A method for monitoring a condition of a VTOL-aircraft (1), preferably an electrically propelled, more particularly an autonomous, more particularly a multi-rotor aircraft, with a plurality of spatially distributed actuators (2i, 2o), preferably propulsion units, wherein a primary control (4.1) is used for controlling a flight state of the VTOL-aircraft (1) and at least one secondary control (4.2) is used for controlling the actuators (2i, 2o) of the VTOL-aircraft (1), preferably the propulsion units (2i, 2o); during operation. The primary control (4.1) generates a primary data set, which is subject to a first uncertainty, and is entered into an estimation algorithm, and the secondary control generates a secondary data set, which is subject to a second uncertainty, and is also entered into the estimation algorithm. The estimation algorithm processes the primary and secondary data sets and generates an estimation result that is representative of a condition of the VTOL-aircraft (1), preferably a health status of at least one actuator (2i, 2o), which estimation result is subject to a third uncertainty that is equal to or lower than the first uncertainty and/or the second uncertainty.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining that current data captured at a current location of a drone satisfies localization adjustment criteria; in response to determining that the current data captured at the current location of the drone satisfies the localization adjustment criteria, identifying previously captured image data; determining a previous expected location of the drone based on both an expected change in location of the drone and a first previous location determined from other image data captured before the previously captured image data; determining a location difference between the previous expected location of the drone and a second previous location determined from the previously captured image data; and determining the current location of the drone based on the location difference.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has a flight-only mode with a motor only rotating propellers and not rotating on-board wheels to configure the UAV to fly away from a surface of a structure, and a crawling-only mode in which the UAV is configured to crawl on the surface due to the motor only rotating the wheels while not rotating the propellers. In the flight-only mode, a clutch disengages a motor from the wheels so that the motor only engages the propellers to fly to lift from the surface. In the crawling-only mode, the clutch disengages the motor from the propellers so that the motor only engages the wheels to move the UAV on the surface.

This disclosure describes an aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which includes a plurality of maneuverability propulsion mechanisms that enable the aerial vehicle to move in any of the six degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, pitch, yaw, and roll). The aerial vehicle may also include a lifting propulsion mechanism that operates to generate a force sufficient to maintain the aerial vehicle at an altitude.

A drone system is configured to capture an audio stream that includes voice commands from an operator, to process the audio stream for identification of the voice commands, and to perform operations based on the identified voice commands. The drone system can identify a particular voice stream in the audio stream as an operator voice, and perform the command recognition with respect to the operator voice to the exclusion of other voice streams present in the audio stream. The drone can include a directional camera that is automatically and continuously focused on the operator to capture a video stream usable in disambiguation of different voice streams captured by the drone.

Systems and methods are disclosed for transporting people using air vehicles.

An aircraft can include a stacked propeller to generate lift during assent and descent. The stacked propeller includes a first propeller and a second propeller that co-rotate about an axis of rotation. In one embodiment, the blades are coupled to a rotor mast that contains an internal cavity. In one mode of operation, the first propeller and/or the second propeller can be stored in the internal cavity in order to reduce drag during flight. The aircraft can include one or more stacked propellers, such as a port propeller and a starboard propeller, which rotate in opposite directions during one or more modes of flight.

The unified command system and/or method includes an input mechanism, a flight processor that receives input from the input mechanism and translates the input into control output, and effectors that are actuated according to the control output. The system can optionally include: one or more sensors, a vehicle navigation system which determines a vehicle state and/or flight regime based on data from the one or more sensors, and a vehicle guidance system which determines a flightpath for the aircraft.

Methods and devices for optimizing the climb of an aircraft or drone are provided. After an optimal continuous climb strategy has been determined, a lateral path is determined, in particular in terms of speeds and turn radii, based on vertical predictions computed in the previous step. Subsequently, computation results are displayed on one or more human-machine interfaces and the climb strategy is actually flown. Embodiments describe the use of altitude and speed constraints and/or settings in respect of speed and/or thrust and/or level-flight avoidance and/or gradient-variation minimization, and iteratively fitting parameters in order to make the profile of the current path coincide with the constrained profile in real time depending on the selected flight dynamics (e.g. energy sharing, constraint on climb gradient, constraint on the vertical climb rate). System (e.g. FMS) and software aspects are described.

A multicopter with angled rotors includes a fuselage and a plurality of rotors. At least some of the rotors are disposed on opposite sides of the fuselage and each is oriented at a corresponding angle to a substantially horizontal plane of the aircraft, the angle being of a magnitude such that a plane of rotation of the rotor does not intersect at least a critical portion of the fuselage.