Embodiments of unmanned, rotary wing drones are described herein that include an insect trap for luring and capturing mosquitoes or other insects. The drone can include a set of propulsion units, each having a motor and propeller, and that collectively provide sufficient lift when operating to allow the drone to fly. A flight controller can be used to send and receive information and control a flight of the drone according to a flight plan stored on the drone. The insect trap includes a funnel or other mechanism to allow only for one-way movement of an insect into a container. To lure the insect into the trap, ultraviolet light can be shone on high-surface titanium dioxide powder that is stored within a mesh bag. A battery or other power source can be used to power the various components, and solar panels can be used to charge the battery when the drone has landed.

Expandable decoy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are disclosed. A disclosed example decoy UAV includes an expandable body at least partially defining an exterior of the expandable decoy UAV, an expander to expand the expandable body to a desired footprint, and a propulsion device operatively coupled to the expandable body, the propulsion device to move the expandable decoy UAV.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a beam redirection system, and a method for redirecting a laser beam using one or more UAVs are provided. The UAV includes a housing, a beam deflector, and a vehicle controller. The beam deflector is mounted to the housing. The vehicle controller is configured to control an angular orientation of the beam deflector to redirect a laser beam that is received from an off-board laser source.

A tagging drone (TD) responds to a received query of availability initiated from a command and control drone (CCD) or command and control station (CCS), over a network, for investigating or tagging a designated target. The TD receives one or more dispatching instructions and heads to the designated target. The TD performs tagging of the designated target and determines whether the designated target was successfully tagged as a tagged target. The tagged target is tracked and tracking data is provided for recovery resource capture of the tagged target.

An intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system is disclosed including a ground station and one or more aerial vehicles. The aerial vehicles are autonomous systems capable of communicating intelligence data to the ground station and be used as part of a missile delivery package. A plurality of aerial vehicles can be configured to cast a wide net of reconnaissance over a large area on the ground including smaller overlapping reconnaissance areas provided by each of the plurality of the aerial vehicles.

Disclosed is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a pre-defined shape to deploy one or more items. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes an upper housing, a lower housing, and a power unit. The upper housing includes plurality of rotors to lift and propel the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Further the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes various electronic components such as plurality of electronic cards, a processing unit, a Global Positioning System (GPS), a communication unit, an electronic gyroscope, a barometer, engines and flight control system, video camera, a forward looking infrared (FLIR) device, a microphone, and a laser telemeter/designator/range finder. The power unit powers the aforementioned electronic components. The lower housing includes plurality of storage units to stores one or more items. The lower housing is removably attached with the upper housing in a way to deploy the items at a predetermined location through plurality of openings.

A satellite refueling system has a refueling satellite carrying fuel, a fuel hose connected to the fuel carried by the refueling satellite, with a maneuverable end effector at a deployed end of the fuel hose, the end effector comprising a fuel supply nozzle connected to the fuel hose, a plurality of thrusters on the end effector providing thrust in a plurality of directions, an imaging device on the end effector capturing images in an immediate environment of the end effector, and computerized circuitry operating individual ones of the plurality of thrusters in response to the images captured by the imaging device. The refueling satellite deploys the fuel hose, and the computerized circuitry operates the thrusters to maneuver the end effector, bringing the fuel supply nozzle to a location to deliver fuel.

System and method of wireless communication in UAV systems that uses geolocation-based beamforming. The antenna array on the transmit device is first calibrated to compensate the random phase errors of the antenna. During operation, the geolocations of the UAV and its remote control and the rotational position of the transmit device are used to determine a beamforming direction. A beamforming vector is selected based on the beamforming direction. The beamformer on the transmit device then beamforms the antenna array such that data or other information can be transmitted to the receive device in the beamforming direction.

A computer implemented method of real-time condition monitoring of UMVs, the method including the steps of: receiving, in a control centre computer processing system, unmanned vehicle (UMV) condition data from a UMV; receiving, in the control centre computer processing system, UMV condition data from a network of condition-sensing UMV tracking stations: comparing, in the control centre computer processing system, the condition data from the UMV and the condition-sensing UMV tracking stations; and instructing, by the control centre computer processing system, the UMV to take an action in response to the comparison of condition data.

A tagging drone (TD) responds to a received query of availability initiated from a command and control drone (CCD) or command and control station (CCS), over a network, for investigating or tagging a designated target. The TD receives one or more dispatching instructions and heads to the designated target. The TD performs tagging of the designated target and determines whether the designated target was successfully tagged as a tagged target. The tagged target is tracked and tracking data is provided for recovery resource capture of the tagged target.