Скачать или смотреть Drone Flies Tow Lines to Ships

www.uavpatents.com/drone-flies-tow-lines-to-ships/

The sea can be a perilous place. Unpredictable, cruel, and relentless. But the world must go on, and for ship operations, sometimes you need to get a rope across. For example, resupplying a ship with fuel or fresh water can be done offshore, as long as you can get the pipe from the depot to the vessel. Sometimes one ship has to tow another ship that is disabled.

Currently, this perilous task is done with small boats, but this is not always without incidents. Rough waters or the tow line getting snagged underneath the small boat can make a bad day worse. Flying the tow line with a helicopter or plane is risky because the line can get snagged on trees or rocks, causing the aircraft to crash.

Textron Innovations have come up with a solution: a drone capable of VTOL and forward flight, equipped with a spool for a tow line. It takes off vertically, flies to the ship, and detaches the tow line. Then, it returns home.

In addition, the spool is equipped with an array of sensors that communicate with the aircraft, "initiating the aircraft response in response to the tow line tension parameter may include reducing a speed of the aircraft in response to the tow line tension parameter exceeding a speed reaction threshold." The information from the spool sensors "may include changing a flight orientation of the aircraft from a forward flight orientation to a VTOL orientation in response to the tow line tension parameter exceeding an orientation reaction threshold."

Title: “Tow Line Tension Management Systems For Aircraft”
US Patent Application No: 20240051661
Filed (US Reg.):  2022-08-10
Published: 2024-02-15
Applicant: Textron Innovations Inc.