An aerial vehicle may include adjustable shrouds to selectively provide protection for propellers of the aerial vehicle. The adjustable shrouds may be moved to an extended configuration around a periphery of one or more propellers during generally vertical flight or hovering operations, when delivery a payload, and/or upon detecting objects in proximity. Likewise, the adjustable shrouds may be moved to a retracted configuration that eliminates or minimizes adverse aerodynamic effects during generally horizontal flight operations, when operating at high altitude, and/or upon detecting no objects in proximity. The adjustable shrouds may include various designs, such as fan shrouds, telescoping shrouds, folding shrouds, and deployable arm shrouds.

An aerial vehicle including a housing, an outrunner motor including a stator mechanically coupled to the housing and a rotor rotationally coupled to the stator, and a propeller removably coupled to the rotor, the propeller including a hub and a plurality of propeller blades. A rotor, a propeller including a hub and a propeller blade, a radial alignment mechanism, a rotational retention mechanism, and an axial retention mechanism.

The ‘Air Wheel’ rotor is a variable pitch rotor with variable twist blades. The ‘Air Wheel’ rotor comprises a closed wing coupled to one or more coaxial hubs via torsional elastic blades, the blades are coupled to the closed wing in one of the following ways: rigid, elastic, or visco-elastic. There is provided a wide range of combinations of the wing relative width and coning angle typical for a lifting rotor with a thin planar wing attached to the tips of long blades, for a shrouded fan in a wide annular wing, or for an impeller in a rotating cylindrical wing. The ‘Air Wheel’ rotor combines and enhances the advantages of a rotor and a wing, it has excellent aerodynamic characteristics, and eliminates limitations of the rotor size and flight speed. The ‘Air Wheel’ rotor can be used for designing vertical take-off and landing aircraft. The “Air Wheel” rotor is universal and can function as a lifting rotor, or a wind turbine, or an aircraft propeller, or a marine propeller.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a body that supports breakaway components. One component is a battery pack which powers the vehicle. Two other components are pod assemblies, which each include at least one motor and one propeller. Each motor is supported within a support ring using spokes or filament. The spokes keep the motor firmly stable during operation and also effectively encage the otherwise dangerous spinning propeller. This allows the vehicle to operate with a higher level of safety than conventional UAVs. The breakaway feature can be established using magnets.

A propulsion assembly for a rotorcraft includes a blade assembly, a drive shaft coupled to the blade assembly and an electric motor coupled to the drive shaft and operable to provide rotational energy to the drive shaft to rotate the blade assembly. The propulsion assembly includes a landing assistance turbine coupled to the drive shaft and operable to selectively provide rotational energy to the drive shaft during an underpowered descent to rotate the blade assembly and provide upward thrust, thereby reducing a descent rate of the rotorcraft prior to landing.

UAV (400, 500, 600) systems and methods for simulation of reduced-gravity environments are disclosed. A UAV (400, 500, 600) system has an ascent vehicle (104), comprising ascent thrust means, and an aerodynamic, free fall descent UAV (102, 706), comprising descent thrust means. The ascent vehicle (104) comprises means to convey the descent UAV (102, 706) to a drop altitude (108), and the descent UAV (102, 706) is separable from the ascent vehicle (104). The descent thrust means is operable, following separation of the descent UAV (102, 706) from the ascent vehicle (104), to provide a thrust component in a descent direction (256), for countering air resistance on the UAV (400, 500, 600). The descent UAV (102, 706) may comprise a sensor system and controller (204), and the descent thrust means may comprise a ducted fan system. The sensor system may be operable, during descent of the UAV (400, 500, 600), to determine values for parameters associated with the acceleration due to gravity of the UAV (400, 500, 600), the controller (204) being operable to use the determined parameter values to control the ducted fan system to provide the thrust component.

Indoor mapping and modular control for UAVs and other autonomous vehicles, and associated systems and methods. A representative unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a body, a propulsion system carried by the body, a sensor system carried by the body, and a controller carried at least in part by the body and operatively coupled to the propulsion system and the sensor system. The controller is programmed with instructions that, when executed, operate in a first autonomous mode and a second autonomous mode. In the first autonomous mode, the instructions autonomously direct the propulsion system to convey the body along a first route within an indoor environment. While the body travels along the first route, the instructions receive inputs from the sensor system corresponding to features of the indoor environment. The features are stored as part of a 3-D map. In the second autonomous mode, the instructions direct the propulsion system to convey the body along a second route within the indoor environment, based at least in part on the 3-D map, and direct performance of an operation on the second route.

An unmanned aerial vehicle is disclosed. The unmanned aerial vehicle includes a frame configured to fix a motor. The unmanned aerial vehicle also includes a housing configured to enclose the frame. The housing includes a top mesh corresponding to an upper surface of the housing and a bottom mesh that covers a portion of a bottom surface of the housing. The housing also includes middle part coupled to the top mesh and the bottom mesh. The housing also includes a plurality of duct areas that penetrate each of the top mesh, the bottom mesh, and the middle part. The motor and a propeller connected to the motor and for rotating are positioned within the duct area.

A hybrid wing autonomous aircraft having, an airframe, at least one hybrid wing member having an airframe end and an extended end, and having leading and trailing edges and a plurality of control structures, the airframe end coupled to the airframe, and the extended end further configured with a wing extension device, the wing extension device configured to extend a supplemental lifting surface from the extended end, an airframe actuator configured to cause the extension end of the hybrid wing member to move from a first position relative to the airframe to a second position relative to the airframe, wherein the second position is greater in distance from the airframe than the first position.

An unmanned air vehicle includes a generator that generates a flying force and also generates an air flow, a structural component, a microphone that outputs a first signal, a speaker, and a processor. The processor generates a second signal according to the first signal. The structural component surrounds a noise source of the generator, and includes a through-hole extending in a direction of the air flow. The through-hole is in a direction opposite to the direction of the air flow. An end, in the opposite direction, of the structural component corresponds to an end, in the opposite direction, of the noise source of the generator. An end, in the direction of the air flow, of the structural component extends, in the direction of the air flow, beyond an end, in the direction of the air flow, of the noise source of the generator.