Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Uber Technologies, Inc.

Gur Kimchi

Brian C Beckman

Daniel Buchmueller

Ricky Dean Welsh

Louis LeRoi LeGrand, Iii

Amir Navot

Avi Bar-Zeev

Brandon William Porter

Dominic Timothy Shiosaki

Fabian Hensel

Eyal Ofek

Scott A Green

Stephen L Lawler

Pragyana K Mishra

Severan Sylvain Jean-Michel Rault

Scott M Isaacs

Michael Kroepfl

James Christopher Curlander

Frederik Schaffalitzky

John Charles Curlander

Joshua White Traube

Leonard Smith, Jr

Martin Josef Ponticelli

Allan Ko

Richard Philip Whitlock

Taylor David Grenier

Vedran Coralic

Robert Roy Champagne, Jr

Eric J Horvitz

Darren Ernest Canavor

Alexander G Gounares

Ashok Kuppusamy

Raymond Edward Endres

Atishkumar Kalyan

Shmuel Eisenmann

Joseph Schwartz

Marc Eliot Davis

Jeffrey P Bezos

Blaise Aguera Y Arcas

Barry James O'Brien

Jon Stuart Battles

Srikanth Shoroff

Stelios Paparizos

Nicholas Hampel Roberts

Walker Chamberlain Robb

Jason Leonard Peacock

John Clark Coonley Duksta

Corrinne Yu

Lili Cheng

Matthew Graham Dyor

Roger Shane Barga

Eran Yariv

Subram Narasimhan

Jin Dong Kim

Shai Herzog

Michael Gruber

Koohyun Um

Ronald Joseph Degges, Jr

Konrad Karner

Franz W Leberl

Henricus Johannes Maria Meijer

George G Robertson

Bongshin Lee

Roland Lucas Fernandez

Danyel Aharon Fisher

Murali R Krishnan

Jeremy Thomas Buch

Jeffrey Darren Couckuyt

Jason Joseph Weber

Steven William Macbeth

Brian L Welcker

Jack Erdozain, Jr

B Scott Ruble

Richard Junqiang Qian

Christian Olaf Abeln

Steven Gregory Dunn

Stella Yick Chan

Michael Daniel Piedmonte

Robert Wayne Roth

Matthew Jay Kotler

Benjamin Edward Rampson

David A Nichols

Brett David Brewer

Vadim Eydelman

Shaun Douglas Pierce

Dhigha D Sekaran

Bimal Kumar Mehta

Doug Burger

Pavel Curtis

Chandrasekhar Thota

Shaun David Cox

Yonatan Wexler

Timothy Garry Dwyer

Christian Bernd Schormann

Mark D Tabb

Michael Victor Ehrenberg

Lev Boris Nachmanson

Neil Whitney Woodward, Iii

Emilia Sorana Buneci

Jakob Peter Nielsen

This disclosure describes an aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle ('UAV'), which includes a plurality of propulsion mechanisms that enable the aerial vehicle to move independently in any of six degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, and yaw).

Aerial vehicle with independent navigation in six degrees of freedom

Recent location and control information received from 'lead' vehicles that traveled over a segment of land, sea, or air is captured to inform, via aggregated data, subsequent “trailing” vehicles that travel over that same segment of land, sea, or air. The aggregated data may provide the trailing vehicles with annotated road information that identifies obstacles. In some embodiments, at least some sensor control data may be provided to the subsequent vehicles to assist those vehicles in identifying the obstacles and/or performing other tasks. Besides, obstacles, the location and control information may enable determining areas traveled by vehicles that are not included in conventional maps, as well as vehicle actions associated with particular locations, such as places where vehicles park or make other maneuvers.

Annotated virtual track to inform autonomous vehicle control

This disclosure describes an unmanned aerial vehicle ('UAV') configured to autonomously deliver items of inventory to various destinations. The UAV may receive inventory information and a destination location and autonomously retrieve the inventory from a location within a materials handling facility, compute a route from the materials handling facility to a destination and travel to the destination to deliver the inventory.

