An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (103) is provided which includes a radioactive fuel source (111), and an external combustion engine (107) powered by said radioactive fuel source.

Provided is a system for controlling an RPM of a propeller and a rotor of a flight vehicle having multiple power units including: a collective pitch angle command generating unit generating a collective pitch angle command upon receiving a thrust control command from a pilot or an automatic controller; a disturbance factor compensating unit for generating an RPM compensation electronic speed control (ESC) command for compensating for an RPM error, and an electronic speed adjustment command generating unit generating a final ESC command upon receiving a collective command input or derived in the process of generating the collective pitch angle command by the collective pitch angle command generating unit and the RPM compensation ESC command generated by the disturbance factor compensating unit. RPMs of motors of a flight vehicle having a plurality of propellers and rotors may be maintained to be the same.

Multi-rotor hydraulic drone (1) comprising: —a plurality of hydraulic motors (6) each receiving a pressurised fluid, —propellers (5) driven by the hydraulic motors (6), —at least one hydraulic pump (10) driven by at least one motor (11) for pressurising the fluid, —a system for supplying the hydraulic motors (6) with pressurised fluid, —a flight controller (14) for controlling the supply system according to the desired rotation speed for the hydraulic motors (6), the supply system comprising several channels (35; 36; 37; 38) for adjusting the power of at least one portion of the hydraulic motors (6).

A motor mounted on a drone includes a rotor including a propeller mounting portion with a propeller detachably attached, the rotor being rotatable about a central axis, a stator radially facing the rotor with a gap therebetween, and an auto-balancer capable of automatically correcting dynamic balance of the rotor.

Techniques involve releasing and/or capturing a fixed-wing aircraft using an aerial vehicle with VTOL capabilities while the fixed-wing aircraft is in flight. For example, the VTOL aerial vehicle may take off vertically while carrying the fixed-wing aircraft and then fly horizontally before releasing the fixed-wing aircraft. Upon release, the fixed-wing aircraft flies independently to perform a mission (e.g., surveillance, payload delivery, combinations thereof, etc.). After the fixed-wing aircraft has completed its mission, the VTOL aerial vehicle may capture the fixed-wing aircraft while both are in flight, and then land together vertically. Such operation enables the fixed-wing aircraft to vertically take off and/or land while avoiding certain drawbacks associated with a conventional VTOL kit such as being burdened by weight and drag from the VTOL kit's rotors/propellers, mounting hardware, etc. during a mission which otherwise would limit the fixed-wing aircraft's maximum airspeed, ceiling, payload capacity, endurance, and so on.

A power driver of an unmanned aerial vehicle is disclosed and includes a main body, a fluid actuation system and a controller, wherein the fluid actuation system includes a driving zone, a converging chamber, a plurality of valves and a fluid discharging zone. The driving zone includes a plurality of flow guiding units which arranged in series, parallel or series-parallel, each of the flow guiding unit generates an inside pressure gradient after being actuated, so as to inhale fluid and diverge fluid by guiding channels, and flow into the convergence chamber for storage, wherein the amount of the fluid transported is controlled by the plurality of valves disposed in the connection channels through the controller, and fluid is finally converged to the fluid discharging zone for discharging the specific transportation amount of fluid.

An unmanned rotorcraft includes an airframe, rotor blades that are coupled to the airframe for rotation therewith, a propulsion unit having a propeller, and an actuator that is coupled to the airframe and adapted to temporarily reorient the propulsion unit such that an axis of the propeller moves out of alignment with an axis of the rotor blades. Rotation of the propeller causes counter-rotation of the airframe and rotor blades. The rotor blades and blades of the propeller are adapted to deploy from collapsed positions when flight of the rotorcraft is initiated. A method of operation by the rotorcraft includes, when it is determined that a current heading does not correspond to a determined flight path, causing the actuator to temporarily reorient the propulsion unit in accordance with an angular orientation of the actuator relative to the current heading.

An unmanned aircraft system 100 built off of a purpose-built transmission infrastructure 300 with a power collector 400 riding along the infrastructure 300 connected to a tether 500 that is electrically connected to both the infrastructure 300 through the power collector 400 and also connected to an unmanned aircraft carrying associated electronics that are powered through the tether.

A robot including a hybrid fan-based and fluid-based propulsion system to provide thrust, such as deceleration during fall to create a smooth landing or to provide a quick reduction in velocity, and to provide actuation/controlled motion, such as to hover after quick deceleration and to control orientation or pose. The hybrid propulsion system uses discharging of pressurized fluid and exhausted gas (or fluid in some cases) from ducted fans (or propellers, impellers, and the like) to provide controlled thrust and/or lift forces. The hybrid propulsion system uses of pressurized fluid for generating larger or primary thrust and quick changes in velocity. The hybrid propulsion system includes a fan-based propulsion assembly with ducted fans that use environmental air (or fluids) to provide lower or secondary thrust. Both types of propulsion can be integrated into a robot or robotic figure to move the robot during flight (e.g., during falling or hovering).

An emergency response drone having a multidirectional propulsion system and data capturing equipment and operatively associated computer system for providing information and situational awareness for emergency areas and related targets.