Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for a first link to rotate about a pin joint, a second link rotatably coupled to the first link, the second link having a nozzle at a first end and a weight at a second end opposite the first end, and a fluid inlet including a funnel portion and an opening, the funnel portion having a conical taper converging towards the opening.

A system for configuring unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to a structure is disclosed. The structure may be a standing structure such as a tower. A movement system may be configured with the tower. The UASs may be tethered to the movement structure and the movement structure may move with respect to the tower.

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.

This invention pertains to the development of a drone that can pour a variety of chemical agents such as oxidizers, silica gelling agents, enzymes, and neutralizers onto areas contaminated with chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. These decontaminants are known to be effective at destroying both chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction simultaneously. The use of a drone to destroy the chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction is highly beneficial since it allows the exposed toxic areas to be remotely decontaminated without the presence of humans. Some of these methods of decontamination are non-toxic and environmentally friendly so it can also be used to pour or spray these agents on humans that are exposed to chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction to safely destroy these agents. The drone will be designed as a transformable robot which can lift the container containing the decontaminant in the ground mode and fly over to the contaminated site which is either outdoors or indoors using its flight mode. The transformable robot would pour the different decontaminant solutions on the contaminated areas or contaminated humans to simultaneously destroy chemical and biological warfare agents. They can also be used to decontaminate chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction found separately at sites.

A highly safe drone is provided. A remote controller and a drone are connected to each other through a network and cooperate to operate. The drone includes a flight control unit, a flight start command reception unit receiving a flight start command from a user, a drone determination unit determining a configuration of the drone itself, an external environment determination unit determining an external environment of the drone. The drone system has a plurality of states including a takeoff diagnosis state and satisfies a condition transitioning to another state. The takeoff diagnosis state includes a drone determination state where the drone determination unit determines the configuration of the drone itself and an external environment determination state where the external environment determination unit determines the external environment. The drone system makes the drone to takeoff after transitioning to the takeoff diagnosis state upon receiving the flight start command.

The present disclosure provides a method for controlling a base station. The method includes establishing a wireless communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), determining that the UAV has landed in a first area of the base station, controlling a first power device of the base station to move in a first direction to control a guiding mechanism of the base station to move toward a transferring device of the base station to push the UAV onto the transferring device, and controlling a second power device to move in a second direction to control a movement of the transferring device to transport the UAV to an operating platform.

A diaphragm pump includes a pump body mechanism, a one-way valve mechanism, a diaphragm mechanism, and an eccentric mechanism, wherein the one-way valve mechanism, the diaphragm mechanism and the eccentric mechanism are mounted at the pump body mechanism. The one-way valve mechanism includes a valve cover and a one-way valve mounted at the pump body mechanism via the valve cover. The diaphragm mechanism includes a pump cover and a diaphragm connected to the pump cover. The pump cover is mounted at the pump body mechanism and covers the diaphragm and the valve cover. The diaphragm is detachably connected to the eccentric mechanism. The pump cover and the diaphragm jointly form a diaphragm cavity, and an inner side of the pump cover is provided with a flow channel communicating with the diaphragm cavity and configured to allow liquid to flow into or out of the diaphragm cavity through the flow channel.

The invention relates to a method and device for predicting a volume median diameter (VIVID) in an overlapped spray area of twin nozzles. Placing a single nozzle at different heights to determine a spray area; measuring all VMDs in the spray area to obtain first true measured values; dividing the first true measured values to construct a first calibration set and a first prediction set; establishing a polynomial fitting formula by a REGRESS function; placing twin nozzles at different heights and different nozzle spacing, and measuring VMDs in the overlapped spray area to obtain second true measured values; determining simulated values of the VMDs of first and second nozzles; dividing the simulated values of the VMDs and the second true measured values to construct a second calibration set and a second prediction set; quantitatively calibrating by using a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) to obtain a prediction model; determining a VIVID in the overlapped spray area of twin nozzles.

A drone which can be piloted autonomously or by a user. The drone has an air treatment dispenser for spraying, or otherwise treating, a target area with one or more desired air treatments. The drone may operate as deemed desirable by a user, upon a predetermined schedule or in response to a demand signal from one or more target areas. By delivering the air treatments from an elevated position, the target area can be more uniformly and efficiently treated.

A spreading system for a plant protection UAV is provided, including a material inlet, a material conveying mechanism, and a material spreading mechanism. The material inlet is configured to dock with the material box. The material conveying mechanism includes a screw mechanism and a driving device connected to the screw mechanism. The material spreading mechanism is used to spread a material in the material box. The driving device may drive the screw mechanism to rotate, so as to transfer the material from the material inlet to the material spreading mechanism, thereby quantitatively feeding the material spreading mechanism and improving the spreading uniformity of the plant protection UAV. A plant protection UAV and a spreading control method are also provided.