A fixed-wing aerial underwater vehicle includes a shell component, a flight component and a pneumatic buoyancy component. The flight component includes a fixed wing and rotors, and the fixed wing and the rotors are mounted in the shell component. The pneumatic buoyancy component includes an air bladder and an inflation and deflation portion, and the inflation and deflation portion can inflate and deflate the air bladder. The air bladder is installed on the shell component, a containing space is formed in the shell component, and the inflation and deflation portion is partially or entirely installed in the containing space. Each rotor includes a rotor supporting rod, a motor base, a motor and a propeller, which are sequentially connected. A control method for the fixed-wing aerial underwater vehicle mentioned above is further provided.

An unmanned aerial vehicle includes a fuselage body, a foldable wing assembly and a gear assembly. The foldable wing assembly, including a pair of opposing wing members, is coupled to the fuselage body and positionable in a stowed position and a deployed position. The gear assembly positions the wing members in a stowed position and a deployed position and include a support bracket assembly and a pair of opposing hinge members. The support bracket assembly is coupled to the fuselage body and including first and second support brackets forming a cavity therebetween and a pair of opposing hinge members. The pair of opposing hinge members are pivotably coupled to the support bracket assembly and positioned within the cavity. Each hinge member is coupled to a corresponding wing member and includes a set of gear teeth extending outwardly from an arcuate radially outer surface and coupled in a meshed arrangement.

Problems to be Solved

To provide an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of achieving both of equipping a pruning structure capable of pruning trees and enhancing safety.

Solution

An unmanned aerial vehicle 2 according to the present invention includes a pruning structure 23 capable of pruning a tree; a housing structure 24 capable of housing the pruning structure 23 inside; and a state control section 212 capable of controlling the state of the pruning structure 23 between a housed state in which the pruning structure 23 is housed inside the housing structure 24 and an exposed state in which the pruning structure 23 is exposed to the outside of the housing structure 24, wherein the state control section 212 can control the state of the pruning structure 23 to the housed state on landing. The state control section 212 preferable to control the state of the pruning structure 23 to the exposed state when a distance from the unmanned aerial vehicle 2 to a target tree to be pruned equal to or shorter than the predetermined distance, and to control the state of the pruning structure 23 to the housed state when a distance from the unmanned aerial vehicle 2 to the target tree longer than the predetermined distance.

An assembly is configured for connection to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and comprises a plurality of emulator devices each configured for attachment to the UAV and a plurality of first connection tethers each configured to operably couple a respective one of the plurality of emulator devices to the UAV at a respective spacing from the UAV. The emulator devices each comprise an emulation component configured to provide, to a target detection system, a characteristic associated with a respective type of airborne object. The plurality of respective first connection tethers each comprises material that does not substantially reflect RF energy. During flight of the UAV, when the assembly is connected, each respective emulator device maintains the respective spacing from the UAV and emulates the characteristic to the target detection system, such that the assembly emulates, to the target detection system, a plurality of airborne objects.

Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to intelligent drone traffic management via a radio access network (“RAN”). As disclosed herein, a RAN node, such as an eNodeB, can receive, from a drone, a flight configuration. The flight configuration can include a drone ID and a drone route. The RAN node can determine whether capacity is available in an airspace associated with the RAN node. In response to determining that capacity is available in the airspace associated with the RAN node, the RAN node can add the drone ID to a queue of drones awaiting use of the airspace associated with the RAN node. When the drone ID is next in the queue of drones awaiting use of the airspace associated with the RAN node, the RAN node can instruct the drone to fly through at least a portion of the airspace in accordance with the drone route.

A rotor-wing assembly includes a motor, a propeller, and a connection assembly connecting the propeller to the motor. The motor includes a rotating portion. The connection assembly includes a locking member and a reinforcing member arranged between the propeller and the motor. The locking member locks the propeller to the rotating portion. A first end of the reinforcing member is mounted at the rotating portion. A second end of the reinforcing member opposite to the first end is engaged with the locking member, to reinforce the locking member to lock the propeller to the rotating portion.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods to eliminate (or filter) drift for dynamics model based localization of multirotors. The dynamics equations require drag modelling, which is dependent on velocity, to generate vehicles' acceleration along the body axis. The present disclosure considers the drag contribution, at velocity level, as a low frequency component. Incorrect or nonmodelling of this low frequency component leads to drift at velocity level. This drift can then be removed through a high pass filter to obtain drift free velocity data for pose estimation and better localization thereof.

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.

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle. Boundaries of a user-defined space may be obtained. The boundaries of the user-defined space may be fixed with respect to some reference frame. A user-defined operation associated with the user-selected space may be obtained. Position of the unmanned aerial vehicle may be tracked during an unmanned aerial flight. Responsive to the unmanned aerial vehicle entering the user-defined space, the unmanned aerial vehicle may be automatically controlled to perform the user-defined operation.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has a multicopter section for flying in air with an attached blower section for generating an air stream for blowing dust off surfaces. A flight controller controls the multicopter section, a blower controller controls the blower section, and a power supply supplies power to the multicopter and blower sections. The flight controller and the blower controller are connected, and the blower controller is adapted to supply blower control commands to the flight controller to compensate for the thrust of the air stream from the blower section by flight control of the multicopter section. The UAV may be enclosed by a protective cage in the form of a meshed polyhedron, wherein the rods of the meshes are elastically connected at the respective nodes.