Autonomous Navigation of Drones

Optimizing energy usage and engine life of hybrid electric aircraft engines by intelligently managing battery power. The technique involves analyzing flight data and engine health to determine if using battery power during flight instead of ground taxiing will increase engine life or prevent exceeding limits. If so, e-taxiing is skipped and battery power is applied to assist the engine spools during flight. This extends time on wing and avoids exceeding limits, but can also affect component durability. The decision balances energy savings vs. component life tradeoffs.

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Turbomachine rotor design with improved blade retention to prevent blade loss during flight. The rotor has a movable ring with teeth that engage hooks on the blade roots. A protective element, like a coating or fixed part, is provided on the inner faces of the teeth. This prevents contact wear and fretting between the hooks and teeth, which can deform and wear the blades. The protective element reduces blade damage from impacts and vibrations during flight.

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Beaded composite structural web for aircraft, particularly rotorcraft, that provides weight savings and impact resistance compared to conventional aluminum webs. The beaded composite web is a single layer composite panel with integrated stiffening beads on the exterior surface. The beads prevent buckling and allow flexing during impacts to absorb energy and reduce damage compared to rigid webs. The beaded composite web is lighter than equivalent aluminum webs with internal stiffeners. It can be used for components like rotorcraft torque boxes to improve impact resistance and weight.

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Automated system that optimizes robot movement instructions to reduce wear and prolong robot lifespan. The system continuously monitors motor current during robot operation and compares it to secondary currents. By analyzing the current differences, it identifies inefficiencies in the robot's command instructions that cause excessive torque and acceleration. The system then generates modified instructions to address those inefficiencies, reducing motor load and wear.

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Helicoidal composite materials with improved impact resistance and damage tolerance. The materials have a unique layered structure that spirals around the part, rather than being flat. This helical architecture allows for more design freedom and tailoring of the composite properties. The helical layup can be made using thin ply unidirectional (TPUD) fabric, thin ply woven fabric (TPW), or quasi-unidirectional woven fabric (QUDW). The helical layup provides better impact resistance compared to traditional flat layups because it allows for more controlled fiber orientation and delamination prevention.

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Hybrid power management system for reducing battery stress and improving battery life in electrified transport vehicles. It uses a combination of a battery, super capacitor bank, bidirectional DC/DC converter, and a hybrid controller. The controller identifies pulsed power needs and transfers power between the battery, super capacitor, and load to absorb/supply peaks. It also profiles charging pulses to reduce battery degradation. The system allows efficient power transfer to/from external devices like drones wirelessly.

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Control system for electric aircraft that prevents battery overcharge and overdischarge during flight. The system monitors battery state and adjusts motor power consumption based on battery charge level. When motors are running solely on battery power or charging the battery, motor control is optimized to prevent overdischarge and overcharge. This prevents issues like battery damage and degradation from excessive charge/discharge cycling.

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Aerial network architecture using hybrid communication links like FSO and RF that allows simultaneous transmission and failover protection. The network nodes like drones have overlay networks with FSO transmitters/receivers and RF transmitters/receivers. A processor modulates data for both links and balances traffic preemptively based on mission planning and link conditions. This reduces congestion and packet loss during link failures. The processor also uses packet erasure coding to recover from spurious FSO link loss without needing error prediction. The hybrid links and techniques provide resilient and efficient networking for aerial platforms.

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3D printing composite parts with customized fiber reinforcement for lightweight structures like aerospace components. The method involves using a 3D printer to create a temporary support structure with soluble material, then filling the internal cavities with resin and fiber reinforcement. The soluble support is dissolved to leave behind the composite part with optimized fiber orientation for load distribution. This allows customized fiber reinforcement patterns for load-bearing structures while leveraging the benefits of 3D printing for complex shapes.

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Aerodynamic bearing for brushless motors that improves performance, efficiency, reliability, and noise compared to traditional rolling bearings. The aerodynamic bearing has a deformable inner surface that can expand radially to accommodate shaft motion. This allows the bearing to support the shaft without tight tolerance fits or rollers, reducing friction and heat. The deformable inner surface is made of materials like elastomer or plastic. This allows the bearing to conform to the shaft and reduce drag as it spins. The deformable inner surface can be continuously annular or integrated with the bearing support. The bearing can be used in brushless motor rotor assemblies to replace rolling bearings, providing benefits like quieter operation, longer life, and reduced size/weight.

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An electric motor for aircraft with improved sealing and reduced weight compared to conventional motors. The motor has a unique sealing design that prevents debris ingress while minimizing friction losses. The rotor housing has a convoluted groove at one end. A sealing ring with protrusions fits into the groove. This labyrinthine seal prevents debris from reaching the interior of the rotor while allowing rotation without contact. The groove shape reduces mass compared to a solid housing. The motor also uses lightweight materials like titanium for the housing and an aluminum honeycomb ring to facilitate heat transfer.

