Patent attributes
Systems and methods to detect objects and associated properties may be performed by an aerial vehicle having one or more propellers and one or more microphones. The aerial vehicle may emit propeller noise patterns via the propellers during operation, and the aerial vehicle may receive echoes of the propeller noise patterns via the microphones. Based on the emitted noise patterns and received echoes, the aerial vehicle may detect objects and associated properties within an environment of the aerial vehicle. In addition, the aerial vehicle may emit encoded propeller noise patterns via the propellers during operation to communicate with other aerial vehicles, and other aerial vehicles may receive the encoded propeller noise patterns via microphones. Using such encoded propeller noise patterns, a plurality of aerial vehicles may communicate and/or coordinate operations with each other.