A method for transporting a rescue device from an aerial vehicle to a person to be rescued includes launching an unmanned aerial vehicle from the aerial vehicle having an end portion releasable attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle via a first connection and a second connection. The method further includes enabling the person to be rescued to reach the end portion of the rescue device. and determining whether the end portion of the rescue device is released from the first connection. If the rescue device is released determining at the unmanned aerial vehicle whether the person to be rescued is safely attached to the rescue device. If so, the method comprises either releasing the rescue device from the second connection, or deactivating the unmanned aerial vehicle such that the unmanned aerial vehicle remains attached to the rescue device via the second connection.

Techniques are disclosed for real-time mapping in a movable object environment. A system for real-time mapping in a movable object environment, may include at least one movable object including a computing device, a scanning sensor electronically coupled to the computing device, and a positioning sensor electronically coupled to the computing device. The system may further include a client device in communication with the at least one movable object, the client device including a visualization application which is configured to receive point cloud data from the scanning sensor and position data from the positioning sensor, record the point cloud data and the position data to a storage location, generate a real-time visualization of the point cloud data and the position data as it is received, and display the real-time visualization using a user interface provided by the visualization application.

A system performs a control method to launch an unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV. The control method includes calculating a selected altitude, relative to a reference level, for launching the UAV, operating a lifting arrangement to vertically elevate the UAV to the selected altitude, and causing the UAV to be launched from the selected altitude. Elevating the UAV may improve the performance of the UAV in terms of range, power consumption, ability to carry payload, transit time to destination, etc. The selected altitude may be calculated as a function of parameter data representing any of the UAV, the lifting arrangement, or surrounding conditions. An apparatus is further provided to determine an optimal location of the system in relation to a plurality of destinations of UAVs to be elevated by the system.

The present invention discloses a data collection method, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a storage medium. The method is used for a vision chip of the UAV, the vision chip including a main operating system and a real-time operating system, and the method includes: generating, by the real-time operating system, a trigger signal; collecting, by the real-time operating system based on the trigger signal, flight control data of the UAV and controlling an image sensor to collect an image sequence; synchronizing, by the real-time operating system, a time of the main operating system with a time of the real-time operating system; and performing, by the main operating system, visual processing on the flight control data and the image sequence, to ensure that the flight control data and the image sequence are collected synchronously. By using the method, accuracy of data collected during controlling of the UAV can be improved.

A flight-capable imaging system includes a set of parallel rails, a power source mounted to the set of parallel rails, an imaging device mounted to the set of parallel rails, an aerial vehicle body mounted to the set of parallel rails, a set of aerial vehicle arms attached to the aerial vehicle body that each include a set of propellers and a motor configured to turn the set of propellers to enable flight of the flight-capable imaging system, and at least one processing module configured to control the flight of the of the flight-capable imaging system based on controlling a motor speed of the motor of each of the set of aerial vehicle arms.

An information processing apparatus (10) according to the present disclosure includes an image acquisition interface (131) that acquires a video of an inspection target from a flying object (20), the video having been taken by the flying object (20) in flight, a memory (12) storing a reference still image serving as a reference for analysis and a threshold of similarity between the reference still image and frames included in the acquired video, and an image extractor (132) that calculates the similarity to the reference still image for each frame and extracts a plurality of consecutive frames as an analysis target based on the similarity and the threshold.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for an unmanned aerial system inspection system. One of the methods is performed by a UAV and includes obtaining, from a user device, flight operation information describing an inspection of a vertical structure to be performed, the flight operation information including locations of one or more safe locations for vertical inspection. A location of the UAV is determined to correspond to a first safe location for vertical inspection. A first inspection of the structure is performed is performed at the first safe location, the first inspection including activating cameras. A second safe location is traveled to, and a second inspection of the structure is performed. Information associated with the inspection is provided to the user device.

A position estimation method for a tracking target is implemented in an unmanned aerial vehicle. The position estimation method include: estimating a target position of the tracking target at the next time according to an initial position of the tracking target at the current moment; determining an estimated width and an estimated height of the tracking target in an image captured by a pan-tilt-zoom camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the estimated target position; obtaining an actual width and an actual height of the tracking target in the image; determining a height difference between the estimated width and the estimated height and a width difference between the actual height and the actual width; and updating the target position of the tracking target at the next time according to the height difference and the width difference.

A semiautonomous robot. The robot includes at least two powered locomotion devices and a monocular capture unit. The at least two locomotion devices are designed to rotate at least the capture unit about a rotational axis, which is situated in a fixed position relative to the capture unit, the capture unit and the rotational axis being set apart from each other. The robot further includes at least one control and/or regulating unit for ascertaining a distance traveled. As a function of a movement of the capture unit about the rotational axis fixed during the movement, in particular, at a known distance from the rotational axis and/or in a known orientation relative to the rotational axis, the control and/or regulating unit is configured to determine a distance conversion parameter, which is provided for ascertaining the distance traveled.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for an unmanned aerial system inspection system. One of the methods is performed by a UAV and includes obtaining, from a user device, flight operation information describing an inspection of a vertical structure to be performed, the flight operation information including locations of one or more safe locations for vertical inspection. A location of the UAV is determined to correspond to a first safe location for vertical inspection. A first inspection of the structure is performed is performed at the first safe location, the first inspection including activating cameras. A second safe location is traveled to, and a second inspection of the structure is performed. Information associated with the inspection is provided to the user device.