Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Blue Origin, LLC

Carlos Guillermo Parodi

Scott Michael Wilcox

Benjamin Martin Schweitzer

Ben Thompson Ludington

A representative phase-shift based method for using a transformer system to detect movement of an object, and associated systems and methods are disclosed. A representative transformer system detects movement of an object and includes an excitation coil configured to receive an excitation coil input signal that results from an input sinusoidal signal. The transformer further includes first and second sensing coils, and a core configured to be operatively coupled to the object. The core moves relative to the first and second sensing coils when the object moves. First and second impedance loads are connected to the first and second sensing coils, respectively. The two impedance loads have different phase-shifting characteristics. A phase-shift sensing circuit determines a phase-shift between the excitation coil input signal and the input sinusoidal signal that is correlated with a position of the core relative to the first and second sensing coils.

Voltage-current phase-based method for linear and rotary transformer systems, and associated systems and methods

Components of a device may transmit signals between one another using piezo electric transducers (PETs). In a basic system, a first PET may be coupled to and/or in contact with a first location on a member. A second PET may be coupled to and/or in contact with a second location on the member and separated from the first PET by a distance. The first PET may receive a signal (e.g., an electrical voltage) and convert the signal to a mechanical force/stress causing vibration of the member. The vibration may propagate through the member to other locations about the member. The second PET receive the vibration and may convert the vibration back to the signal, such as by converting mechanical force/stress to the electrical voltage (i.e., the signal). A similar process may be performed in reverse to enable the first and second PET to provide two-way communication.

Mechanical vibration based inter-module communication in vehicle

Techniques for range finding for an unmanned aerial system are described. As one example, an unmanned aerial system includes at least one motor to provide propulsion, a piezoelectric acoustic actuator having a resonant frequency, a piezoelectric acoustic sensor having the resonant frequency, and a controller to modulate a fixed amplitude and fixed frequency, at the resonant frequency, carrier wave according to a pseudo-random sequence of bits to produce a modulated wave sequence having a respective section of the carrier wave for each bit of the bits of the pseudo-random sequence having a first value, and a respective section of the carrier wave for each bit of the bits of the pseudo-random sequence having a second value, transmit the modulated wave sequence from the piezoelectric acoustic actuator, receive a reflected wave sequence including a reflection of the modulated wave sequence with the piezoelectric acoustic sensor, determine a delay time between the transmit and the receive of the modulated wave sequence based on the reflected wave sequence received by the piezoelectric acoustic sensor and the modulated wave sequence transmitted by the piezoelectric acoustic actuator, and modify power provided to the at least one motor based on the delay time.

Unmanned aerial systems with range finding

Aerial vehicles including one-dimensional arrays of transmitters and receivers aligned perpendicular to one another are configured for safe operation. The transmitters may be configured to transmit signals at designated times in order to generate synthetic waves having common fronts from selected angles. The receivers are configured to capture data regarding reflections of the synthetic waves from objects, and to interpret the data to determine bearings or angles to such objects. Locations of the objects may be determined based on angles at which the synthetic waves are transmitted and bearings or angles to the objects that reflected the synthetic waves, as well as times at which reflections of the synthetic waves are received. Maps or other representations of objects on a scene may be generated based on such locations.

Using perpendicular one-dimensional arrays for safe operation of aerial vehicles

Ranging systems operate based on the transmission and receipt of pseudorandom sequences. Pseudorandom sequences may be generated and assigned to specific transmitters, which may operate simultaneously to transmit signals including the pseudorandom sequences. A receiver may be programmed to recognize the specific pseudorandom sequences within data captured by the receiver, and to associate the pseudorandom sequences with the transmitters that transmitted them. Upon identifying the pseudorandom sequences, the receiver or one or more associated components may calculate times of flight of signals transmitted by the respective transmitters. Such times of flight may be used to calculate distances to one or more objects from which the signals were reflected.

