Embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus comprising a body including a cavity for storing one or more packages, and a conveyor belt disposed above a top surface of the body. The belt is shaped to receive one or more packages, and the belt is controllable to rotate a package placed on the belt either from the top surface to the cavity for storage or from the cavity to the top surface for dispatch. A package comprises at least one of a drone and a payload transported by the drone. The apparatus further comprises a landing mechanism for stabilizing a drone landing on the apparatus.

A man overboard recovery system for use on a vessel includes one or more unmanned aerial systems configured to autonomously locate and engage a man overboard using onboard sensing equipment. Unmanned aerial system launch, recovery, health and status monitoring, and integration with existing systems is facilitated by a ground station(s) located on the vessel, in the cloud, at a remote monitoring center, or any combination of these. The unmanned aerial system(s) locates a man overboard using onboard sensing equipment including cameras or sensors for heat, infrared, ultraviolet, visible spectrum, radio frequency, or other measurable stimuli that could be used to detect and track the presence of a human body. The unmanned aerial system(s) may be configured to relay data including audio, video, location, health and status information to or from the ground station(s) and to release a payload of safety or survival apparatus in close proximity to the man overboard.

The invention relates to an assembly (10) comprising a launch motor vehicle (12) and a drone (14), the launch motor vehicle (12) being capable of travelling on a launch track to exceed a given speed threshold relative to a surrounding air mass, the launch motor vehicle (12) being provided with a launch ramp (20) cooperating with the drone (14) to, in a launching position, guide the drone (14) from a starting position in a launch direction to the front of the launch motor vehicle (12). The drone (14) comprises one or more reactors (30) and does not comprise a landing gear.

Disclosed is a sonobuoy that houses at least one unmanned vehicle that may be launched from the sonobuoy. The sonobuoy may include a canister, a parachute, an unmanned vehicle, and a launch mechanism. The parachute may be disposed within an interior cavity of the canister proximate to a first end of the canister. The unmanned vehicle may be disposed within the interior cavity of the canister proximate to a second end of the canister. The launch mechanism may be disposed within the interior cavity of the canister and operatively coupled to the unmanned vehicle. The launch mechanism may be configured to launch the unmanned vehicle from the canister. The sonobuoy may further include a launch deployment mechanism that may be configured to orient the canister with respect to a surface after the sonobuoy impacts the surface in order to facilitate the launch of the unmanned vehicle.

An unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, comprises a plurality of lighting sources. The plurality of lighting sources comprises at least one lighting element operable to illuminate below the UAV and at least one lighting element operable to illuminate above the UAV. The UAV is configured to: (i) receive energy from at least one battery of a vehicle via a physical connection with an interior of the vehicle; (ii) use the received energy to charge at least one battery of the UAV; and (iii) use the at least one battery of the UAV, charged using the received energy, to power the plurality of light sources.

A system comprises a drone having autonomous drive capability and an assist vehicle (AV) for transporting the drone in an assisted drive mode in which the drone is held at, and transported by, the assist vehicle. Control hardware and software are programmed to determine drone travel over a route having a first route section in which the drone travels autonomously and a second route section in which the drone travels in the assisted drive mode.

Apparatus and methods for marine capture of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) using water for braking and damping are described. An example capture device is for capturing a UAV aboard a marine vessel located in a body of water. The capture device includes a mounting frame and a capture frame. The mounting frame is configured to be coupled to the marine vessel. The capture frame is configured to be rotatably coupled to the mounting frame. The capture frame is rotatable relative to the mounting frame about an axis of rotation. The capture frame includes a braking member configured to be submerged in the body of water. The braking member is configured to oppose rotation of the capture frame relative to the mounting frame based on a braking force to be applied to the braking member by the body of water.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control method includes a takeoff process, a following process and a landing process, wherein the takeoff process includes the following steps: unlocking the UAV, and detecting the current horizontal position of the UAV in the horizontal direction and the current altitude of the UAV in the vertical direction; determining whether the current horizontal position and the current altitude meet takeoff criteria, and controlling the UAV to bounce off and enter into a takeoff state if the determination result is positive. The system provided by the present disclosure employs the above-mentioned method to control a UAV. The method and system provided by the present disclosure meet three functional requirements for a UAV on a moving base platform, namely, stable takeoff, following process and accurate landing, thus decrease the difficulties in the use of a UAV on a moving platform.

Many different types of systems are utilized or tasks are performed in a marine environment. The present invention provides various configurations of unmanned vehicles, or drones, that can be operated and/or controlled for such systems or tasks. One or more unmanned vehicles can be integrated with a dedicated marine electronic device of a marine vessel for autonomous control and operation. Additionally or alternatively, the unmanned vehicle can be manually remote operated during use in the marine environment. Such unmanned vehicles can be utilized in many different marine environment systems or tasks, including, for example, navigation, sonar, radar, search and rescue, video streaming, alert functionality, among many others. However, as contemplated by the present invention, the marine environment provides many unique challenges that may be accounted for with operation and control of an unmanned vehicle.

This invention relates to an automatic method for releasing and guiding rescue and life-saving appliances that implement the method, implemented by a computer located in the command tower (202) of the vessel (200), that receives and processes in real time the geographical position data of a person overboard (101) in response to an emergency signal received by the aerial (3), sends a signal activating and releasing the Unmanned Surface Vehicle - USV - (1), launching it onto the water, and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - UAV - (4),launching it into the air.