Air traffic control systems and methods include communicating with passenger drones via one or more cell towers associated with the one or more wireless networks, wherein the passenger drones each include hardware and antennas adapted to communicate to the one or more cell towers, and wherein each passenger drone has a unique identifier in the air traffic control system; obtaining data associated with flight of each of the passenger drones based on the communicating; and managing the flight of each of the passenger drones based on the obtained data and performance of one or more functions associated with air traffic control, wherein each passenger drone is configured to constrain flight based on coverage of the one or more cell towers such that each passenger drone maintains communication on the one or more wireless networks.

In some embodiments, methods and systems are provided that for transporting and deploying unmanned aerial vehicles. The unmanned aerial vehicles may be deployed from mobile stations that include receptacles each configured to retain an unmanned aerial vehicle. The receptacles may be independently movable into relative positions that permit multiple unmanned aerial vehicles to be deployed simultaneously from the mobile stations.

A solution to the problem of short battery life of drones and operation in isolated or distant areas of service, by means of docking station/stations that allow for the autonomous landing/takeoff, storage, recharging and/or battery swapping for the drone/drones. The station is multi-cell station for drones with one or more landing/takeoff cells; at least two docking/storage cells; a transitioning closed-loop system configured for transporting the drones within the landing/takeoff cells and docking/storage cells; and control means configured for autonomous control, operation and management of the multi-cell station, where each one of the one or more landing/takeoff cells and at least two docking/storage cells shares at least two sides with neighbouring cells. Recharging mechanism for recharging the stored drones and transitioning mechanism for circulating the drones within the cells of the station are also provided.

Vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (VTOLs) of the type used for the point-to-point delivery and transport of payloads (e.g., packages, equipment, etc.) and personnel, are significantly stabilized at least during takeoff and landing with present aspects significantly ameliorating or significantly eliminating destabilizing effects, including ground effect, during VTOL takeoff and/or landing.

Described herein are systems for roof scan using an unmanned aerial vehicle. For example, some methods include capturing, using an unmanned aerial vehicle, an overview image of a roof of a building from above the roof; presenting a suggested bounding polygon overlaid on the overview image to a user; determining a bounding polygon based on the suggested bounding polygon and user edits; based on the bounding polygon, determining a flight path including a sequence of poses of the unmanned aerial vehicle with respective fields of view at a fixed height that collectively cover the bounding polygon; fly the unmanned aerial vehicle to a sequence of scan poses with horizontal positions matching respective poses of the flight path and vertical positions determined to maintain a consistent distance above the roof; and scanning the roof from the sequence of scan poses to generate a three-dimensional map of the roof.

Vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (VTOLs) of the type used for the point-to-point delivery and transport of payloads (e.g., packages, equipment, etc.) and personnel, are significantly stabilized at least during takeoff and landing with present aspects significantly ameliorating or significantly eliminating destabilizing effects, including ground effect, during VTOL takeoff and/or landing.

Systems and methods include UAVs that serve to assist carrier personnel by reducing the physical demands of the transportation and delivery process. A UAV generally includes a UAV chassis including an upper portion, a plurality of propulsion members configured to provide lift to the UAV chassis, and a parcel carrier configured for being selectively coupled to and removed from the UAV chassis. UAV support mechanisms are utilized to load and unload parcel carriers to the UAV chassis, and the UAV lands on and takes off from the UAV support mechanism to deliver parcels to a serviceable point. The UAV includes computing entities that interface with different systems and computing entities to send and receive various types of information.

An aircraft system incorporates a first aircraft having a grappling device including a first gripper with a first actuator and a second gripper with a second actuator. The first gripper and the second gripper are movable between an open and a closed position to engage a hooking device and pivot together to change a capture angle. A first controller receives a command and operates the actuators in response to open and close the first and second grippers of the grappling device. The controller also receives a second command and operates the first and second actuators to pivot the grippers and provide grappling at a range of capture angles. A second aircraft, which may be a UAV, incorporates the hooking device. The hooking device includes a ring rotatable from the surface and a third actuator to rotate the ring between a stowed and an extended position.

A deployment or hinge mechanism and, more particularly, a compact unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing deployment mechanism is provided. The deployment mechanism includes a hinged mechanism that stows in a stacked configuration and deploys in a level configuration.

One embodiment provides a method comprising maintaining a weather model based on predicted weather conditions for an air traffic control zone. A hash table comprising multiple hash entries is maintained. Each hash entry comprises a timestamped predicted weather condition for a cell in the zone. A flight plan request for a drone is received. The request comprises a planned flight path for the drone. For at least one cell on the planned flight path, same latitude or same longitude cells, whichever is most closely orthogonal to a direction of the planned flight path, are heuristically probed. Weather conditions for the at least one cell are estimated based on predicted weather conditions for the same latitude or same longitude cells. An executable flight plan is generated if the planned flight path is feasible based on the estimated weather conditions; otherwise, a report including an explanation of infeasibility is generated instead.