Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein including: at least one user product with at least one passive sensor; at least one network reader configured to expose the user product to energy and measure reflections of the energy from the at least one passive sensor; and a control circuit operably coupled to the network reader. The control circuit configured to receive an initial signal reading of the at least one passive sensor from the network reader; save the initial signal reading in a user profile in a profile database; receive a reading of one or more reflections of the energy from the at least one passive sensor; and compare the reading of the one or more reflections with one or more profile readings associated with the at least one user product and the at least one passive sensor to determine a degree of wear of the user product.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein including a user product having a unique product identifier; an image capturing device configured to capture an image of the user product; a product database of reference images corresponding to states of usage of the user product that is associated with the unique product identifier; and a control circuit operably coupled to the image capturing device and the product database of reference images. The control circuit configured to receive the image of the user product from the image capturing device and the unique product identifier associated with the user product; compare the product image with the reference images of the database of references images to determine whether replacement of the user product is warranted; and notify a user that a product replacement of the user product is warranted.

Abstract: In some embodiments, systems, apparatuses and methods are provided to support the delivery of products. Some embodiments provide a retail delivery locker system comprising: multiple delivery lockers comprising: a housing enclosing an interior product cavity; a door enabling access to the product cavity; first and second docking couplers each configured to securely dock with a docking station and a docking coupler of another locker; and a communication link between the first and second docking couplers; and multiple docking stations each comprising: a locker coupler configured to secure a locker with the docking station; a station control circuit that obtains a first locker identifier from a first locker, confirms the first locker is scheduled to dock with a docking station, and authorize the locking of the docking station with the first docking coupler; and a transceiver enabling the station control circuit to communicate with a remote central control system.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitating the vehicle pick up of orders at shopping facilities. In some embodiments, there is provided a system including: an electronic interface configured to receive an order corresponding to a customer; a control circuit configured to: determine the location of the customer; determine shopping facilities near the customer's location; determine time intervals when the order will be available for pick up at each of the shopping facilities; transmit a visual representation indicating the time intervals of availability at the shopping facilities; and a shopping facility where the order is made available for pick up by the customer during one of the time intervals.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitating the vehicle pick up of orders at shopping facilities. In some embodiments, there is provided a system including: an electronic interface for receiving an order corresponding to a customer and for receiving a time period during which the customer requests to pick up the order; a control circuit configured to: determine the location of the customer; determine a plurality of shopping facilities near the customer's location; determine when the order would be available for pick up; determine the subset of shopping facilities where the order would be available within the time period requested by the customer; transmit the location to the customer; and at least one shopping facility where the order is made available for pick up by the customer during the requested time period.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitating the vehicle pick up of orders at shopping facilities. In some embodiments, there is provided a system including: an electronic interface for receiving an order corresponding to a customer and permission for access to a customer's computing device having tracking software; a control circuit configured to: access the tracking software; determine driving patterns of the customer based on movement of the computing device along driving routes within a certain time period, the driving patterns including locations and corresponding times of day of the computing device along the driving routes; determine a shopping facility within a certain proximity to at least one location; transmit an invitation to the customer to pick up the order at the determined shopping facility; receive an acceptance to the invitation; and a shopping facility where the order is made available for pick up.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitating the vehicle pick up of orders at shopping facilities. In some embodiments, there is provided a system including: an electronic interface for receiving an order corresponding to a customer and for receiving permission for access to a customer's electronic calendar; a control circuit configured to: access the customer's electronic calendar; determine a time period from the electronic calendar during which the customer is available to pick up the order; transmit an invitation to the customer to pick up the order; receive a response to the invitation in which the customer accepts a time period for pick up of the order, rejects the time periods for pick up, or proposes a new time period for pick up; and a shopping facility where the order is made available for pick up by the customer during a selected time period.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitating the vehicle pick up of orders at shopping facilities. In some embodiments, there is provided a system including: an electronic interface configured to receive or input an order corresponding to a customer; a shopping facility where the order is made available for pick-up by the customer arriving in a vehicle, the shopping facility including an order pick-up area including: an automated vehicle wash apparatus operatively coupled to a conveyor assembly for washing the vehicle in a certain time period, and a product pick-up location operatively coupled to the conveyor assembly for delivery of the order; and a central computing system operatively coupled to the conveyor assembly and configured to: determine the arrival of the customer in the vehicle; instruct assembly and fulfillment of the order; and coordinate delivery of the order with completion of the vehicle wash.

