BACKGROUND

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), such as drones, are autonomous and/or remotely operated unmanned vehicles. Drones may be configured to fly using fixed wings or helicopter rotors and blades. There are a wide variety of errors that can occur in operation of a drone. These include power loss, communication loss, mechanical breakage and circuit failure. Recovery from these errors includes detection of the errors and taking steps to mitigate further damage. Under safety regulations, the UAVs are required to minimize any potential damage or threat to the environment, especially whilst operating above households and places with human activity. Should an unexpected descent occur, the vehicle descends very fast and crashes. During such cases, descent velocity and trajectory are also uncontrolled. The UAV's rotor blades are exposed without protection and can potentially cause hazardous damage to the environment, e.g., nearby infrastructures and/or people.

Some UAVs use parachutes to minimize the descent velocity and rotor blade exposure during such unexpected events. However, the parachute deployment methods used in the current UAVs are not effective. The deployment methods require that the parachute be deployed manually, the power to the drone may not be cut-off and therefore, the drone rotors and blades may still be rotating, etc.

