Disclosed herein is a method and system for flying rotary wing drone. An add-on flight camera that is free to rotate around the vehicle's yaw axis is attached to the drone. The flight camera is automatically looking in the direction of its flight. The video from the flight camera is streamed to the operator's display. Thus the rotary wing drone can fly in any direction with respect to its structure, giving the operator a first person view along the flight path, thus keeping high level of situational awareness to the operator. The information required for controlling the camera orientation is derived from sensors, such as GPS, magnetometers, gyros and accelerometer. As a backup mode the information can be derived from propeller commands or tilt sensors.

A marine monitoring system includes a control device 1 and at least one flight vehicle 2. The control device 1 includes: a sensor unit 13 that measures at least one of an underwater environment and a sea-surface environment to acquire marine data; a control unit 16 that controls the flight vehicle 2; and a communication unit 15 that receives above-water data measured by the flight vehicle 2. The flight vehicle 2 includes a sensor unit 24 that measures an above-water environment according to control of the control device 1 to acquire the above-water data, and a communication unit 21 that transmits the above-water data to the control device 1.

A portable robotic platform system and method for automatically detecting, locating, and marking underground assets are provided. The portable robotic platform includes a housing with a sensor module including ground penetrating radar (GPR), LiDAR, and electromagnetic (EM) sensors. The robotic platform automatically collects GPR and EM data and uses onboard post-processing techniques to interpret the sensor data and identify the location(s) of underground infrastructure. The portable robotic platform can be deployed to apply paint to a ground surface to identify the located underground assets.

The invention relates to the provision of a robotic machine apparatus, a movement navigation system for said robotic machine and a method of providing guidance for said robotic machine within an environment, and most typically, a confined and potentially hazardous environment. The movement navigation is provided to be operate within the environment and provide guidance remotely from personnel who are located outside of said environment. The apparatus includes means to emit at least one signal through a window of said machine and means to receive a reflected return signal from an object in or a surface of the said environment through said or another window so as to provide data to determine the location of the robotic machine and guide the movement of the machine within the environment.

Disclosed are a video capturing method and apparatus using an unmanned aerial vehicle, an unmanned aerial vehicle and a storage medium. The method includes: determining a rotation speed of a gimbal according to a target flight distance of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a target rotation angle of the gimbal; determining an initial rotation angle of the gimbal according to a rotation direction and the target rotation angle of the gimbal, and controlling the gimbal to rotate from a current rotation angle to the initial rotation angle; and capturing a video of a target object from the initial rotation angle to the target rotation angle according to a flight direction and the target flight distance of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the rotation speed and the rotation direction of the gimbal.

A method for characterizing, in real time, atmospheric conditions in the environment of an aircraft, comprises steps of deploying, at a distance from the aircraft, a plurality of drones carrying equipment for characterizing atmospheric conditions, of calculating and transmitting positioning instructions for each drone with respect to the aircraft, of collecting, at one or more of these drones, measured data or calculated data regarding atmospheric variables, of transmitting these measured data thus collected from these drones to the aircraft, and processing these measured data thus transmitted so as to identify one or more atmospheric phenomena liable to affect the static and/or dynamic behavior of the aircraft.

The present disclosure relates to the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and discloses a gimbal control method, a controller, an unmanned aerial vehicle and an unmanned aerial vehicle inspection system. The gimbal control method, applied to a UAV, acquires inspection information about the UAV, including an observation flight leg, an observation interval corresponding to the observation flight leg, a total flight range corresponding to the observation interval and the current flight range. Then, the observation progress of the UAV is determined according to the current flight range and the total flight range. A first position, position of center point of the field of view of the nacelle of UAV, is determined according to the observation progress and the observation interval. Finally, the angle of the gimbal of the UAV is controlled according to the first position and the current position of the UAV.

Disclosed herein is a method and system for flying rotary wing drone. An add-on flight camera that is free to rotate around the vehicle's yaw axis is attached to the drone. The flight camera is automatically looking in the direction of its flight. The video from the flight camera is streamed to the operator's display. Thus the rotary wing drone can fly in any direction with respect to its structure, giving the operator a first person view along the flight path, thus keeping high level of situational awareness to the operator. The information required for controlling the camera orientation is derived from sensors, such as GPS, magnetometers, gyros and accelerometer. As a backup mode the information can be derived from propeller commands or tilt sensors.

Systems, methods, and devices are provided herein for controlling one or more movable objects via a graphical user interface. A method for controlling a movable object may be provided. The method may comprise obtaining one or more parameters of a target object, and generating a motion path for the movable object based on the one or more parameters of the target object. The motion path may comprise a plurality of spatial points that are defined relative to the one or more parameters of the target object. The plurality of spatial points may be configured to be on one or more planes.

A system and method is disclosed for configuring a group of mobile field devices using a configuration device (an HMI) is provided. In particular, the HMI is programmed to configure identically programmed field devices that are arbitrarily arranged in an application-dependent formation by defining and providing configuration parameters to the devices via wired and/or wireless communication. In particular, the HMI assigns a unique identifier to respective robots as a function of the position of the robot within the formation or the layout of the environment. Accordingly each robot can be efficiently configured by the HMI to operate independently yet as a coordinated member of the group and without requiring the robots to be placed in specific positions during the initial deployment. This obviates the need for constant independent control commands for each robot by a central controller or providing a customized control program to each robot during deployment.