Abstract: A micro unmanned aerial vehicle or drone (“UAV”) 10 is remotely controlled through an HMI, although this remote control is supplemented by and selectively suppressed by an on-board controller. The controller operates to control the generation of a sonar bubble that generally encapsulates the UAV. The sonar bubble, which may be ultrasonic in nature, is produced by a multiplicity of sonar lobes generated by specific sonar emitters associated with each axis of movement for the UAV. The emitters produce individual and beamformed sonar lobes that partially overlap to provide stereo or bioptic data in the form of individual echo responses detected by axis-specific sonar detectors. In this way, the on-board controller is able to interpret and then generate 3-D spatial imaging of the physical environment in which the UAV is currently moving or positioned.

Abstract: A heterarchical device control system is provided, comprising a plurality of computer-implemented cells. At least one cell is a control cell having software arranged to communicate instructions to the device being controlled in a language native to the device so as to perform a predetermined task. Also, at least one cell is a sensor cell configured to generate sensor data for input to the control cell to facilitate performance of the predetermined task. The sensor data might be environmentally-related data e.g. position of the device, speed of travel, angle of elevation etc. Messages sent between the cells are formed in accordance with a common format, which might be a high-level programming language, a low level programming language or a protocol. This arrangement provides a fault-tolerant, scalable and autonomous control system.