Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle management service may provide a platform to manage groups of unmanned aerial vehicles to work together on a task simultaneously in an autonomous manner.

A method of fire-fighting is provided based on unmanned aerial vehicles “UAV(s)” launched from transporter aircrafts to deliver water or fire-retardants or any other fire-fighting materials to a location selected by the fire-fighting personnel. A capability of putting-off high intensity forest fires is provided that stems from the precision and the quantity of material that can be delivered per unit surface per unit time. After releasing the fire-fighting material(s), the UAV reaches a safe altitude from which it flies on autopilot to intercept and then proceed on a pre-programmed route to land per pre-programmed instructions on an airfield from which fire-fighting transporter(s) operate, allowing a high efficiency along the line, from loading the transporter airplanes to maximizing the quantity of material that reach the target, to minimizing the remote-pilot time and up to the recovery system that minimizes the recovery cost and it maximizes UAVs' utilization by a quick turnaround.

Provided is a work machine and the like that can reduce the possibility of contact with an unmanned aircraft flying around. The degree of possibility of contact between a working mechanism (140) and an unmanned aircraft (40) is recognized on the basis of the relative position of the unmanned aircraft (40) with reference to the working mechanism (140). If it is recognized that the contact possibility is high, then the operation mode of at least one of a lower traveling body (110), an upper pivoting body (120), and the working mechanism (140) is controlled so as to reduce the contact possibility.

A system for performing work on electrical power lines and/or splices on electrical power lines comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a power line tool adapted to perch on an electrical power line and/or a splice on an electrical power line, a support frame selectively releasably attached to the UAV, and a plurality of flexible dielectric support lines attaching the power line tool to the support frame. Each of the support lines are attached to a corresponding attachment point on the support frame and a corresponding attachment point on the power line tool.

Methods and apparatus for performing repair operations using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The methods are enabled by equipping the UAV with tools for rapidly repairing a large structure or object (e.g., an aircraft or a wind turbine blade) that is not easily accessible to maintenance personnel. A plurality of tools are available for robotic selection and placement at the repair site. The tools are designed to perform respective repair operations in sequence in accordance with a specified repair plan, which plan may take into account the results of a previously performed UAV-enabled inspection.

A non-invasive microwave measuring device (01) is for calculating the flow rate of a fluid. The device (01) includes a non-invasive microwave fluid velocity measuring device (03) having a patch antenna or horn antenna to generate a microwave signal (14) that is transmitted at a specific elevation angle α towards the fluid surface (16) and to receive the reflected microwave signal (15) from the fluid surface (16) with a doppler shift frequency. The measuring device (03) is suspended from a drone (02) by a suspension system (04). The suspension system (04) eliminates vibration noise generated by the drone (02). At least one vibration sensor eliminates false velocity readings. At least one angle sensor compensates for Pitch, Roll and Yaw from the drone (02) that influence the fluid surface velocity measurement.

A bio-hybrid odor-localizing autonomous air vehicle includes an airborne robotic platform having a navigation platform, a wireless transmitter communicatively coupled to a management console, and a biological sensor mounted on the airborne robotic platform that reacts to at least one olfactory odor. A controller is communicatively coupled to the airborne robotic platform, the navigation platform, and the biological sensor. The controller monitors the biological sensor. In response to the biological sensor detecting the at least one olfactory odor, the controller directs the airborne platform to three-dimensionally map an olfactory plume of the at least one olfactory odor using an olfactory-driven search pattern. The controller stores the three-dimensional map for later retrieval or transmits the three-dimensional map of the olfactory plume to the management console via the wireless transmitter.

According to a technical aspect of the invention, there is provided a multiple unmanned aerial vehicles navigation optimization method is performed at a ground base station which operates in conjunction with unmanned aerial vehicles-base stations which are driven by a battery to move and cover a given trajectory point set, the multiple unmanned aerial vehicles navigation optimization method including: calculating an age-of-information metric by receiving an information update from the unmanned aerial vehicles-base stations through communication, when the ground base station is present within a transmission range of the unmanned aerial vehicles-base stations; setting conditions of a trajectory, energy efficiency, and age of information of each of the unmanned aerial vehicles-base stations; and executing Q-learning for finding a trajectory path policy of each of the unmanned aerial vehicles-base stations, so as to maximize total energy efficiency of an unmanned aerial vehicles-base station relay network to which the energy efficiency and the age of information are applied. According to the invention, the following effects are obtained. Age of information (AoI) that is a new matrix used to measure up-do-dateness of data is set, an edge computing environment for a remote cloud environment is provided by using the AoI, and a computing-oriented communications application can be executed by using the edge computing environment.

Systems and techniques are provided for charging devices at a property using battery-charging drones. In some implementations, a monitoring system is configured to monitor a property and includes a battery-powered sensor configured to generate sensor data. The system includes a drone that is configured to navigate the property and charge the battery-powered sensor. A monitor control unit is configured to obtain a battery level from the battery-powered sensor and compare the battery level to a battery level threshold. Based on the comparison, the monitor control unit determines that the battery level does not satisfy the threshold. Based on the determination, the monitor control unit generates and transmits an instruction to a drone for the drone to navigate to the battery-powered sensor and charge a battery of the battery-powered sensor. The monitor control unit receives data from the drone that indicates whether the drone charged the battery of the sensor.

A modular flat-packable drone kit includes a plurality of components that can be assembled into a drone. Components of the drone kit include elements that may be cut from a flat sheet of material, thereby enabling low cost manufacturing and compact packaging and may be assembled without specialized tools. A set of drones may operate in a standalone mode or may be coupled together and operated in a group configuration.