A beacon for attachment to an unmanned aerial vehicle that provides information needed to identify the owner of a particular unmanned vehicle. The beacon may also include a remote communications module configured to participate on wireless communications networks and a beacon control system configured to issue commands compatible with the unmanned aerial vehicle. The beacon may further a beacon control system configured to translate multiple types of commands from different controls systems into commands compatible with the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Systems and methods of the present invention are provided to generate a plurality of flight trajectories that do not conflict with other aircraft in a local area. Interventions by an air traffic control system help prevent collisions between aircraft, but these interventions can also cause an aircraft to substantially deviate from the pilot's intended flight trajectory, which burns fuels, wastes time, etc. Systems and methods of the present invention can assign a standard avoidance interval to other aircraft in the area such that a pilot's aircraft does not receive an intervention by an air traffic control system. Systems and methods of the present invention also generate a plurality of conflict-free flight trajectories such that a pilot or an automated system may select the most desirable flight trajectory for fuel efficiency, speed, and other operational considerations, etc.

Various technologies pertaining to dynamically identifying travel segments to be taken by a traveler traveling in a region are described herein, where observations about travel segments in the region are sparse and subject to alteration. A computer-implemented graph can be loaded into a memory, where the computer-implemented graph is representative of the region. The computer-implemented graph includes nodes that represent locations in the region and edges that represent travel segments of the region, where the edges have costs assigned thereto, and further where there is a defined statistical relationship between the costs. When an observation about a travel path is received, using the computer-implemented graph, inferences can be made about costs of traversing other travel paths in the region.

A computer method for determining potential wake turbulence by a first aircraft from wake generated by a second aircraft. The computer method includes receiving a signal generated by the second aircraft at the first aircraft and transforming the signal to a first wake turbulence boundary that represents the wake generated by the second aircraft. An intersection volume, which is representative of a zone of dangerous turbulence interactions, is selected for the first aircraft. Based on a determination of intersection between the first wake turbulence boundary and the intersection volume, issuing a warning flag if an intersection exists or continue generating the first wake turbulence boundary and determining whether interactions exist.

An offscreen traffic information indicator system includes signal receivers for receiving traffic messages from proximate air and ground vehicles and a traffic indicator for determining the positions of the host aircraft and the proximate vehicles based on the traffic messages. Based on the locations of the host aircraft and proximate vehicles and their proximity to airport runways, the traffic indicator may designate runways as relevant runways (or receive relevant runway designations from the flight management system of the host aircraft) and designate proximate vehicles as relevant to the host aircraft. A display unit may display, along with a dynamic map of a region near the host aircraft, relevant runway indicators for relevant runways within the mapped region and offscreen traffic indicators for relevant aircraft positioned outside the mapped region.

A path searching apparatus includes: a path searching unit that searches for an optimal path of a movable body that performs traveling from a start node to a goal node by performing a path searching process based on A-Star algorithm, and a predicting unit that predicts a surrounding situation of the movable body at each of times in future. The path searching unit determines whether a first surrounding situation involves a change from a second surrounding situation, on a basis of the predicted surrounding situation, and upon determining that the first surrounding situation involves the change, updates an estimated smallest cost value h* of a node on which the searching has been already performed, on a basis of the first surrounding situation.

A travel path setting apparatus includes an information acquiring unit, a memory, a predictable scenario creating unit, and a path searching unit. The information acquiring unit acquires surrounding information on a surrounding situation of a movable body. The memory stores a probability model related to the surrounding situation of the movable body. The predictable scenario creating unit creates, on a basis of the surrounding information and the probability model, a plurality of predictable scenarios for each of a plurality of predetermined times in future. The predictable scenarios are each the surrounding situation of the movable body that is predicted for corresponding one of the predetermined times. The path searching unit searches for and sets the travel path on a basis of the predictable scenarios created by the predictable scenario creating unit.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for safely transporting passengers from pickup locations to destination locations on-demand using automated/pilotless vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. In one implementation, an on-demand passenger transport system includes one or more VTOL aircraft which operate without human pilots, and each of the VTOL aircraft operates under the control of an associated onboard computer. The disclosed system further includes a ground control system which is configured to: receive a service request from a passenger for a transport service of the VTOL aircraft; assign one of the VTOL aircraft to the requesting passenger; process the service request to generate a flight task; transmit the flight task to the assigned VTOL aircraft. The onboard computer of the VTOL aircraft is configured to control a flight of the VTOL aircraft to transport the passenger from a pickup location to a destination location by air based on the flight task.

A method for generating a flight display in an aircraft includes the steps of receiving an indication of an arrival or a departure procedure for the aircraft to follow, receiving an indication of a current position and altitude of the aircraft, and receiving a voice communication or information by digital data link regarding the arrival or departure procedure. The method further includes the steps of recognizing speech in the voice communication and transforming the speech to a restriction regarding the arrival or departure procedure and providing a flight display comprising a visual depiction of the arrival or departure procedure, the current position and altitude of the aircraft, and the restriction regarding the arrival or departure procedure. The method also provides improved situational awareness to pilots by providing appropriate alerts and indications in the context of these restrictions and the implications that these may have on the ownship with reference to the surrounding traffic and the emergent conditions.

Embodiments are provided for providing location positioning service for locating a transportation apparatus through a UAV network. A location center may be employed to receive a location service request for locating a specific transportation apparatus. After receiving such a request, the location center may inquire a location database for last known location of the requested transportation apparatus. Based on the last known location of the requested transportation apparatus, the location center may predict one or more areas in which the requested transportation apparatus may be currently in. Based on the prediction, the location center may be configured to generate one or more control instructions to one or more UAVs in the UAV network to locate the requested transportation apparatus in those areas.