An aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, stationary flight and forward flight includes a closed wing that provides lift whenever the aircraft is in forward flight, a fuselage at least partially disposed within a perimeter of the closed wing, and one or more spokes coupling the closed wing to the fuselage. One or more engines or motors are disposed within or attached to the closed wing, fuselage or spokes. Three or more propellers are proximate to a leading edge of the closed wing or the one or more spokes, distributed along the closed wing or the one or more spokes, and operably connected to the one or more engines or motors. The propellers provide lift whenever the aircraft is in vertical takeoff and landing and stationary flight, and provide thrust whenever the aircraft is in forward flight.

The location detection unit detects a destination location for delivery of an item by a drone. The release determination unit determines whether the drone transporting the item can release and place the item at the destination. Upon determination that the release and placement is not possible, a standby airspace determination unit determines a standby airspace within which the drone waits. The wait-time determination unit determines a wait-time for the drone in the determined standby airspace. The wait-time determination unit determines a wait-time by which the drone can arrive at a next destination by a scheduled arrival time following departure of the drone departs after standby. The standby instruction unit issues to the drone an instruction related to the standby.

A mobile electronic device according to an aspect is connected to a flight device. The mobile electronic device includes a communication unit that communicates with the flight device, and a controller that executes a predetermined function. When connected to the flight device, the controller changes the predetermined function when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

A landing gear device for reducing crash landings includes a mounting assembly that is configured to couple to a bottom of a vertical take-off and landing aircraft, such as a remotely controlled helicopter. Each of a plurality of rods, which are resiliently flexible, is coupled to and extends transversely from the mounting assembly to define a pyramid, with the mounting assembly being positioned at an apex of the pyramid. The plurality of rods is configured to reduce a frequency of crash landings of the vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

This specification describes systems for unmanned aerial vehicle carrying and deployment. In some examples, an unmanned vehicle includes a drive system and a chassis. The chassis includes a platform for carrying an unmanned aerial vehicle and a retainer configured to secure the unmanned aerial vehicle to the platform while the drive system drives the unmanned vehicle. The clamping system includes at least a first rotating bar and a protrusion from the first rotating bar.

A plurality of landing gear are rotatable between a flight position and a landing position under the control of a control system on a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The plurality of landing gear may be separately and selectably rotatable to accommodate uneven or sloping terrain. The landing gear may include flight control surfaces and the degree of deployment of the landing gear controls the flight control surfaces. The flight control surfaces may include separately controllable elements. The aircraft may be a flight module of a modular and morphable air vehicle.

An active shooter response system is disclosed. The system utilizes a system of sensors and drones which may receive data at a base station. The base station may centrally process the data from the drones and the sensors so that a coordinated attack on the active shooter can be formulated either automatically without human intervention or manually at the base station by an operator of the system.

A control device 200 includes at least one memory configured to store a program code, and at least one processor configured to access the program code and operate as instructed by the program code. The program code includes an acquisition code configured to cause the at least one processor to acquire a request for requesting determination as to whether or not a target area is usable for a predetermined purpose, and a control code configured to cause the at least one processor to perform control to cause a first flying object to fly to the target area. The acquisition code is configured to cause the at least one processor to further acquire sensing data that is data obtained by optical sensing of the target area by the first flying object. The program code further comprises a determination code configured to cause the at least one processor to determine, based on the acquired sensing data, whether or not the target area is usable for the predetermined purpose.

Disclosed herein are shock absorbing foot pieces configured to be attached to an apparatus and to absorb the weight of the attached apparatus and any impact caused by the normal usage of the apparatus. In one or more embodiments, the shock absorbing foot pieces comprise multiple elements including a biasing spring and that are configured as a unitary piece.

A precision agriculture implementation method by UAV systems and artificial intelligence image processing technologies provides an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a wireless communication device, a central control unit, and a spray device and a multispectral camera installed to the UAV. The farming area is divided into an array of blocks. The central control unit controls the UAV to fly over the blocks according to navigation parameters and the multispectral camera to capture a multispectral image of each block. A projected leaf area index (PLAI) and a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of each block are calculated by the multispectral image, and a spray control mode of the spray device of the corresponding block is set according to the PLAI and NDVI. The spray device is controlled to spray a water solution, salt solution, fertilizer solution, and/or pesticide solution to the corresponding block according to the spray control mode.