Emergency Drone Landing Systems

Optimizing communication in swarms of drones to enable efficient and reliable control of large numbers of drones. The optimization involves clustering the drones into groups with a master drone that communicates with a central server, and slave drones that relay messages from the master. This reduces the number of required communication channels compared to each drone directly connecting. Clustering also allows faster area coverage, obstacle avoidance, and resource sharing. If a master fails, another slave can be promoted. This enables robust swarm operation by minimizing communication breakdowns.

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Enabling high-priority message broadcasts to autonomous devices like drones and self-driving cars in wireless networks like 5G. The broadcasts contain commands for the autonomous devices to execute in response to emergency alerts. The devices receive a notification of an upcoming high-priority message, then the actual message with commands. This allows autonomous devices to respond to emergencies even if no human is present. The messages can also request responses from devices.

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Detecting and responding to flight-restricted regions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to permit automated flight control in response to detected proximity to restricted areas. The method involves calculating distances between the UAV and flight-restricted regions using location data. If the distance falls within certain thresholds, flight response measures like landing or preventing takeoff are initiated. This provides automated response to restricted areas with graded actions based on proximity. It also uses location systems to accurately detect restricted areas.

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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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Autonomous transition system for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that allows smooth and safe transition between vertical and horizontal flight. The system has a flight controller that takes over control after takeoff to transition the aircraft from vertical to horizontal flight. It uses a preplanned trajectory to generate torque in the vertical lift component and adjust the attitude. Then it engages the horizontal thrust component and modulates the lift component. The pilot can override the autonomous mode at any time.

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Automatically selecting alternate destinations for robots in response to contingency events during travel, to improve robot autonomy and reliability. The method involves detecting a contingency event like a failure or obstacle, determining the robot's current position, accessing alternate destinations associated with the route, selecting the best alternate based on travel time, and outputting the new destination for navigation. This allows the robot to safely continue the mission instead of being stranded.

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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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Obstacle avoidance for unmanned vehicles using monocular cameras and deep learning. The technique involves selecting a sub-image from the main camera feed for obstacle detection based on field of view and image size. This sub-image is processed with a low accuracy depth estimation model to compute an average depth. If the average depth is below a threshold, an obstacle is detected and avoidance maneuvers are initiated. This allows precise obstacle avoidance using monocular cameras instead of expensive sensors like LiDAR.

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Intercepting and controlling drones without damaging them by redirecting them to land using spoofing signals. The method involves detecting unauthorized drones near restricted areas, deploying police drones to intercept them, and transmitting signals to program new flight paths to land. The redirecting signals include spoofing GPS signals to simulate satellite constellations and jamming signals to disable the target drone's controls. The police drones position themselves close to the targets and then transmit the redirect signals to safely guide the intruders to designated landing areas.

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Intelligent method for protecting the battery of an electric unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in real-time by calculating the needed electricity for safety actions based on the current position. If the UAV's remaining battery charge is less than the calculated safety amount, it triggers actions like landing or returning. This protects against low battery accidents. The safety amount is dynamically calculated based on the UAV's position to optimize protection versus flight range. It improves UAV battery utilization compared to fixed low voltage alarms.

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Landing facility for drones that enables safe landings even in strong winds. The facility has a designated landing area with a windbreak part surrounding it. The windbreak part is tall enough to shield the landing area from winds but not so tall that it generates vortexes behind it. This prevents instability during takeoff and landing. A second area beyond the windbreak is where the drone descends to a certain altitude before landing. This allows the drone to transition from windy conditions to calm air near the landing zone.

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Safe landing assistance system for aerial vehicles like drones that provides intuitive displays and alerts to help pilots land accurately in constrained urban environments. The system shows the vehicle's proximity to the landing zone center and time/altitude to touchdown. If the vehicle deviates or runs out of time, it alerts to abort. This allows pilots to adjust orientation and descend until an abort point. After that, it's too late to land safely, so the system computes flight controls to modify the landing.

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Failover handling in autonomous vehicles to allow them to continue operating when primary planning systems fail. The method involves having a fallback path planner that calculates paths independently of the primary planner. A path multiplexer selects between primary and fallback paths based on normal vs degraded operating conditions. If the primary planner enters a degraded state, the fallback path is used instead. This allows the vehicle to continue moving without relying on remote assistance when primary planning fails.

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Amphibious unmanned aerial system (UAS) that can operate in water environments and endure extended contact with water. The UAS has features like sealed electronics, water-resistant components, and buoyancy aids to enable amphibious operation. The UAS also has a specialized recovery system that captures the UAS mid-air before it touches the ground or water to prevent damage to components not designed for hard landings.

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A rescue parachute deployment system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that allows reliable and expedient parachute deployment in emergency situations without damaging the UAV. The system includes a canopy assembly with a bundled canopy and suspension lines, an ejector assembly to launch the canopy through the UAV rotor plane, and a rotor guard to protect the canopy from rotor strikes. An onboard controller determines when to deploy the parachute and triggers the ejector. The guard deploys first, then the canopy. The guard absorbs rotor impacts while the canopy inflates quickly. The compact bundle, interlocking shells, and guide rods protect the canopy during launch.

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Rocket landing control system that enables continuous horizontal motion during descent by actively steering fins and gimbals instead of relying on thrust imbalance. The system uses actuators to adjust the steering angles of fins on the upper body and a gimbal on the lower body. This allows controlling horizontal motion during landing when thrust and lift balance. Sensors measure body motion and the control unit adjusts fin and gimbal angles to steer horizontally. This avoids the inactive period where thrust and lift balance prevent attitude changes.

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Touch-down detection technique for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that allows them to accurately land on various surfaces without needing tactile force sensors. The technique combines sensor data and a dynamics model to estimate external forces and torques acting on the UAV during landing. This enables the UAV to determine if it's sufficiently supported by a surface, in free fall, etc. The UAV can then respond appropriately for safe landing.

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Autonomous vehicle route planning that improves safety when navigating through occluded areas by predicting if objects will emerge from occlusion into visible regions. The technique involves feeding sensor data representing both the occluded and visible regions into a machine learning model to get probabilities of occluded objects moving into the visible area. The vehicle then adjusts its trajectory or speed based on these probabilities to account for potential occluded object emergence.

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Path setting method for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that allows it to continue flying without interrupting GPS signal even when it loses line of sight with satellites. The method involves calculating the number of visible GPS satellites based on terrain elevation data, comparing it to a minimum required number for flight, and adjusting the UAV's vertical and horizontal positions if necessary to maintain enough satellite visibility. This prevents GPS signal loss and allows safe flight even over obstructed areas.

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Moving device that allows drones to easily take off and land, especially in confined spaces. The device has a main body that travels and a detachable landing pad with an adjustable leveling table. When a drone lands on the pad, sensors detect the tilt and the table adjusts to level the drone. This prevents tilting issues when the drone tries to take off or land on an uneven surface. The leveling table allows stable charging of the drone's power source and fluid filling of onboard tanks. It also enables compact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with internal components like power receivers and fluid devices since they don't need external connections on landing.

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