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Aircraft pylon attachment system for motors that provides improved rigidity and strength while allowing easy motor replacement. The pylon has interfaces with immobilized pins connecting the motor shackles. Reinforcing brackets with immobilized pins attach to the pylon and motor. This prevents movement between the pylon, motor, and shackles. The motor also has immobilized pins in the shackles and through holes. This prevents translation of the motor shackles in the pylon interfaces. The pins and brackets secure the motor and pylon connections without sliding or wobbling during flight. The immobilized pins restrict motion of the pins between the motor and pylon.

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An inertial measurement module, shock absorption system, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with improved accuracy and stability of flight control. The module has a thermally conductive member between the inertial measurement unit and a thermal resistor. This allows heat from the resistor to transfer to the measurement unit without squeezing them together. A counterweight assembly prevents contact between the thermally conductive member and the module housing. This prevents the module from squeezing and reduces stress changes on the measurement unit due to temperature.

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Redundant electric VTOL aircraft that can maintain safe flight and landing even if one motor fails. The aircraft has multiple vertical takeoff/landing motors and horizontal flight motors. If a vertical motor fails during takeoff or landing, the remaining vertical motors can still provide lift. If a horizontal motor fails during cruise, the other horizontal motors can continue propulsion. The aircraft has separate high-capacity power sources for horizontal flight and high-power backup sources for vertical takeoff/landing. This allows redundancy and continued safe flight without having to double all systems.

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A fluid propulsion system for vehicles like boats, submarines, and drones that offers greater efficiency, thrust, and safety compared to traditional propellers. The system uses a monolithic, cantilevered lobe that extends radially from a central hub. The lobe has a receding surface that recedes away from the fluid as the device rotates. This shape creates a low-pressure region over the lobe as it moves, inducing a bound edge vortex that generates thrust in the opposite direction of rotation. The vortex reduces pressure further over the receding surface due to its inclination. This provides a net thrust force that exceeds what can be achieved with conventional propellers. The monolithic lobe design makes the propulsor more robust and damage-resistant compared to fragile propeller blades.

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Mount for tracking devices that securely attaches the device to an object while protecting it from dirt, debris, water, impacts, and allowing airflow. The mount has a housing with a gap between the tracking device and ceiling surface when installed. This prevents contact between the device and housing that could damage it. The fixed position inside the housing prevents accidental removal. The housing protects the device from environmental hazards.

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Preventing contact between a flying object's rotor shaft and a moving slider that adjusts blade pitch when multiple actuators are used. The flying object controller moves the slider along the rotor shaft using multiple actuators. It judges if the slider is close to contacting the shaft. If so, it performs corrective control to prevent contact between the slider and shaft. This prevents issues like the slider getting caught on the shaft during blade pitch adjustment.

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Adding waterproof electronics to outdoor work machines like mowers and UAVs without compromising waterproofing. The solution involves a detachable waterproof enclosure that houses the electronics. The enclosure attaches to the machine with a stand that supports the bottom of the enclosure. The wiring passes through a hole in the bottom and connects to the machine. This reduces exposed wiring length. The bottom also has ribs to reinforce it around the hole. A dust cover blocks the hole when detached. The enclosure can be rotated on the stand to avoid obstruction when refueling. This allows retrofitting the enclosure to existing machines without modifying the main body.

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Collaborative control method for unmanned cluster systems that improves resilience against network attacks. The method takes into account parameter uncertainty and network attack impacts. It involves constructing a dynamic model, uncertainty boundary function, and adaptive robust controllers for each unmanned system. The controllers adaptively adjust parameters to compensate for uncertainty and attack effects. This allows the cluster to quickly and stably meet performance requirements in the face of parameter uncertainty and network attacks.

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An advanced electric propulsion system for aircraft and vehicles that enables high power density, improved reliability, and reduced weight and cost compared to existing electric propulsion systems. The system uses a manifolded mini-channel heat sink (MMHS) integrated into the motor housing, pseudo-edge wound stator windings with high temperature insulation, and a motor drive sharing the housing and cooling system. This provides direct drive to the propulsion device without a torque amplifier. The MMHS with air inlets, circumferentially grooved micro-channels, and outlets provides efficient cooling to the stator windings. The PEW windings have low thermal resistance to the housing. The high temp insulation allows operating temperatures for the windings. The integrated cooling and motor design improves power density, reliability, and weight vs separate motor/cooler.

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