An interior length of a confined space is inspected by autonomously flying an unmanned aerial vehicle having a sensor pod. The sensor pod can be tethered to the unmanned aerial vehicle and lowered into the confined space from above perhaps by an electromechanical hoist. An altitude or heading of the sensor pod can be measured. The confined space can be the flue of a chimney.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, wirelessly receiving first control signals that are received directly from a remote control device according to user input at the remote control device, adjusting a flight of the unmanned aircraft according to the first control signals, wirelessly receiving second control signals that are received from a network device where the second control signals are not sourced by the remote control device, and adjusting the flight of the unmanned aircraft according to the second control signals. Other embodiments are disclosed.

A localization and flight planning system for a drone performing inventory management is disclosed. The system includes a drone with sensors, one or more machine-learned models, and controllers. The system is configured to obtain data indicating inventory items to be scanned by the drone. The sensors are configured to obtain sensor data indicative of a warehouse infrastructure within the warehouse environment. The system is further configured to identify objects of interest based on the sensor data and store information associated with the objects of interest in an onboard memory. The one or more models are configured to generate one or more location anchors based on the objects of interest and localize the drone within the warehouse environment. The system may be further configured to generate flight plans based on localizing drone within the warehouse. The controllers may be configured to control the drone by executing the flight plans.

An aerial system, preferably including one or more proximity sensors, such as sensors arranged in opposing directions. A method for aerial system operation, preferably including: determining a set of sensors; sampling measurements at the set of sensors; localizing the aerial system based on the measurements, such as to determine one or more obstacle clearances; and controlling system flight, such as based on the clearances.

The delivery of goods to a customer comprises a substantial portion of human activity. To correct address errors and/or to more precisely locate delivery locations, systems are provided to assist human, human operated vehicle, or autonomous vehicles to locate a delivery point. Often the location of a delivery point is inaccurate or imprecise. GPS and other coordinate systems often fail or are imprecise without an unobstructed view of the sky. Even with coordinates available, the delivery point may be different from the coordinates or, more commonly, coordinates that are different from some standard point within a postal address associated with the coordinates. Providing a delivery system that utilizes a broadcasted identifier, such as an identifier associated with the order of the item, the delivery of the item may be made proximate to the source of the broadcasted identifier or further refined using the broadcasted identifier as a reference.

An interior length of a confined space is inspected by autonomously flying an unmanned aerial vehicle having a sensor pod. The sensor pod can be tethered to the unmanned aerial vehicle and lowered into the confined space from above perhaps by an electromechanical hoist. An altitude or heading of the sensor pod can be measured. The confined space can be the flue of a chimney.

A device for handling containers and/or packagings, includes a first handling unit which handles the containers and/or packagings in a first predetermined manner, and a second handling unit which handles the containers and/or packagings in a second predetermined manner, a transport unit for transporting the containers and/or packagings, and a monitoring unit for monitoring the device. The monitoring unit includes an unmanned and remote-controlled flying device and a control unit for wirelessly controlling the flying device, wherein the flying device has an image capturing unit, and wherein the device has a delimiting unit which delimits a flying region of the flying device.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assessment and reporting system may utilize one or more scanning techniques to provide useful assessments and/or reports for structures and other objects. The scanning techniques may be performed in sequence and optionally used to further fine tune each subsequent scan. The system may include shadow elimination, annotation, and/or reduction for the UAV itself and/or other objects. A UAV may be used to determine a pitch of roof of a structure. The pitch of the roof may be used to fine tune subsequent scanning and data capture.

An inter-floor transport system includes an aerial vehicle configured to move vertically and horizontally along a passage and a power assembly including a power supply adjacent to the passage and a guide cable extending along the passage and connected to the power supply, where the aerial vehicle is configured to receive power through the guide cable without contacting the guide cable.

A storage device (10) that stores an unmanned aerial vehicle (30) includes a main body portion (20) having a magnet or a magnetic body (111, 112) for applying a magnetic force to the unmanned aerial vehicle (30) provided with a magnet (121, 122) on an upper surface.