Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Christopher McFarland

Michael Szmuk

Raymond Kraft

Marco Antonio De Barros Ceze

Simone M Airoldi

David Moro-Ludena

Raghu Venkataraman

Daniel Robert Hentzen

Umut Zalluhoglu

Kyle W Reeve

Described are systems and methods for active weathervaning of a hybrid flight aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Active weathervaning of the hybrid flight aerial vehicle during can be provided during vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL)/hover flight without the assistance of any low-speed wind sensors and during transitions between VTOL/hover flight and fixed-wing, wing-borne, horizontal flight. Additionally, active weathervaning can be provided during propulsion mechanism failure conditions where the aerial vehicle may be experiencing failure conditions associated with one or more propulsion mechanisms.

Weathervaning for hybrid flight aircraft

Systems and methods to improve controllability of an aerial vehicle responsive to degraded operational conditions are described. For example, one or more propeller blades of an aerial vehicle may be modifiable between two or more configurations. The configurations may include a low torque configuration suitable for normal operational conditions, and a high torque configuration suitable for degraded operational conditions. Various aspects or portions of a propeller blade may be modified to increase torque generated by the propeller blade due to drag or air resistance. The additional generated torque may then be used as a source of additional torque to improve controllability of the aerial vehicle responsive to degraded operational conditions.

Aerial vehicle propellers having variable force-torque ratios

Flow conditions affecting an aerial vehicle may be determined using one or more auxiliary aerial vehicles, which may be outfitted with one or more airspeed sensors and other systems for modeling air flow within a vicinity of the aerial vehicle. With the auxiliary aerial vehicles operating in selected positions or formations with respect to the aerial vehicle, the aerial vehicle may perform one or more testing evolutions requiring the operation of any propulsion motors, control surfaces or other systems. Flow conditions during the testing evolutions may be modeled based on data captured by sensors aboard the auxiliary aerial vehicles, and the modeled flow conditions may be used to determine whether the testing evolutions were successfully completed by the aerial vehicle.

Auxiliary aerial vehicles for flow characterization

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Christopher McFarland