Aerial vehicle delivery location

Aerial vehicle

Described is an apparatus and method of an aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle ('UAV') that can operate in either a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) orientation or a horizontal flight orientation. The aerial vehicle includes a plurality of propulsion mechanisms that enable the aerial vehicle to move in any of the six degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, pitch, yaw, and roll) when in the VTOL orientation. The aerial vehicle also includes a ring wing that surrounds the propulsion mechanisms and provides lift to the aerial vehicle when the aerial vehicle is operating in the horizontal flight orientation.

Hexagonal ring wing aerial vehicle

Aspects relate to observing various activities, interactions, behaviors, and other factors associated with a data exchange and creating one or more markers based on significant details associated with the observance. The one or more markers are retained and selectively rendered as a function of one or more conditions that should be satisfied before the marker is presented to the user. Some markers can contain parameters that should be satisfied in order for the marker to be considered complete. If a parameter is not satisfied, subsequent markers can be created as a function of the rendered marker. The subsequent markers can be rendered when a condition associated with the subsequent marker is satisfied.

Automatic generation of markers based on social interaction

Systems and methods to reduce aerodynamic drag and/or affect flight characteristics of an aerial vehicle may include adjustable fairings associated with one or more components of the aerial vehicle. The adjustable fairings may be coupled to and at least partially surround a motor, propulsion mechanism, motor arm, strut, or other component of an aerial vehicle. In addition, the adjustable fairings may be passively movable between two or more positions responsive to airflow around the fairings, and/or the adjustable fairings may be actively moved between two more positions to affect flight characteristics. Further, the adjustable fairings may include actuatable elements to alter a portion of an outer surface of the fairings to thereby affect flight characteristics. In this manner, adjustable fairings associated with various components of an aerial vehicle may reduce aerodynamic drag and/or may improve control and safety of an aerial vehicle.

Adjustable motor fairings for aerial vehicles

An aerial vehicle and system for automatically detecting an object (e.g., human, pet, or other animal) approaching the aerial vehicle is described. When an approaching object is detected by an object detection component, a safety profile may be executed to reduce or avoid any potential harm to the object and/or the aerial vehicle. For example, if the object is detected entering a safety perimeter of the aerial vehicle, the rotation of a propeller closest to the object may be stopped to avoid harming the object and rotations of remaining propellers may be modified to maintain control and flight of the aerial vehicle.

Virtual safety shrouds for aerial vehicles

The disclosure describes an automated aerial vehicle (AAV) and system for automatically detecting a contact or an imminent contact between a propeller of the AAV and an object (e.g., human, pet, or other animal). When a contact or an imminent contact is detected, a safety profile may be executed to reduce or avoid any potential harm to the object and/or the AAV. For example, if a contact with a propeller of the AAV by an object is detected, the rotation of the propeller may be stopped to avoid harming the object. Likewise, an object detection component may be used to detect an object that is nearing a propeller, stop the rotation of the propeller, and/or navigate the AAV away from the detected object.

Propeller safety for automated aerial vehicles

This disclosure describes an aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle ('UAV'), which includes a plurality of maneuverability propulsion mechanisms that enable the aerial vehicle to move in any of the six degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, pitch, yaw, and roll). The aerial vehicle may also include a lifting propulsion mechanism that operates to generate a force sufficient to maintain the aerial vehicle at an altitude.

Aerial vehicle with failure recovery

Described are example systems and methods that utilize simulated and/or actual flight data to determine an aerial delivery time estimate between a source location and a delivery destination, based on current flight conditions. For example, multiple flight simulations along a flight path between a source location and a delivery destination may be performed based on various different flight conditions and the flight time determined from the simulations may be maintained in a data store, associated with the flight path and simulated flight conditions. When a request for item information is received, current flight conditions may be determined and used to determine an estimated flight time based on stored simulated flight data having similar flight conditions to the current flight conditions.

Simulated flight data to determine delivery timeframes for aerial item delivery

Described is a system and apparatus that provides redundant flight control for an aerial vehicle without the use of independent and dedicated redundant flight control boards and processors. Additional compute resources available on processors of other device boards of an aerial vehicle may be used to execute redundant flight control programs. The device boards and/or those redundant flight control programs monitor the operability of the various flight controllers. If any of the flight controllers is determined to be inoperable, one of the redundant flight control programs assumes the role of the inoperable controller.

Multi-device redundant flight controller

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Gur Kimchi