The system for managing bird populations includes a drone; a disruptor comprising an extension arm having a proximal end and a distal end, the proximal end being operatively coupled with the drone, and the distal end comprising a tool portion, where the tool portion comprises a piercing element constructed for engagement with one or more eggs in a nest; and a remote control system. The remote control system may comprise one or more remote control units and a monitor.

The system can be used to manage bird populations by flying the drone above a bird's nest; positioning the drone above the bird's nest; and descending the drone to disrupt eggs in the bird's nest with the disruptor.

One variation of a method for automatically generating a planogram for a store includes: dispatching a robotic system to autonomously navigate within the store during a mapping routine; accessing a floor map of the floor space generated by the robotic system from map data collected during the mapping routine; identifying a shelving structure within the map of the floor space; defining a first set of waypoints along an aisle facing the shelving structure; dispatching the robotic system to navigate to and to capture optical data at the set of waypoints during an imaging routine; receiving a set of images generated from optical data recorded by the robotic system during the imaging routine; identifying products and positions of products in the set of images; and generating a planogram of the shelving segment based on products and positions of products identified in the set of images.

A gaming system for enabling three-dimensional game play of remote-control craft controlled by a controller, each craft including a communication system with both radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) capabilities. The system can include a plurality of hovering remote-control flying craft each controlled by a handheld controller, and further may include at least one additional game accessory elements, such as a puck, a ground station or a gun. Each pairing of craft and controllers communicate via an RF protocol that transmits at least control communications between the controller and the craft based on pair identification information in an RF communication protocol. The craft and game-accessory elements also communicate via at least an IR protocol that communicates game-play information. Selectable pairs of craft and controllers may be assigned to different teams for playing multiplayer team games based on team identification information in the RF communication protocol.

A hovering remote-control flying craft having a molded frame assembly includes a plurality of arms extending from a center body with an electric motor and corresponding propeller on each arm. In various embodiments, the motor and propeller are mounted downward-facing at a distal portion of each arm with a motor cover over the motor. The center body can be formed of a two-piece molded structure that sandwiches a circuit board to provide structural support for the frame. The circuit board can include a plurality of tabs that facilitate mounting of wire connectors, and can also provide antennas and emitters for both IR and RF communications. In some embodiments, a removable safety ring protects the propellers from lateral contact.

The devices and methods described herein integrate security and/or recording mechanisms into unmanned vehicle interdiction devices to prevent unauthorized use and to record information related to operation of the unmanned vehicle interdiction device, identification of an unmanned vehicle, location of the unmanned vehicle, and operation of the unmanned vehicle.

An object identification and collection method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a pick-up path that identifies a route in which to guide an object-collection system over a target geographical area to pick up objects, determining a current location of the object-collection system relative to the pick-up path, and guiding the object-collection system along the pick-up path over the target geographical area based on the current location. The method further includes capturing images in a direction of movement of the object-collection system along the pick-up path, identifying a target object in the images; tracking movement of the target object through the images, determining that the target object is within range of an object picker assembly on the object-collection system based on the tracked movement of the target object, and instructing the object picker assembly to pick up the target object.

An aircraft control device and a remote controller aircraft are disclosed. The aircraft control device includes a first channel configured to receive first control information outputted by a remote controller and transmit the first control information to an aircraft; a second channel configured to receive second control information outputted by the remote controller and transmit the second control information to a camera and/or a gimbal; and a switch unit configured to switch that the first control information is received by the second channel and transmitted to the aircraft when the first channel is disturbed or a distance between the remote controller and the aircraft is larger than a distance threshold. The present invention is able to switch the transmission route of the first control information between the first channel and the second channel in accordance with situations of the first channel and the second channel.

A method includes dispatching a drone to a site. The drone includes audio/visual equipment. The method includes logging a plurality of timestamped locations of the drone and receiving, from the audio/visual equipment, site data captured by an on-site operator of the audio/visual equipment. The method includes correlating a portion of the site data with at least one of the timestamped locations of the drone.

Using power line rights of way for UAV routing provides a direct, uninterrupted, aerially clear path to the vast majority of lots and buildings from nearby substations and generating stations. Segmenting or separating the UAV traffic by airframe glide ratio improves safety for people on the ground and utilization of the limited airspace. Further segmenting UAV traffic by airframe speed and size allows greater traffic throughput.

Disclosed is a system and method for reducing the total latency for transferring a frame from the low latency camera system mounted on an aerial vehicle to the display of the remote controller. The method includes reducing the latency through each of the modules of the system, i.e. through a camera module, an encoder module, a wireless interface transmission, wireless interface receiver module, a decoder module and a display module. To reduce the latency across the modules, methods such as overclocking the image processor, pipelining the frame, squashing the processed frame, using a fast hardware encoder that can perform slice based encoding, tuning the wireless medium using queue sizing, queue flushing, bitrate feedback, physical medium rate feedback, dynamic encoder parameter tuning and wireless radio parameter adjustment, using a fast hardware decoder that can perform slice based decoding and overclocking the display module are used.