Abstract: Partiality vectors for a particular customer and vectorized characterizations of a plurality of products are employed by a control circuit to select a particular one of the plurality of products to ship to a particular customer. By one approach this selected product is shipped without the particular customer having ordered this product. By one approach the aforementioned selection is based upon a prediction that the particular customer will keep the selected product upon receipt thereof based upon those partiality vectors and vectorized characterizations notwithstanding that it may not be known whether the particular customer has ever previously made a purchasing decision regarding this particular product. By one approach a customer can return a delivered product without being required to leave their delivery address, (re)seal the product/package, and/or attach a return label thereto.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that comprise multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; and a propulsion system coupled with the motor and configured to enable the respective UAVs to move themselves; and wherein a first UAV control circuit of a first UAV of the multiple UAVs is configured to access power level data corresponding to each of the multiple UAVs, and select a second UAV of the multiple UAVs based at least in part on a power level of the second UAV relative to a threshold power level corresponding to a first task to be performed and a predicted power usage by the second UAV while utilizing a first tool system temporarily cooperated with the second UAV in performing the first task.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for field monitoring. A system for field monitoring comprises a plurality of types of sensor modules, an unmanned vehicle comprising a sensor system, and a control circuit configured to: receive onboard sensor data from the sensor system of the unmanned vehicle, detect an alert condition at a monitored area based on the onboard sensor data, select one or more types of sensor modules from the plurality of types of sensor modules to deploy at the monitored area based on the onboard sensor data, and cause the unmanned vehicle and/or one or more other unmanned vehicles to transport one or more sensor modules of the one or more types of sensor modules to the monitored area and deploy the one or more sensor modules by detaching from the one or more sensor modules at the monitored area.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide an aerial monitoring system to monitor a geographic area, comprising: a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising: a plurality of lift motors to drive a propeller; a substructural support supporting the lift motors and propellers; a UAV control circuit configured to control the operation of the lift motors; a rechargeable electrical power source that supplies electrical power to the UAV control circuit and the plurality of lift motors; a recharge control circuit; and a modifiable support system cooperated with the substructural support and supporting a set of photovoltaic cells electrically coupled with the rechargeable power source and configured to supply electrical power to the rechargeable power source, wherein the recharge control circuit is configured to control a modification of the modifiable support system to cause a physical modification of at least an orientation of the modifiable support system relative to the substructural support.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that comprise: multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; and a propulsion system; and wherein data acquired through a first set of at least one of the multiple UAVs while performing a first set of at least one task is caused to be distributed to a second set of at least two of the multiple UAVs, and cause cooperative computational processing of the data through the UAV control circuits of the second set of UAVs and cooperatively identify based on the cooperative computational processing a second set of at least one task to be performed, and identify a set of at least two tool systems to be utilized by a third set of at least two of the multiple UAVs in cooperatively performing the second set of at least one task.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for unmanned flight optimization. A system for unmanned flight comprises a set of motors configured to provide locomotion to an unmanned aerial vehicle, a set of wings coupled to a body of the unmanned aerial vehicle via an actuator and configured to move relative to the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle, a sensor system on the unmanned aerial vehicle, and a control circuit. The control circuit being configured to: retrieve a task profile for a task assigned to the unmanned aerial vehicle, cause the set of motors to lift the unmanned aerial vehicle, detect condition parameters based on the sensor system, determine a position for the set of wings based on the task profile and the condition parameters, and cause the actuator to move the set of wings to the wing position while the unmanned aerial vehicle is in flight.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that include a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; propulsion system; and a universal coupler configured to interchangeably couple with and decouple from one of multiple different tool systems each having different functions to be put into use while carried by a UAV, wherein a coupling system of the universal coupler is configured to secure a tool system with the UAV and enable a communication connection between a communication bus and the tool system, and wherein the multiple different tool systems comprise at least a package securing tool system configured to retain and enable transport of a package while being delivered, and a sensor tool system configured to sense a condition and communicate sensor data of the sensed condition to the UAV control circuit over the communication bus.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that comprise multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; and a propulsion system coupled with the motor and configured to enable the respective UAVs to move themselves; and wherein a first UAV control circuit of a first UAV of the multiple UAVs is configured to identify a second UAV carrying a first tool system configured to perform a first function, cause a notification to be communicated to the second UAV directing the second UAV to transfer the first tool system to the first UAV, and direct a first propulsion system of the first UAV to couple with the first tool system being transferred from the second UAV.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that include a first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; and a propulsion system coupled with the motor and configured to enable the first UAV to move itself; and wherein the UAV control circuit when implementing code stored in memory is configured to identify, based at least in part on a first task performed using a first tool system temporarily coupled with the first UAV, a second task to be performed by the first UAV and to identify a different second tool system to be used to perform the second task.

Abstract: In some embodiments, unmanned aerial task systems are provided that comprise: multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each comprising: a UAV control circuit; a motor; and a propulsion system coupled with the motor and configured to enable UAV to move itself; and wherein a first UAV control circuit of a first UAV of the multiple UAVs, when implementing code stored in memory, is configured to identify, based at least in part on a first task performed using a first tool system temporarily coupled with the first UAV, a set of at least one task to be cooperatively performed by the first UAV and at least a second UAV of the multiple UAVs.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods are provided herein for unmanned flight optimization. A system for unmanned flight optimization comprises a flight system configured to provide locomotion to an unmanned aerial vehicle, a sensor system on the unmanned aerial vehicle, and a control circuit coupled to the flight system and the sensor system. The control circuit being configured to: retrieve a task profile for a task assigned to the unmanned aerial vehicle, detect condition parameters of the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the sensor system, determine whether to station the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the task profile and the condition parameters, and deactivate the flight system of the unmanned aerial vehicle while the unmanned aerial vehicle performs the task.

Abstract: In some embodiments, methods and systems of identifying at least one pest based on crop damage detection in a crop-containing area include an unmanned vehicle including at least one sensor configured to detect at least one type of pest damage on at least one crop in the crop-containing area and to capture pest damage data. An electronic database includes pest damage identity data associated with one or more crop-damaging pests, and a computing device communicates with the unmanned vehicle and the electronic database via a network. The unmanned vehicle transmits the captured pest damage data via the network to the computing device and, in response to receipt of the captured pest damage data from the unmanned vehicle, the computing device accesses the pest damage identity data on the electronic database to determine an identity of one or more pests responsible for the detected type of pest crop damage.