An aerial vehicle includes a lift generation member provided in an airframe in an expandable manner, a manipulation mechanism connected to the lift generation member and configured to manipulate the lift generation member, an expansion apparatus configured to expand the lift generation member, a control unit configured to control the manipulation mechanism, and a falling sensing unit configured to sense falling of the airframe. The expansion apparatus is configured to expand the lift generation member based on a falling sensing signal and the control unit is configured to start control of the manipulation mechanism based on the falling sensing signal.

This application discloses a drone control method and device and a drone and pertains to the technical field of drone control. The method includes: monitoring a running status of each power motor in a drone; determining according to the running status of each power motor whether the drone is in a crashed state; and controlling the drone to alarm when determining that the drone is in the crashed state. The drone control method and device and the drone can rapidly locate a crashed drone, greatly increasing the probability of finding back the crashed drone.

An aircraft with a system for estimating the parameters of an impact. The aircraft includes a skin forming an outer surface of the aircraft, the aircraft equipped with a system for estimating the parameters of an impact including an array of sensors attached to the skin and a central processing unit connected to the array, the array of sensors including a first set of sensors providing data relating to elastic waves, the central processing unit configured for assessing the parameters of an impact from the data of the sensor array and a response model of the skin to external excitations calculated from the modal properties of the skin.

A method of determining whether a landing event of an aircraft is hard may comprise: receiving, by a controller via a stroke position sensor, a stroke profile as a function of time for a shock strut; receiving, by the controller via a gas pressure sensor, a gas pressure in a gas chamber of the shock strut; receiving, by the controller via a wheel speed sensor, a wheel speed of a tire in a landing gear assembly; calculating, by the controller, multiple time dependent functions based on the stroke profile of the shock strut, based on the gas pressure, a shock strut temperature, and the wheel speed; and comparing, by the controller, the multiple time dependent functions to respective predetermined thresholds to determine whether the landing event is hard.

An aircraft health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) having one or more monitoring sensors arranged to be coupled to an aircraft subassembly to monitor the health of one or more parts of the subassembly and a trigger subsystem. The trigger subsystem includes a sound transducer and a processor, the processor being coupled to the sound transducer to receive and process sound signals from the sound transducer to extract sound information and being coupled to the monitoring sensors to provide control commands to the monitoring sensors. The processor is configured to provide a first control command to the monitoring sensors in response to a first criteria having been met, the first criteria including first sound information.

A landing zone evaluation and rating sharing system includes a central processor unit (CPU), at least one sensor input operatively connected to the CPU, a communication controller operatively connected to the CPU, the communication controller being operable to pass data to other systems associated with the aerial vehicle, and a landing zone (LZ) evaluation controller operatively coupled to a non-volatile computer readable storage medium having computer readable program instructions embodied therewith. The computer readable program instructions are executable by the central processor unit to receive data received through the at least one sensor input, evaluate the data to determine a LZ rating for a particular landing zone, and communicate the LZ rating to one or more systems associated with the aerial vehicle.

A method for providing operational awareness data onboard an aircraft, by a computing device comprising at least a processor and a system memory element, is provided. The method continuously identifies deviations from operational goals of the aircraft, by the processor, based on a current state of the aircraft, a predicted state of the aircraft, and flight crew perception of the current state and the predicted state; and autonomously initiates a dialogue with flight crew onboard the aircraft by providing voice-data prompts for user action onboard the aircraft, by the processor onboard the aircraft, based on the deviations.

The present invention relates to the field of unmanned aerial vehicle safety protection technologies, and in particular, to an unmanned aerial vehicle safety protection method and apparatus and an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method includes: obtaining ultrasonic information and a flight status of an unmanned aerial vehicle, where the flight status includes a normal flight state and a descending state; and performing safety protection on the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the ultrasonic information and the flight status. The implementation can reduce an occurrence probability that an unmanned aerial vehicle crashes at a high altitude when ultrasound encounters abnormalities to get out of control at the high altitude and fail to descend, rise, move to the left or move to the right and land without slowing down to violently hit the ground, so that the safety of the unmanned aerial vehicle is enhanced, and user experience is improved.

A sensor carrier for sensing forces acting upon an axle of an aircraft landing gear assembly is disclosed being arranged to fit within the axle and includes an end coupling for fixing to one end of the axle, and a central coupling for fixing to a central portion of the axle where the axle attaches to a main leg of the assembly. The sensor carrier includes a sensor arrangement arranged to detect strain occurring between the end coupling and the central coupling so that in use, the sensor arrangement indicates strain occurring between the end of the axle and the main leg of the aircraft.

A method is provided. The method includes, after a landing of an aircraft, detecting by sensors the position of the landing gear at a first sampling frequency, while the position of the landing gear is detected as vertical. After detection of a horizontal position of the landing gear, detecting by the sensors the position of the landing gear at least at a second sampling frequency, while the position of the landing gear is detected as horizontal. After detection of a vertical position of the landing gear, acquiring by said sensors physical parameters relating to the ageing of the landing gear, and detecting a landing of the aircraft at a third sampling frequency until a predetermined period has expired. The third frequency is greater than the second frequency, which is greater than the first frequency. Measurements relating to the ageing are stored as a function of the measured physical parameters.