Using pseudorandom signals transmitted from distributed sources in ranging operations

A system to determine position and/or heading may include a receiver including at least two antennas configured to be coupled to the vehicle and receive electromagnetic signals including at least one of microwaves or radio waves. The system may also include a navigation module configured to determine first and second locations associated with respective first and second transmitters that send respective first and second signals. The navigation module may also be configured to determine, based at least in part on the first signals, a first relative orientation of the receiver relative to the first transmitter, and determine, based at least in part on the second signals, a second relative orientation of the receiver relative to the second transmitter. The navigation module may also be configured to determine a position and/or heading of the vehicle based at least in part on the first and second relative orientations of the receiver.

Navigating using electromagnetic signals

Systems for landing and facilitating power flow or data transfer between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a charging mat using a boom are described. The system includes a mat with a conductive mesh on the top and a conductive surface on the other bottom of the mat. The conductive mesh and bottom conductive surface are separated (electrically isolated) by an isolation core. The outer portion of the boom contacts part of the conductive mesh of the mat to create an electrical pathway. An inner portion of the boom penetrates through the top layer conductive mesh, through the isolating core, and contacts the bottom conductive surface of the mat to create another electrical pathway.

Charging mat for unmanned aircraft

A system may include a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and inertial measurement units configured to generate signals representative of relative motion of the GPS receiver. The system may also include a navigation processor configured to receive a first position determination from the GPS receiver, and determine relative motion of the GPS receiver with respect to the first position determination based at least in part on signals received from the inertial measurement units. The navigation processor may also receive second respective distances between the GPS receiver and respective satellites based on signals received from the respective satellites, and determine second projected distances between the GPS receiver and the respective satellites based on the relative motion determination. The navigation processor may also select satellites from among the respective satellites for determining a second position of the GPS receiver based on a comparison of second respective distances and the second projected distances.

Selection of satellites for global positioning system

Changes in energy of an aerial vehicle that are unrelated to any operational changes in the aerial vehicle may be associated with energy sources or sinks naturally present at a location. Air flows generated due to contrasts in surface temperatures or terrain features at locations may cause energy levels of aerial vehicles to rise or fall. Locations of changes in energy may be recorded and used to generate a map or other representation of energy within an area. The map or other representation may be used in selecting optimal routes for aerial vehicles within the area. Additionally, a machine learning system may be trained using maps or representations of energy within areas and images of such areas. An image of an area may be provided to a trained machine learning system as an input, and a representation of energy within the area may be generated based on an output.

Efficient flight operations based on naturally present energy sources or sinks

Where a body includes one or more inertial motion sensors, such as gyroscopes or accelerometers, the body's response to inertial motion may be simulated by actually imparting inertial motion to the sensors, and interpreting signals received from such sensors in response to the inertial motion. Gyroscopes or accelerometers of an aerial vehicle may be physically removed therefrom and remain in communication with an inertial navigation system, and rotated by one or more motors or motorized components to simulate angular velocities on the gyroscopes or accelerations on the accelerometers. Signals received by the inertial navigation system from the gyroscopes or the accelerometers may be evaluated to confirm the operability of the gyroscopes and accelerometers, the responsiveness of the inertial navigation system to sensed inertial motion or events associated with such inertial motion, or any other aspect of the aerial vehicle.

Simulating inertial motion using true inertial motion

A measurement system may measure a fractional time delay of transmission of a signal across a medium, such as a cable. The system may use a first clock to assist in creating and injecting an injected sequence (signal) into the medium. A second, slower clock may be used for sampling the sequence after transmission of the sequence through the medium. This causes a time Vernier scale effect that results in a sampled sequence that has a one-step skip for each instances of the sequence, where the sequence has N elements in the sequence. The location of the skip within the sequence will depend on the magnitude of the delay measured as a fraction of a clock period with a resolution of N. To measure this delay, a modified version of a pseudo-random sequence generator, capable of skipping one step, is used to determine the output.

Precise transmission medium delay measurement

An image-aided GPS navigation deployed on a vehicle may include a GPS receiver configured to estimate the position of the vehicle based on signals received from one or more GPS satellites. The navigation system may also include an imager configured to capture image frames associated with an environment through which the vehicle travels and estimate the relative motion of the vehicle through the environment based at least in part on the image frames. The navigation system may also include a navigation processor configured to receive the position estimation from the GPS and the relative motion estimation, and determine an updated position estimation based at least in part on the relative motion estimation.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Carlos Guillermo Parodi