A lift and drive unit for an aircraft or submarine vehicle may include a hydrogen based drive component for providing a forward drive force to move the aircraft or vehicle over ground, and a hydrogen-based lift component for providing an upward drive force to move the aircraft or vehicle upward. An onboard hydrogen generating apparatus is connectable to both the drive component and the lift component, for providing the drive and lift components with hydrogen.

The technology relates to techniques for redundant power distribution and monitoring for lighter than air (LTA) vehicles. A power distribution and monitoring system for an LTA vehicle, can include two or more redundant controllers coupled to a multiplexer in a crossbar architecture. Each controller can control the multiplexer and inhibit the other controller in the case of a failure of the other controller. Each controller can control a power switch to direct power from a power source to an electronic component, and can monitor the power source. In some cases, a first controller receives a signal indicting a failure in a second controller, and the first controller inhibits the second controller and directs power from the power source to the electronic component.

The technology relates to managing nighttime power for solar-powered vehicles. A system may include a sunrise estimator for estimating a time until a next sunrise, a battery state estimator for estimating a battery state, a critical battery estimator for determining a battery threshold, below which subsystems may be powered off, and an alert monitor to determine, and communicate to the solar-powered vehicle, a charge threshold and a restart charge threshold. A method may include operating a vehicle in an operational power mode, estimating a time until a next sunrise, estimating a battery state, determining a preservation battery threshold based on the estimated time until the next sunrise and the estimated battery state, determining a minimum charge threshold based on the preservation battery threshold, monitoring a battery charge level of the vehicle throughout the night, and if the battery charge level drops below the minimum charge threshold, implementing a preservation power mode.

The technology relates to health and lifetime estimation for a lighter-than-air vehicle. A method for vehicle health and lifetime estimation may include receiving flight data inputs associated with a vehicle, determining a gas temperature based on the flight data inputs, estimating a gas amount remaining in a balloon envelope of the vehicle, estimating a gas leak rate based on the gas amount, estimating a component lifetime representing an estimated lifetime of a component of the vehicle, and determining a remaining lifetime output based on one or both of the gas leak rate or the component lifetime, the remaining lifetime output indicating a remaining lifetime estimate for the vehicle. The method also may include simulating a terminal event and causing the vehicle to take an action based on the remaining lifetime estimate.

A system to monitor vehicle accidents using a network of aerial based monitoring systems, terrestrial based monitoring systems and in-vehicle monitoring systems is described. Aerial vehicles used for this surveillance include manned and unmanned aircraft, satellites and lighter than air craft. Aerial vehicles can also be deployed from vehicles. The deployment is triggered by sensors registering a pattern in the data that is indicative of an accident that has happened or an accident about to happen.

A delivery system includes a cooking station, a meal serving station, a drone, a meal conveying device configured to convey a meal from the cooking station to the meal serving station, and a controlling portion. A character of a theme park is displayed on the drone. The controlling portion causes the drone to fly from the cooking station to the meal serving station and causes the meal conveying device to convey the meal from the cooking station to the meal serving station such that, just after the drone has arrived at the meal serving station, the meal conveyed by the meal conveying device is served to a visitor from the meal serving station.

A remote controlled lighter-than-air drone assembly that is capable of prolonged flight. The drone assembly utilizes a balloon structure. Separately, a reservoir is provided for holding a smaller second volume of gas. A propulsion system and a control unit are carried by the balloon structure. The control unit selectively transfers the gas from the reservoir to the balloon structure, and selectively vents the gas as needed. A receiver is used to receive command signals from an external source. The command signals are utilized to operate the propulsion system. An electronics suite is provided that can be altered depending upon duties. The electronics suite is used to scan or otherwise monitor an area below the drone assembly. In flight, the balloon structure is translucent and internally illuminated. A projector can be provided for projecting images onto the interior of the balloon structure.

Example embodiments may relate to web interfaces for a balloon-network. For example, a computing device may display a graphical interface that provides information related to a balloon network configured to provide service in a geographic area, where the graphical interface includes a map. The computing device may receive real-time bandwidth data related to balloons in the balloon network, where the balloons are each configured to change position via altitudinal movement and via horizontal movement with respect to the ground. Based at least in part on the received real-time bandwidth data, the computing device may display, on the map, a visual representation of bandwidth information corresponding to one or more regions in the geographic area, where the visual representation of bandwidth information updates from time to time based at least in part on a change in position of one or more balloons in the balloon network.

Disclosed is a low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance system. According to an embodiment, monitoring is performed using a balloon main body filled with gas and staying in the air; radar; camera units being provided outside the balloon main body, and including a camera taking an image of a subject; radio frequency detectors; and sound detectors and correspondingly, interceptor means is included. As interceptor means, a jammer, a jamming gun, and a spoofing device corresponding to jamming are disclosed.

A distributed acoustic anti-unmanned boat intelligence system (DAAUBS) for detecting unmanned boats (UB) approaching protected sites includes a plurality of airborne defense agents (ADAs) and a base station. Each ADA is equipped with air balloons, tethers, buoys, a directional microphone array, a first computing device, and a transceiver. The first computing device causes at least processor to determine information regarding each approaching UB. The base station includes a control center configured with a wideband communications link configured to communicate with the transceiver of each ADA. The DAAUBS control center includes a second computing device performing an intelligence method. The second processor receives and aggregates the data of each approaching UB and performs adaptive noise cancellation to remove environmental background noise. The second processor uses a deep learning classifier to classify at least one of a type and size of the UB.