An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system for maintaining railway situational awareness, includes a ground station configured to be mounted to a train, a UAV including a sensor, a processor, and a memory. The sensor is configured to provide a signal indicative of condition and/or an event. The memory contains instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to: selectively deploy the UAV, from the ground station mounted to the train, receive the signal from the sensor; and determine a condition and/or an event, relative to the train, based on the sensed signal.

Systems and methods for determining a vehicle elevation height for launching an unmanned aerial vehicle may include performing a quantitative balancing analysis using baseline factors, establishing optimal values for operational goals of a vehicle based on the quantitative balancing analysis, determining a vehicle elevation height that achieves the established optimal values for the operational goals of the vehicle by evaluating vehicle delivery parameters using normalized values, and initiating on a winch system elevation of the unmanned aerial vehicle to the determined vehicle elevation height for launching.

A UAV tether management system comprising: a tether-wound spool rotatably mounted on a base station, a free-pivoting angle arm, and an angle arm encoder, wherein the tether is configured to transfer power from the base station to the UAV while the UAV is in flight, and the angle arm comprises a tether guide mounted to a proximal end of the angle arm such that the tether passes through the tether guide as the tether pays out of, or is taken up by, the spool, wherein the angle arm further comprises a counter weight mounted to a distal end of the angle arm such that a center of mass of the angle arm is aligned with the spool's axis of rotation, and wherein the angle arm encoder is configured to measure an offset angle of the angle arm.

A drone includes a propulsion system, a processing unit, and a power system having a battery and a power connection port. The power system is configured to receive packetized electrical power over a tether including an air-to-ground power feed attachable to the power connection port. The power system is also configured to supply electrical power to the processing unit, the battery, and the propulsion system. The processing unit is configured to acknowledge receipt of the packetized electrical power. A power delivery system includes a packetized electrical power transmitter and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to operate the packetized electrical power transmitter to transmit packets of electrical power over a power feed within a tether attached to a drone. The processing unit is also configured to monitor a communication channel within the tether for acknowledgements indicating the drone has received the transmitted packets of electrical power.

An unmanned aerial vehicle system includes an unmanned aerial vehicle, a tether assembly selectively coupled to the unmanned aerial vehicle, a processor, and a memory. The memory contains instructions thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to disconnect the tether assembly from the unmanned aerial vehicle.

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.

An en route fluid transmitting apparatus for transmitting a fluid from a transmitting entity to a probe of a receiving vehicle includes a funnel, a hose and a thrust producing device. Thrust producing device includes a main body that is rigidly attached to the funnel, and at least two rotors that are connected to the main body for producing thrust. The thrust producing device is adapted to move the funnel freely in any direction to a predetermined position relative to the probe where the funnel engages with the probe.

An electric power tethering system for an aircraft having a vertical takeoff and landing flight mode including a takeoff phase and/or a hover phase includes a surface power source and a power tether having a surface end configured to couple to the surface power source and an aircraft end configured to couple to the aircraft. The power tether is configured to transmit power from the surface power source to the aircraft in the takeoff phase and/or the hover phase. The power tether is detachable to decouple the surface power source from the aircraft in response to a power tether release event during flight.

A drone is described. The drone includes a propulsion system, a transceiver, a tether connector, and a power system. The power system has a battery and a chopper circuit. The chopper circuit bleeds excess charge from the battery. The power system is configured to power the propulsion system, and to power the transceiver through the chopper circuit. The power system is also configured to receive electrical power, through the tether connector, to charge the battery while the drone is in the air.

A control system includes a base device to be mounted on a mobile object, an aerial vehicle, a cable including a power supply cable for supplying electric power from the mobile object to the aerial vehicle and connecting the base device with the aerial vehicle, and a control device that controls flight of the aerial vehicle. The control device controls the aerial vehicle so that a relative altitude of the aerial vehicle with respect to the mobile object matches a target relative altitude. This control system optimizes an altitude of the aerial vehicle in accordance with the mobile object.