In some examples, an unmanned aerial vehicle is provided. The unmanned aerial vehicle may include a propulsion device, a sensor device, and a management system. In some examples, the management system may be configured to receive sensor information associated with visible human gestures via the sensor device and, in response, instruct the propulsion device to perform an action associated with an identified visible human gesture.

An aircraft defining an upright orientation and an inverted orientation, a ground station; and a control system for remotely controlling the flight of the aircraft. The ground station has an auto-land function that causes the aircraft to invert, stall, and controllably land in the inverted orientation to protect a payload and a rudder extending down from the aircraft. In the upright orientation, the ground station depicts the view from a first aircraft camera. When switching to the inverted orientation: (1) the ground station depicts the view from a second aircraft camera, (2) the aircraft switches the colors of red and green wing lights, extends the ailerons to act as inverted flaps, and (3) the control system adapts a ground station controller for the inverted orientation. The aircraft landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a main frame, a pair of front wings, a pair of rear wings, and a plurality of rotor power assemblies. The pair of front wings are arranged at two opposite sides of the main frame and configured to rotate relative to the main frame about a first rotation axis perpendicular to a front-rear direction of the main frame. The pair of rear wings are arranged at the two opposite sides of the main frame and are closer to a rear end of the main frame than the pair of front wings. The pair of rear wings are configured to rotate relative to the main frame about a second rotation axis perpendicular to the front-rear direction of the main frame. The plurality of rotor power assemblies are mounted at the front wings and the rear wings.

An unmanned aerial vehicle includes a central body having a plurality of sides and a plurality of arms extendable from the central body. Each arm is configured to support one or more propulsion assemblies that provide a propulsion force while the unmanned aerial vehicle is in flight. The arms are configured to transform between a flight configuration in which the arms are extended away from the central body and a compact configuration in which free ends of a first subset of the arms collectively define a rectangular area. Free ends of a second subset of the arms are closer to a yaw-axis of the unmanned aerial vehicle than the free ends of the first subset of the arms. The yaw-axis passes through the rectangular area.

The invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle having a dropping device (20) for a first load (21) and a second load (22). The dropping device (20) comprises an actuation element (31) which performs a first movement in order to drop the first load (21) and which performs a second movement in order to drop the second load (22). The invention also relates to an associated method.

An expendable rotary wing unmanned aircraft capable of storage in a cylindrical housing includes a longitudinally extending body having an upper end and a lower end; and a pair of counter-rotating coaxial rotors each located at respective ends of longitudinally-extending body, wherein each rotor includes two or more blades, each blade rotatably coupled to a remainder of the rotor at a hinged joint and thereby extending along a length of the body in a storage configuration and extending radially outward from the body in a flight configuration.

A method for controlling a spreading apparatus includes obtaining a target degree of opening and a real-time degree of opening of a material outlet of the spreading apparatus, determining whether the real-time degree of opening of the material outlet is abnormal based on a comparison result between the real-time degree of opening and the target degree of opening, and transmitting an alarm signal to a remote control device in response to the real-time degree of opening of the material outlet being abnormal.

Multi-stage reduction of impact forces are disclosed. An example apparatus to reduce impact energy of an aircraft during landing includes a rotatable landing leg having a proximal end near an axis of rotation and a distal end opposite the proximal end, a first flexible portion of the proximal end, where the first flexible portion is to engage a first engaging portion at a first rotation angle of the rotatable landing leg, and a second flexible portion of the distal end, where the second flexible portion is to engage a second engaging portion at a second rotation angle of the rotatable landing leg.

An aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing comprises a fuselage, at least one processor carried by the fuselage and a pair of aerodynamic, lift-generating wings extending from the fuselage. A plurality of vectoring rotors are rotatably carried by the fuselage so as to be rotatable between a substantially vertical configuration relative to the fuselage for vertical take-off and landing and a substantially horizontal configuration relative to the fuselage for horizontal flight. The vectoring rotors are unsupported by the first pair of wings. The wings may be modular and removably connected to the fuselage and configured to be interchangeable with an alternate pair of wings. A cargo container may be secured to the underside of the fuselage, and the cargo container may be modular and interchangeable with an alternate cargo container.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a vehicle body and a multi-ocular imaging assembly. The multi-ocular imaging assembly includes at least two imaging devices disposed in and fixed to the vehicle body.