Operation of Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs) around human population requires the utmost level of safety. Trackpath pre-computed navigation paths and Free flight corridor protection systems reduce the possibility of injuring humans during flight, but at the point of delivery the drone must, by necessity, come down to level of and near humans. This invention teaches the system and method of a personal household mail system that minimizes human exposure to the delivery UAV, provides a method of verifying that the addressee is correct, and optionally secures the mail until it is picked up by the designated recipient.

Methods, apparatus, systems and a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle are provided. The VTOL vehicle includes: a fuselage having longitudinally a front section, a central section and a rear section; a first lifting surface comprising two wings respectively secured to opposite sides of the rear section of the fuselage; a second lifting surface comprising two wings respectively secured to opposite sides of the front section of the fuselage; where each wing comprises at least one engine module, each of the engine modules being pivotally coupled to the wing and each engine module being independently controlled for transitioning between a vertical mode of flight and a horizontal mode of flight.

A method is provided for allowing UAV pilots to create a flight path profile and upload the same to a central server, allowing access to other UAV pilots. The method includes the steps of having creating a first flight path profile, uploading the flight path profile to a central server, allowing access of the flight path profile to others, and downloading the first flight path profile to a UAV so that the UAV follows the downloaded first flight profile. The flight path profile includes control of three dimensional motion and orientation of a UAV, control of the view orientation of a camera, as well as other camera settings such as video and still image modes, frame rate, and exposure, altitude and speed and dwell times.

An aircraft includes a body defining an interior compartment configured to hold at least one of a passenger and a payload, a battery system, a plurality of arms coupled to and extending from the body, and a plurality of propulsion devices configured to provide thrust to fly the aircraft. Each of the plurality of propulsion devices is coupled to a respective one of the plurality of arms. The plurality of propulsion devices are powered by the battery system. Each of the plurality of propulsion devices is selectively pivotable about at least one axis. The plurality of propulsion devices include at least one of (i) counter rotating ducted fans and (ii) ionizing electrode engines.

A vectored thrust control module for an aircraft that includes a servo system that couples to the aircraft structure at an output shaft connection point. A thrust motor assembly is fully supported by the servo system and rotates a bladed component to provide thrust to the aircraft. Further, the thrust motor assembly is rigidly connected with the servo system to rotate together about a longitudinal axis thrust line with respect to the aircraft structure. The bladed component and the thrust motor assembly generate a line of thrust that extends through the connection point of the servo system to the aircraft structure.

A system for delivery of payload at a precise location by autonomous delivery vehicle. A machine-readable unique identifier is laid at a place where a user wants delivery of an item. User opens a precise delivery app on smartphone, activates the scanner and standing near the unique identifier scans it. Precise delivery app reads the unique identity of the unique identifier and collects the geophysical location of the smartphone. Third party system feeds this information of the target unique identifier to the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous delivery vehicle includes a first prior art navigator and a second scanner navigator. The autonomous vehicle determines its route to the approximate location of the target unique identifier with the help of the first prior art navigator and the second scanner navigator scans every unique identifier that may be present around that location and guides the autonomous vehicle to the target unique identifier.

Disclosed are aircraft configured to perform tethered and untethered flights as well as methods of operating such aircraft. During a tethered flight, the aircraft is connected to a power line using its connecting module. While tethered, the aircraft can receive electrical energy from the power line and use this energy for propulsion and/or storage. The aircraft comprises a propulsion module for providing vertical and horizontal thrusts. In some examples, the aircraft comprises a transport module. The transport module may be removably attached to the propulsion module and be replaceable with another transportation module. During an untethered flight, the electrical energy is supplied to the propulsion module from a battery and/or a generator on board of the aircraft. The untethered flight capability can be used for landing and takeoff, flying away from power lines or when the power line is not operational, and other like examples.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (200, 300, 400, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500) can include a central body (202, 302, 402, 702, 802, 1002, 1202, 1502), a plurality of rotors, and a plurality of arms (204, 306, 406, 706, 806, 1006, 1206, 1506) extending from the central body (202, 302, 402, 702, 802, 1002, 1202, 1502), where each arm of the plurality of arms (204, 306, 406, 706, 806, 1006, 1206, 1506) is configured to support one or more of the plurality of rotors. The UAV may include at least one sensor (208, 318, 418, 718, 818, 822, 1022, 1218, 1222, 1518) located on the UAV (200, 300, 400, 700, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500) outside of a keep-out zone, where the keep-out zone is defined at least in part by (1) a plurality of rotor disks, a rotor disk of the plurality of rotor disks for each of the plurality of rotors, each rotor disk corresponding to an area that is swept by one or more rotor blades (206, 308, 408, 708, 808, 1008, 1208, 1508) of a corresponding rotor when the rotor blades (206, 308, 408, 708, 808, 1008, 1208, 1508) are spun, and (2) a shape that is formed by adjoining respective centers of adjacent rotor disks.

A shroud for an aircraft having a noise reducing material on or in an inner surface of the shroud adjacent to one or more tips of the propeller. The noise reducing material is preferably an electrospun nanomaterial, particularly a ridged composite acoustic nanofibre. The interior surface of the shroud may be provided with a plurality of sound deflectors configured to dissipate sound by reflection and refraction, and absorb sound into the shroud body. The sound deflectors may be ribs or arrangements of discrete reflector elements.

The invention relates to an aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing and its operation method. Aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing of aerodyne type according to the invention comprises a circular symmetrical aerodynamic body (1) having an internal stiffening platform (2) located on the chord of the aerodynamic profile and which supports the components of the aircraft, at least four vertical ducted propellers (3a), (3b), (3c), (3d) arranged symmetrically to the central vertical axis of the carrier body (1), but also to the predetermined flight axis and to the transverse axis of the carrier body (1), propellers (3a) and (3c) having the same rotational direction opposite to that of propellers (3b) and (3d) at least two horizontal ducted propellers (4) with opposite rotation directions located inside the carrier body or outside of it, placed parallel symmetrical with the predetermined flight axis and on both sides of it, vector nozzles (5), one for each horizontal propeller (4), which provides vector orientation to jets of the horizontal ducted propellers (4), the means of power supply (6), which are designed to provide electricity necessary to operate all engines and all electrical and electronic devices on board, an electronic control and management flight module (7) and a landing gear (9), which aims to promote contact between the aircraft and the ground.