The Walt Disney Company
Aerial show system using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) energy to animate creative show element

Abstract:

An aerial show system for leveraging downwash and other forces to use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as a creative element in a show. UAVs in the aerial show system each include a propulsion and lift mechanism, which generates downwash as it moves the UAV about a show's airspace. The aerial show system also includes one-to-many show effect devices adapted to make use of the downwash to activate or animate one or more movable components to generate a desired show effect, e.g., a spinning propeller or fan on an object carried or tethered beneath the UAV chassis/body. The movable component would otherwise be static or passive and relies on the potential and/or kinetic energy created by the UAV in airspace for actuation or animation.