Abstract: Various methods and devices for positioning autonomous agents including verifying a reported agent location using physical attributes of the received signal; improving agent formation for iterative localization; selecting agents for distributed task sharing; intelligent beacon-placement for group localization; relative heading and orientation determination utilizing time of flight; and secure Instrument Landing System (ILS) implementation for unmanned agents.

Abstract: Methods and systems are described for increasing the safety of unmanned vehicles. Failure rates of components can be combined and adjusted if necessary given sensor data or statistical or historical data that impacts failure rates. The failure rates of components can be combined to give an overall failure or success rate for a vehicle and can be compared to an accepted failure or success rate in connection with a hazard. Hazards with heightened safety requirements can be avoided by a contingency maneuver if the unmanned vehicle's failure or success rate is not acceptable.

Abstract: Examples described herein relate to a system including a BC network associated with a plurality of entities in a defined geographic scope. A first entity of the plurality of entities includes a connected vehicle that generates vehicular data. The BC network is governed by a smart contract. The smart contract includes a data sharing policy defined by a user of the connected vehicle, wherein the data sharing policy allows the user of the connected vehicle to selectively share the vehicular data with one or more other entities of the plurality of entities.

Abstract: A system and method of processing traffic information using blockchain technology is disclosed. The method includes collecting traffic information by a first vehicle, updating a first block using the collected traffic information by the first vehicle, sharing a verification target block corresponding to the updated first block in a network by the first vehicle, verifying the shared verification target block by at least one second vehicle present in the network, and sharing a second block including the updated traffic information in the network when the verifying is successful by the at least one second vehicle.

Abstract: A communication device includes a communicator that is mounted in a mobile body and functions as a wireless access point, a power supplier configured to supply electric power at least to a driver that causes the mobile body to travel, a detector configured to detect the electric energy of the power supplier, and a controller configured to control at least one of communication strength and communication quality of the communicator based on the electric energy detected by the detector.

Abstract: A drone backpack includes a housing with a harness that attaches to a main body of a drone without modification of the drone. A boom couples with the harness to position a display module in a field of view of a forward-facing camera of the drone. A compute component is located within the housing and includes at least one processor and memory storing machine-readable instructions that are executable by the processor to output information on a screen of the display module. The information is captured by the forward-facing camera of the drone and included in a live video feed transmitted from the drone. The backpack may also include an effector, controllable via the compute component sensing a light status of the drone, and one or more sensors. The backpack augments the drone to enable one or more of a combat game, aerial labelling, low-cost one-time use, and STE(A)M.

Abstract: To provide a vehicle drive device capable of effectively driving a vehicle by using in-wheel motors without falling into the vicious cycle between enhancement of driving via the motors and an increase in vehicle weight. The present invention is a vehicle drive device that uses in-wheel motors to drive a vehicle and includes in-wheel motors (20) that are provided in wheels (2b) of a vehicle (1) and drive the wheels, a body side motor (16) that is provided in a body of the vehicle and drives the wheels of the vehicle, and a battery (18) and a capacitor (22) that supply electric power for driving the in-wheel motors and/or the body side motor, in which a voltage of the battery is applied to the body side motor and a voltage of the battery and the capacitor connected in series is applied to the in-wheel motors.

Abstract: A method includes determining an operational condition associated with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The method includes, responsive to determining the operational condition, causing the UAV to perform a pre-flight check. The pre-flight check includes hovering the UAV above a takeoff location. The pre-flight check includes, while hovering the UAV, moving one or more controllable components of the UAV in accordance with a predetermined sequence of movements. The pre-flight check includes obtaining, by one or more sensors of the UAV, sensor data indicative of a flight response of the UAV to moving the one or more controllable components while hovering the UAV. The pre-flight check includes comparing the sensor data to expected sensor data associated with an expected flight response to the predetermined sequence of movements while hovering the UAV. The pre-flight check includes, based on comparing the sensor data to the expected sensor data, evaluating performance of the UAV.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling a space of a vehicle includes: a communication device to receive reservation information; and a controller to determine a manner of partitioning an inner space of the vehicle based on the reservation information and control an operation of one or more partition to correspond to the manner of partitioning the inner space, thereby allowing users moving similar routes to feel comfortable.

Abstract: This disclosure relates generally to fleet route optimization. Conventional methods for fleet route optimization have limited capability in managing and controlling transport of material from geographically spread out suppliers to the door-step of the customer in an efficient manner in real-time. The disclosed method includes optimization at two levels. At the first level and initial optimized route is obtained for the fleet by clustering the target locations into multiple clusters and obtaining heuristic on each cluster by using a weightage matrix. The initial set of optimized routes are examined in real time, and based on said examination, the routes are optimized (second level optimization) to provide a final set of optimized routes. The disclosed method and system thus facilitate in creating routes dynamically, monitor it through the application, and dynamically change and/or alter the routes based on new order and/or execution challenges.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for recharging a battery of a vehicle. In one example, a method includes activating a recuperative brake during a tow operation of a vehicle. The vehicle is an electric vehicle replenishing a state of charge of a battery thereof without transferring electrical energy from a towing vehicle to the vehicle.

