Technologies and implementations for using unmanned aerial vehicles in emergency applications.

A coordinated support system for drones includes support units that have the shape and size of a common container and can be easily moved by using common road tractors, so to position a drone fleet close to a fire, possibly recover the aircraft at the end of the mission, and enable transfer during the mission to areas of strategic interest or priority importance to effectively fight the spreading of fire fronts in real time. Coordination and control are carried out through a control unit. The drones are powered by batteries, the automated replacement and recharging of which extends flight autonomy. The system enables an initial filling and subsequent multiple refills of the drones with an extinguishing liquid contained in small dispersible containers, which can be hooked and unhooked from the drones by remote control so to perform multiple missions.

An unmanned insurance drone can include a drone body and a sensor unit disposed on the drone body to collect sensor data. An on-board data processor converts the sensor data into insurance related information, and a wireless communication unit in communication with the data processor to transmit the insurance related information. In another example, the data processor may not be on the drone but remotely located. The location can be with the pilot or a control collection location. If the insurance related information is separate from the drone, than the wireless communication unit can transmit the raw sensor data to the processor.

An aircraft for unmanned firefighting may include a water tank fillable via a scoop operation during flight of the aircraft, and configured to be emptied by a release operation at a target of interest, a communications module configured to employ wireless communication via a ground link and/or a satellite link to provide real time or near real time communication with a remote configuration or monitoring facility, an imaging module configured to obtain image data at the target of interest for identifying updated target information, and a navigation module configured to enable remote or autonomous operation of the aircraft during the scoop operation and the release operation.

An aircraft that can fly stably when water is discharged from a hose installed on the airframe, and an aircraft system, are provided. The aircraft system can include a master aircraft, slave aircrafts and a remote control device. The aircraft preferably fly as a unit. Each slave aircraft can include four rotary blade portions having propellers, and a suspending means for suspending a part of a hose. The master aircraft may include four first rotary blade portions having first propellers arranged to rotate in a horizontal plane, four second rotary blade portions having second propellers arranged to rotate in a vertical plane, and a nozzle on which a tip end part of the hose is installed. The direction of the center axis of the nozzle is parallel to the direction of the rotational axes of the second propellers.

Presently disclosed subject matter integrates a method of using thousands of semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, herein called drones, to deliver vastly superior amounts of fire retardant over substantially larger and variably-shaped drop patterns. Each drone is able to swap its own batteries with freshly charged batteries and each drone is able to refill its container with water or fire retardant. Once launched, a swarm of drones can perform repeated trips from the water/retardant source to the fire without human involvement other than the high-level tasking of where to drop the retardant. Once a general drop destination and drop pattern shape is designated, the swarm can transport retardant to that location, form itself into the desired drop shape, and deploy retardant. The drone body is designed to be modular so different components can be attached with ease and no special training or knowledge required.

A method of fire-fighting is provided based on unmanned aerial vehicles UAV(s) launched from transporter aircrafts to deliver water or fire-retardants or any other fire-fighting materials to a location selected by the fire-fighting personnel. A capability of putting-off high intensity forest fires is provided that stems from the precision and the quantity of material that can be delivered per unit surface per unit time. After releasing the fire-fighting material(s), the UAV reaches a safe altitude from which it flies on autopilot to intercept and then proceed on a pre-programmed route to land per pre-programmed instructions on an airfield from which fire-fighting transporter(s) operate, allowing a high efficiency along the line, from loading the transporter airplanes to maximizing the quantity of material that reach the target, to minimizing the remote-pilot time and up to the recovery system that minimizes the recovery cost and it maximizes UAVs' utilization by a quick turnaround.

A monitoring system that includes a monitoring center unit, a monitoring camera, and a drone device. The monitoring system is a system for monitoring a monitoring target area in a predetermined range, starting the drone device when an abnormality is detected, and dealing with the generated abnormality.

A fire suppression drone comprises a main body, a plurality of propellers provided on an outer circumference of the main body and driven by a driving motor, a pump provided in the main body and connected to a water feeding vehicle through a water feeding hose, at least one water jet nozzle provided on the outer circumference of the main body to jet water supplied by the pump, a camera provided on the outer circumference of the main body, and a controller connected with the driving motor, the pump, and the camera and connected with a remote controller to be wirelessly communicable with the remote controller, wherein the remote controller includes a monitor, the monitor capable of display, in real-time, an image captured by the camera.

The invention relates to an air-transportable device (100) for projecting pressurized liquid over a surface, comprising a rotating washing head and an inspection system (11) with LED bulbs and cameras. The air-transportable device (100) is secured to an aircraft (200, 500) by the upper surface thereof or by means of straps and can be configured for different uses such as cleaning wind and photovoltaic facilities, extinguishing fires or cleaning insulators.