An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (200, 300, 400, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500) can include a central body (202, 302, 402, 702, 802, 1002, 1202, 1502), a plurality of rotors, and a plurality of arms (204, 306, 406, 706, 806, 1006, 1206, 1506) extending from the central body (202, 302, 402, 702, 802, 1002, 1202, 1502), where each arm of the plurality of arms (204, 306, 406, 706, 806, 1006, 1206, 1506) is configured to support one or more of the plurality of rotors. The UAV may include at least one sensor (208, 318, 418, 718, 818, 822, 1022, 1218, 1222, 1518) located on the UAV (200, 300, 400, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500) outside of a keep-out zone, where the keep-out zone is defined at least in part by (1) a plurality of rotor disks, a rotor disk of the plurality of rotor disks for each of the plurality of rotors, each rotor disk corresponding to an area that is swept by one or more rotor blades (206, 308, 408, 708, 808, 1008, 1208, 1508) of a corresponding rotor when the rotor blades (206, 308, 408, 708, 808, 1008, 1208, 1508) are spun, and (2) a shape that is formed by adjoining respective centers of adjacent rotor disks.

Systems, devices, and methods for a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial vehicle having a first GPS antenna and a second GPS antenna, where the second GPS antenna is disposed distal from the first GPS antenna; and an aerial vehicle flight controller, where the flight controller is configured to: utilize a GPS antenna signal via the GPS antenna switch from the first GPS antenna or the second GPS antenna; receive a pitch level of the aerial vehicle from the one or more aerial vehicle sensors in vertical flight or horizontal flight; determine if the received pitch level is at a set rotation from vertical or horizontal; and utilize the GPS signal not being utilized via the GPS antenna switch if the determined pitch level is at or above the set rotation.

An unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a housing, a plurality of first arms, a plurality of second arms, and a landing gear. The housing includes a gimbal attachment to couple a gimbal with a camera. Each of the plurality of first arms and the plurality of second arms rotatably couple with the housing at one end and has a motor coupled with a propeller on the other end. The landing gear includes a plurality of foldable legs and releasably couples with an underside of the housing. The aerial vehicle may be programmed with aerial flight path data that corresponds with a prior traced route.

The present disclosure provides various embodiments of a multicopter-assisted launch and retrieval system generally including: (1) a multi-rotor modular multicopter attachable to (and detachable from) a fixed-wing aircraft to facilitate launch of the fixed-wing aircraft into wing-borne flight; (2) a storage and launch system usable to store the modular multicopter and to facilitate launch of the fixed-wing aircraft into wing-borne flight; and (3) an anchor system usable (along with the multicopter and a flexible capture member) to retrieve the fixed-wing aircraft from wing-borne flight.

An aerial vehicle having a single wing is configured for vertical-flight and forward-flight operations. The wing has a substantially high aspect ratio. The aerial vehicle includes tilt motor assemblies disposed at a forward end and an aft end of a fuselage. The tilt motor assemblies are configured to orient motors and rotors vertically, horizontally, or at any angle between vertical and horizontal. A pair of parallel booms are mounted beneath the wing on either side of the fuselage. Each of the booms has at least one vertically oriented motor and rotor associated therewith, and a vertical fin extending thereunder. Additionally, a forward tilt motor assembly includes a rotatable extension that is deployed when the motor assembly is configured for vertical flight, enabling the aerial vehicle to land on the vertical fins and the landing rotatable extension.

The invention relates to aviation equipment. An object of this invention is to develop a new non-conventional aerodynamic apparatus that can increase the efficiency of the air flow power use to generate lifting force, control moments and the reactive thrust of the apparatus. For this purpose, the aerodynamic apparatus containing a body, fan blowers with drive motors (1, 22), wings (3, 7), a system for operating medium temperature control (28, 29, 30), an external communication unit (13, 14, 26, 27) with the openings in the external body (17), according to the invention, due to the principal design solutions connected with the use of the primary rotary wing (3) and the steering rotary wing (7) made in a petal-like shape, of the sphere shaped external (17), middle (19) and internal (20) bodies affecting the nature of the operating medium motion, for the operating medium flow segments, the optimum sphere shaped paths have been obtained, which minimizes losses by airflow friction. In so doing, the functions of the external communication unit are performed by the appropriate motor driven valves (13, 14, 26, 27). The structural parts of the present invention meet the special conditions.

Disclosed is a system and method for reducing the total latency for transferring a frame from the low latency camera system mounted on an aerial vehicle to the display of the remote controller. The method includes reducing the latency through each of the modules of the system, i.e. through a camera module, an encoder module, a wireless interface transmission, wireless interface receiver module, a decoder module and a display module. To reduce the latency across the modules, methods such as overclocking the image processor, pipelining the frame, squashing the processed frame, using a fast hardware encoder that can perform slice based encoding, tuning the wireless medium using queue sizing, queue flushing, bitrate feedback, physical medium rate feedback, dynamic encoder parameter tuning and wireless radio parameter adjustment, using a fast hardware decoder that can perform slice based decoding and overclocking the display module are used.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose an arm and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The arm is mounted on a movable object and is in contact with an outline of the movable object after being folded. The UAV includes a vehicle body, the arm connected to the vehicle body and a power device disposed on the arm. The arm is in contact with an outline of the vehicle body after being folded. According to the technical solutions, the arm provided in the embodiments of the present invention can be in contact with the outline of the movable object after being folded, so that the structure of the movable object to which the arm is applied is more compact.

The utility model relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle and an undercarriage thereof. The undercarriage includes: a power assembly disposed within a fuselage, the power assembly including a first connecting member and a drive apparatus configured to drive the first connecting member to perform a reciprocating linear motion; and an undercarriage body connected to the power assembly, the undercarriage body including a first connecting rod hinged on the first connecting member, and a second connecting rod of which one end is hinged on the power assembly and the other end is hinged on the first connecting rod. When the first connecting member performs the reciprocating linear motion, the undercarriage body is driven to be unfolded or folded into the fuselage. The utility model further relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle. For the foregoing unmanned aerial vehicle and the undercarriage thereof, the power assembly may be used to drive the undercarriage body to switch between an unfolded state and a folded state. When aerial photography is required, the undercarriage body may be at least partially folded into the fuselage, to avoid blocking an aerial photography device on the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of aircrafts, and provide an undercarriage and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having the undercarriage. The undercarriage includes a power assembly and an undercarriage body. The power assembly includes a connecting member and a drive apparatus for driving the connecting member to reciprocate. The undercarriage body includes a plurality of hinged connecting rods, the plurality of hinged connecting rods constituting at least one parallelogram mechanism, and projections of at least two of the hinged connecting rods on a side face of the fuselage are staggered. The undercarriage body is connected to the connecting member, and when the connecting member reciprocates, the undercarriage body is driven to be folded or unfolded. In the foregoing manner, driven by the reciprocating motion of the connecting member, the undercarriage body may be retracted and folded on two sides or in an interior of the fuselage, so that the undercarriage may be retracted and folded during flight of the UAV, thereby avoiding unnecessary resistance in the air.