A method and system for inspecting and monitoring an elevator installation includes sending an autonomous flying object having at least one sensor to the elevator installation, and granting access to a hoistway of the elevator installation to the autonomous flying object. The autonomous flying object is positioned within the hoistway, and data collected by the associated sensor is sent to a remote elevator service center. The autonomous flying object and the associated sensor can be used to monitor and inspect the elevator installation on a temporary basis, for example for a specific number of hours, days or weeks. Once the autonomous flying object has gained access to the hoistway, the elevator installation can resume normal operation thereby keeping downtime to a minimum. After completing its tasks at one elevator installation, the autonomous flying object can be directed by the remote elevator service center to monitor and inspect another elevator installation.

A lightweight, pocket-sized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be held in an outstretched hand by a user for take-off and landing of the UAV. The UAV comprises a semi-toroidal or a substantially toroidal hollow body that defines a duct. The UAV further comprises a motor for rotating a fan that directs air into and out of the duct enabling UAV to take flight. The UAV comprises a flight-control system that comprises at least two flight control surfaces that can alter the directed air as it flows through the duct for controlling the roll and pitch and optionally the yaw of the UAV during flight. The flight control system may be controlled by a microprocessor controller. The UAV further comprises a payload, with at least a wireless transmitter and receiver unit.

Provided are an action plan making system and method for an unmanned aerial vehicle, and a storage medium. The action plan making system (1) includes: an unmanned aerial vehicle (10), provided with an aerial shooting device; and a computer (30). A control unit of the computer (30) executes a making module (324), which makes an action plan including a flight plan and a shooting plan of the unmanned aerial vehicle (10) according to a region accepted by executing a region acceptance module (322) and a purpose accepted by executing a purpose acceptance module (323). A control unit (14) of the unmanned aerial vehicle (10) executes a control module (141), and controls the aerial shooting of a camera (17) and flying of the unmanned aerial vehicle (10) based on the action plan made by executing the making module (324) by the control unit (32) of the computer (30).

Provided are an imaging apparatus, an imaging method, an imaging program, and an imaging system capable of easily making an imaging plan. The imaging apparatus (100) includes an imaging evaluation map acquiring section (101) that acquires an imaging evaluation map, and an imaging point selecting section (102) that selects an imaging point suitable for imaging an object and an imaging condition at the imaging point on the basis of the acquired imaging evaluation map. In the imaging evaluation map, an evaluation value that represents an evaluation of imaging in a case where an object is imaged at a specific position under a specific imaging condition is set at a plurality of imaging candidate positions for each of a plurality of imaging conditions.

A method of collision warning using broad antenna pattern ultra-wide band (UWB) radar includes emitting a first radar ping from a broad beam UWB antenna and receiving a first return signal identifying an object. A first hemisphere with a first radius is determined for the object. A second ping, second return and second hemisphere is defined for the object. At the intersection of the hemispheres, an object ring is defined. The radius of the object ring is compared with the radius of a collision cylinder (e.g., representing a safe distance around a system or device, such as a drone). The object may be identified as posing a collision threat when the radius of the object ring is smaller than the radius of the collision cylinder.

Provided is a method of avoiding collision of an unmanned aerial vehicle with an obstacle, the method including: calculating two potential fields using ament positional information of the unmanned aerial vehicle, a target point that is set, and positional information of the obstacle measured by a sensor, computing an attractive force and a repulsive force by differentiating the computed potential fields, respectively; computing a direction of a potential force that results from adding up the computed attractive force and repulsive force; and performing control that brings about a change from the computed direction of the potential force to a direction in which the unmanned aerial vehicle moves.

In one embodiment, a remote controller for a vehicle includes at least one control element for controlling operation of at least one aspect of the vehicle when the vehicle is in a remote-control mode; an actuator connected the at least one control element for controlling a position of the at least one control element when the vehicle is in an autonomous operations mode; and a processing system for receiving a first control signal from the vehicle indicative of a state of operation of the vehicle. In operation, the processing system generates a second control signal to the actuator to cause the actuator to control a position of the control element such that it corresponds to and indicates the state of operation of the vehicle.

A sensor system may include first and second sensors configured to be coupled to a vehicle and generate respective first and second sensor signals indicative of operation of the vehicle. The sensor system may also include a sensor anomaly detector including an anomalous sensor model configured to receive the first and second sensor signals and determine that one or more of the first sensor or the second sensor is an anomalous sensor generating inaccurate sensor data. The sensor system may also be configured to identify one or more of the first sensor or the second sensor as the anomalous sensor generating inaccurate sensor data.

The present disclosure relates to a moving body, a control method, and a program that enable realization of safer movement and stop. A safety degree estimation unit estimates a safety degree according to a lapse of time of its own machine in a moving state on the basis of external environmental information regarding an external environment, and a movement control unit controls movement of the own machine on the basis of the estimated safety degree. Technology according to the present disclosure can be applied to, for example, a moving body such as a drone.

Proposed is a technology capable of performing an action for examining a object difficult to be recognized, to thereby avoid the collision between the obstacle and the movable object. A movable object of the present technology includes a control unit. The control unit controls an action of a movable object on the basis of an estimation result of estimating whether or not an obstacle that prevents movement of the movable object exists on the basis of an image captured by an imaging unit.