The present disclosure describes systems and methods for escorting small unmanned aircraft (herein drones). An escorting drone approaches the escorted drone and transmits to it an escort signal. In an embodiment, the escort signal is a GNSS signal fashioned to be the same as the GNSS signal that would be received by the escorted drone, other than being slightly stronger in signal strength and having slightly altered component delays. In another embodiment, the escort signal is a radio frequency control channel signal. Escorting may be utilized to guide a drone from a preprogrammed point to a docking zone in a droneport; to guide a drone though an urban canyon or inside a building where GNSS signals are not reliably received; to retrieve a drone with which communications has been lost; or to escort a drone to safety out of a no-flight zone such as around an airport.

A drone may receive power from mobile base station equipment via an air-to-ground power feed during flight, which allows the drone to remain in flight for longer periods of time than relying on battery power alone. The air-to-ground power feed may be included in a tether that includes multiple air-to-ground power feeds or communication feeds. In some cases, the drone is powered by an on-board power system during takeoff and landing sequences to avoid damage to the tether or the drone and/or signal interference within the tether. In some cases, the drone may follow flight patterns during takeoff and landing sequences to avoid damage to the tether or the drone and/or signal interference within the tether.

An apparatus for visual navigation of a UAV includes a geo-fiducial mat and a plurality of geo-fiducials. The geo-fiducial mat includes a landing pad region that provides a location for aligning with a landing pad of a UAV and a survey point. The geo-fiducials are each specified for a unique directional and offset position in or about the landing pad region relative to the survey point. The geo-fiducials each includes a two-dimensional (2D) pattern that visually conveys an alphanumerical code. The 2D pattern has a shape from which a visual navigation system of the UAV can visually triangulate a position of the UAV.

An unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) take-off and landing platform. It includes a driving device, a bottom plate, a movable plate and a tractor. The tractor is connected to the front end of a bearing platform, and the tractor can drive the bearing platform to move; the bearing platform comprises the bottom plate and the movable plate. The movable plate has a first side plate, a second side plate and a third side plate. The first side plate and the second side plate are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the bottom plate, and the third side plate is arranged at the tail end of the bottom plate. The movable plate movably connects with the bottom plate and can move relative to the bottom plate with the drive of the driving device, so that the bearing platform can switch between the folded state and the unfolded state.

Disclosed is a sonobuoy that houses at least one unmanned vehicle that may be launched from the sonobuoy. The sonobuoy may include a canister, a parachute, an unmanned vehicle, and a launch mechanism. The parachute may be disposed within an interior cavity of the canister proximate to a first end of the canister. The unmanned vehicle may be disposed within the interior cavity of the canister proximate to a second end of the canister. The launch mechanism may be disposed within the interior cavity of the canister and operatively coupled to the unmanned vehicle. The launch mechanism may be configured to launch the unmanned vehicle from the canister. The sonobuoy may further include a launch deployment mechanism that may be configured to orient the canister with respect to a surface after the sonobuoy impacts the surface in order to facilitate the launch of the unmanned vehicle.

Disclosed are systems and methods to determine and rank large areas encompassing many parcels (e.g., neighborhoods, cities, towns) for aerial item delivery availability, without the use of image data of the areas. In some implementations, publicly available two-dimensional parcel maps that indicate parcel boundaries and outlines of structures on those parcels may be obtained and processed. For example, parcels within the area may be processed to determine deliverable area shapes, such as rectangles, within the parcel, excluding the area of the structure. A determination is then made as to whether one or more of the deliverable area shapes exceed a deliverable area threshold. If one or more of the deliverable area shapes of the parcel exceed the threshold, the parcel is considered to be available for aerial item delivery. This processing may be done for all parcels within an area or all customer parcels of customers of a service within the area (or any other selection criteria). Likewise, this processing may be done for multiple different areas and the areas may be ranked based on the overall determined availability of aerial item delivery to parcels within those areas.

The invention is designed for the organization of landing of unmanned vertical take-off and landing aerial vehicles (UAV VTOL) on the landing platform of a ground station, (including) for the purposes of automatic servicing their payloads and/or energy sources after landing. Due to the invention, it is provided correct position and alignment relative to the landing platform of unmanned aerial vehicle with three main landing legs on a flat horizontal landing platform, by providing rotation in opposite directions of two flat centering discs mounted on the platform with a protruding counter-direction spiral guide on each disk.

An apparatus for visual navigation of a UAV includes a geo-fiducial mat and a plurality of geo-fiducials. The geo-fiducial mat includes a landing pad region that provides a location for aligning with a landing pad of a UAV. The geo-fiducials each includes a two-dimensional (2D) pattern that visually conveys a code. The 2D pattern has a shape from which a visual navigation system of the UAV can visually triangulate a position of the UAV.

An unmanned aerial vehicle according to certain embodiments generally includes a chassis, a power supply mounted to the chassis, a control system operable to receive power from the power supply, at least one rotor operable to generate lift under control of the control system, and a winch mounted to the chassis. The winch includes a reel and a motor. The reel has a line wound thereon, the line having a free end. The reel includes a circumferential channel in which a wound portion of the line is wound onto the reel. The circumferential channel includes an inner portion, an outer portion, and a passage connecting the inner portion and the outer portion. The motor is operable to rotate the reel under control of the control system to thereby cause the line to wind onto and off of the reel, thereby causing the free end of the line to raise and lower.

A method for performing property surveillance via an unmanned aerial vehicle is provided. Surveillance of one or more properties via an unmanned aerial vehicle is obtained. A geofence that determines boundaries of one of the properties is created using the surveillance. Surveillance outside the geofence for the property is blurred. The blurred surveillance is provided to an owner of that property.