an activity indicator, a status generated by each lane in a group of lanes, and a cyclic redundancy check value generated by each lane in the group of lanes in the group of messages. The cyclic redundancy check value generated by a lane in the group of lanes is generated using a key assigned to the lane. The method disables the controller when at least one of an anomaly is indicated in the status, an activity indicator mismatch is present, or a cyclic redundancy check value mismatch is present in the group of messages that indicates a second lane failure has occurred.

An actuator system for controlling a flight surface of an aircraft includes a first actuator having a first actuator input and a first linear translation element that moves based on rotational motion received at the first actuator input and a first laser distance sensor disposed inside the first actuator that generates a first output based on a displacement of the first linear translation element. The system also includes a second actuator having a second actuator input and a second linear translation element that moves based on rotational motion received at the second actuator input and a second laser distance sensor disposed inside the second actuator that generates a second output based on a displacement of the second linear translation element. The system also includes a control unit that receives the first and second outputs and determines if an error condition exists for the system based on first and second output.

A projectile incorporates one or more spoiler-tabbed spinning disks to effect flow around the projectile and thus impart steering forces and/or moments. The spoiler tabs may be deployed only during steering phases of travel thus minimizing the drag penalty associated with steering systems. The disks are driven by motors and informed and controlled by sensors and electronic control systems. The spoiler tabs protrude through the surface of the projectile only for certain angles of spin of the spinning disk. For spin-stabilized projectiles, the disks spin at substantially the same rate as the projectile, but the disks may function in fin-stabilized projectiles as well. Any number of such spinning flow effector disks may be incorporated in a projectile, with the manner of functional coordination differing slightly for even and odd numbers of disks.