An unmanned aerial vehicle including a body, a platform, a rotor, a tether cable, and an actuation system. The platform is coupled to the body such that the platform is rotatable relative to the body about a first horizontal axis of rotation. The rotor is rigidly coupled to the platform such that the rotor and the platform rotate together about the first horizontal axis of rotation. The tether cable extends away from the body and is coupled to the body such that the tether cable is rotatable relative to the body about a second horizontal axis of rotation. The first and second horizontal axes of rotation are normal to a vertical plane. The actuation system is configured to rotate the platform in a clockwise direction about the first horizontal axis of rotation when the tether cable rotates in a counter-clockwise direction about the second horizontal axis of rotation.

To provide an unmanned aerial vehicle that eliminates or minimizes the laboriousness involved in optimal pitch adjustment of propellers while eliminating or minimizing complexity and instability in airframe structure and/or flight programs. This object is solved by an unmanned aerial vehicle that is provided with a plurality of rotors and that includes: a center frame that is a central portion of an airframe of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and a plurality of arms extending radially from the center frame in plan view. A plurality of motors that are driving sources of the respective rotors are provided in the center frame. The plurality of rotors are supported by the respective arms. Each arm of the arms has a hollow cylindrical structure. A motive power transmission member configured to transmit a driving force of each motor of the motors to the each rotor is provided in the each arm.

A thrust producing unit with a fail-safe electrical drive unit that drives a rotor of a rotary-wing aircraft. Fail-safe electrical drive unit may include input shafts, fixedly attached belt pulleys that are fixedly attached to the respective input shafts, output shaft that is coupled to rotor, freewheeling belt pulleys that are mounted to output shaft by means of respective freewheels such that output shaft rotates freely when output shaft rotates faster than one of the freewheeling belt pulleys belts that connect fixedly attached belt pulleys with the respective freewheeling belt pulleys, and electric motors that are coupled with the respective input shafts.

A stator of a rotating electrical machine has a slot-less structure. The rotating electrical machine includes a controller. The controller determines a value of a q-axis command current in accordance with requirement information and an input command value for a controlled variable of the rotating electrical machine. The requirement information includes a relationship between values of the q-axis command current and corresponding command values for the controlled variable. The controller performs a task of correcting the value of the q-axis command current to thereby restrict temperature change in a magnet unit from having an influence on the relationship between the command values for the controlled variable and the corresponding values of the q-axis command current. The controller controls an inverter to thereby adjust a value of the q-axis current flowing through an armature winding member to the corrected value of the q-axis command current.

A collision avoidance system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) receives physical space data for a flight area and creates a virtual world model to represent the flight area by mapping the physical space data with a physics engine. The automatic collision avoidance system creates a virtual UAV model to represent the UAV in the virtual world model. The automatic collision avoidance system receives flight data for the UAV and determines a current position of the virtual UAV model within the virtual world model. The automatic collision avoidance system determines a predicted trajectory of the virtual UAV model within the virtual world model, and determines whether the predicted trajectory will result in a collision of the virtual UAV model with the virtual world model. The automatic collision avoidance system performs evasive actions by the UAV, in response to determining that the predicted trajectory will result in a collision.

A motor includes a bottom and a top opposite to the bottom. The bottom is a mounting side of the motor and the bottom is inclined relative to a rotation axis of the motor.

A helicopter includes a gimbal assembly, a first rotor assembly, a second rotor assembly, a fuselage, and a controller. The first rotor assembly, the second rotor assembly, and the fuselage are mechanically coupled to the gimbal assembly. The first rotor assembly includes a first rotor and the second rotor assembly includes a second rotor, the first rotor including a plurality of first fixed-pitch blades and the second rotor including a plurality of second fixed-pitch blades. Each of the plurality of first and the second fixed-pitch blades are coupled to a hub of its respective rotor via a hinge mechanism that is configured to allow each of the fixed-pitch blades to pivot from a first position to a second position, the first position being substantially parallel to the fuselage and the second position being substantially perpendicular to the fuselage.

The present disclosure provides various embodiments of a multicopter-assisted launch and retrieval system generally including: (1) a multi-rotor modular multicopter attachable to (and detachable from) a fixed-wing aircraft to facilitate launch of the fixed-wing aircraft into wing-borne flight; (2) a storage and launch system usable to store the modular multicopter and to facilitate launch of the fixed-wing aircraft into wing-borne flight; and (3) an anchor system usable (along with the multicopter and a flexible capture member) to retrieve the fixed-wing aircraft from wing-borne flight.

A motor mount assembly is provided for coupling a propeller motor to a body of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The motor mount assembly includes a floating portion and acts to attenuate frequencies of vibration from the propeller motor during operation, which modifies the corresponding noise that is produced and reduces stresses on the various components. The floating portion is surrounded on all sides by isolation portions (e.g., made of elastomers or other materials) that are held within a casing that attaches to the body of the UAV. In one implementation, the motor mount assembly is modular such that one or more of the isolation portions may be replaced with different isolation portions (e.g., having different attenuation properties), depending on the direction and nature of the vibrations from the propeller motor that are to be attenuated for a particular application.

Aerial vehicles may be equipped with propellers having pivotable blades that are configured to rotate when the propellers are not rotating under power. A pivotable blade may rotate about an axis of a propeller with respect to a hub until the pivotable blade is coaligned with a fixed blade. When the propeller is rotating, a lifting force from the blade may cause the blade to rotate to a deployed position that is not coaligned with the fixed blade.