Abstract: An example operation includes one or more of powering, by a transport, one or more critical components, running, by the transport, a first set of applications on the one or more critical components, responsive to a dependency of one or more noncritical components on the one or more critical components, powering, by the transport, the one or more noncritical components, and running, by the transport, a second set of applications on the one or more noncritical components.

Abstract: An on-vehicle aircraft control system includes a winding device provided on a landing platform, a connecting member connecting the winding device and an aircraft and wound up or drawn out by the winding device, and a controller controlling the winding device and the aircraft. Upon receipt of a landing request to land the aircraft on the landing platform, the controller winds up the connecting member by the winding device and controls an attitude of the aircraft so as to land the aircraft with a photographing unit provided on the aircraft facing in a specified photographing direction determined in advance.

Abstract: A drone and a positioning method thereof, a drone communication system and an operation method thereof are provided. The positioning method of the drone is applicable for a drone to cruise in a flight field. The positioning method includes the following steps: flying according to a destination coordinate in the flight field; sensing a plurality of base stations via a first wireless communication module to obtain a plurality of first radio wave signals of the plurality of base stations; positioning according to the plurality of first radio wave signals to determine a current coordinate of the drone; and flying toward the destination coordinate in the flight field according to the current coordinate. In this way, the drone is capable of reliably positioning to effectively perform automatic flight missions.

Abstract: An emergency response drone having a multidirectional propulsion system and data capturing equipment and operatively associated computer system for providing information and situational awareness for emergency areas and related targets.

Abstract: Embodiments provide an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising a receiver and a position determiner. The receiver is configured to receive two periodic wideband signals transmitted from two spaced apart base stations of a navigation system for unmanned aerial vehicles, wherein the two periodic wideband signals are time-synchronized. The position determiner is configured to determine a position of the unmanned aerial vehicle relative to the two base stations based on a difference between reception times of the two periodic wideband signals and based on reception intensities of the two periodic wideband signals.

Abstract: An agricultural machine includes a chassis, a center frame mounted for vertical movement, and laterally extendable right and left foldable booms. A sprayer boom controller includes positioning data. A first identification system transmits a predefined frequency radio signal at a first point in time. A second identification system on the right boom and a third identification system on the left boom receive the radio signal. An identification system calculates actual distances between the first and second identification systems and the first and third identification systems based on the wavelength of the radio signal and the differences of the first and second points in time and the first and third points in time. Information regarding the actual distances is transmitted to the sprayer boom controller which compares the calculated distances with the predetermined positioning data and stops folding and/or unfolding in response to determining they exceed or underrun a tolerance value.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for imposing physical actions, by endpoints, based on activities by users. One such method includes imposing a physical actions via a drone, by an endpoint associated with the drone, based on an activity undertaken by a user. The method includes receiving, by a computing device, an activity message including data indicative of an activity of a user and retrieving at least on rule from a data structure based on the data indicative of the activity where the at least one rule includes a physical action for said activity of the user. The method then includes identifying, by the computing device, the physical action from the at least one rule and transmitting, by the computing device, an order for the physical action to an endpoint, whereby the endpoint commands a drone to perform the physical action.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a data collection method, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a storage medium. The method is used for a vision chip of the UAV, the vision chip including a main operating system and a real-time operating system, and the method includes: generating, by the real-time operating system, a trigger signal; collecting, by the real-time operating system based on the trigger signal, flight control data of the UAV and controlling an image sensor to collect an image sequence; synchronizing, by the real-time operating system, a time of the main operating system with a time of the real-time operating system; and performing, by the main operating system, visual processing on the flight control data and the image sequence, to ensure that the flight control data and the image sequence are collected synchronously. By using the method, accuracy of data collected during controlling of the UAV can be improved.

Abstract: A method and system of measuring a radio wave distribution of a radio signal source and estimating corresponding radio characteristics by using a flying vehicle is provided. The method includes the following steps. At a number of flight positions during a measurement process, a number of first radio signals transmitted by the radio signal source are measured by the flying vehicle. A position of the radio signal source is estimated according to the first radio signals and a radio channel model. A number of first radio characteristics of the first radio signal are obtained, and a radio wave distribution of the radio signal source is estimated according to the first radio characteristics of the first radio signals and a number of second radio characteristics of a number of second radio signals in the radio wave distribution are estimated according to the first radio characteristics of the first radio signals.