Methods and systems are described for an aerial drone system including a drone system controller, at least one working drone (101), and a plurality of support drones (103). The working drone (101) is operated by the drone system controller (125) to adjust a position of the working drone (101). A tether line (105) coupled to the working drone (101) provides electrical power to the working drone (101). The support drones (103) are each coupled to the tether line (105) at a different location along the tether line (105) forming a tethered aerial drone system. Each support (drone 103) supports a portion of the weight of the tether line (105) and is operated by the drone system controller (125) to adjust the position of the tether line (105) by adjusting the position of one or more of the support drones (103).

A control device includes a processor which: obtains first region information indicating a first region; obtains first position information indicating the position of an unmanned aerial vehicle tethered to a tethering device using a tether; and controls the tethering device using the first region information and the first position information to cause the tether to have tension corresponding to a specified distance which is at least one of the shortest distance between a boundary of the first region and the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a distance included in a predetermined range from the shortest distance.

An unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a tether assembly, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a processor, and a memory. The unmanned aerial vehicle comprising a housing and a slider plate supported by the housing. The memory containing instructions thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the unmanned aerial vehicle to move the slider plate relative to the housing to selectively decouple the tether assembly from the housing.

A suspended aerial vehicle system includes an aerial vehicle with a thruster assembly and a supporting line attached to the aerial vehicle that is capable of supporting at least some of the weight of the aerial vehicle. The supporting line may have an adjustable length which when varied, and in coordination with variations in a thrust characteristic of the aerial vehicle, may change the position of the aerial vehicle. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

A deployable device mountable on a carrier vehicle and configured to collect situation awareness data. The deployable device includes at least one recorder device configured to collect situation awareness data. The deployable device is capable of being ejected from the carrier vehicle and can be configured to operate as a vehicle and/or be towed by the carrier vehicle. The deployable device can continue collection of situation awareness data after being ejected.

The present disclosure describes various systems and methods configured to: launch a fixed-wing aircraft from a moving object into free, wing-borne flight using a multicopter; retrieve the multicopter after fixed-wing aircraft launch using a retrieval winch; retrieve the fixed-wing aircraft from free, wing-borne flight back onto the moving object using the multicopter; and retrieve the multicopter after fixed-wing aircraft retrieval using the retrieval winch.

An unmanned aerial vehicle may include a flight system, a wireless communication system, a processor, and a power system having a battery and a battery charging port. The power system may be operable to power the flight system, the wireless communication system, and the processor. The processor may be configured to operate the flight system to fly the unmanned aerial vehicle from a ground position to an in-air position while the battery charging port is attached to an air-to-ground tether, trigger a release of the air-to-ground tether from the battery charging port after determining the unmanned aerial vehicle has reached the in-air position and the battery is charged, and operate the flight system to execute a flight pattern while operating the wireless communication system to search for a wireless communication device.

A stabilizing system for a cable has a cable deployed and suspended from a helicopter, a cargo support attached at a deployed end of the cable, an end effector attached to the cable, the end effector comprising thrusters directed in a plurality of directions orthogonal to a vertical axis of the cable, first control circuitry in the helicopter, and second control circuitry in the end effector. Thrust of individual thrusters is controlled through the first and second control circuitry maintaining the axis of the cable vertical, damping swinging of the cable.

The present invention relates a drone system for transporting liquid or gas from a remote area to a demand area. The drone system (100) includes: a transport pipe (10) for flowing the liquid or the gas; a pump device (201) for suppling the liquid or the gas to the transport pipe (10); a top drone (1) for holding a nozzle (11) coupled to a tip end of the transport pipe (10); a plurality of pump drones (6A, 6B), each of which incorporates a pump (40A, 40B); and a power supply unit (3) for suppling a power to the top drone (1) and the pump drones (6A, 6B) through power cables (5). Each of the pump drones (6A, 6B) has a coupling mechanism (35) for tiltably and rotatably coupling the pump (40A, 40B) to a pump drone body (30).

An information processing method includes the following steps performed using a processor: obtaining first region information indicating a first region; obtaining first position information indicating the position of an unmanned aerial vehicle tethered to a mobile tethering body using a tether; determining, using the first region information and the first position information, a first destination which is a destination of the mobile tethering body; and moving the mobile tethering body to the first destination. The first destination is a position located at least a predetermined distance from a point which is on the boundary of the first region and located the shortest distance from the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle, in the direction from the point on the boundary of the first region to the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle.