Hybrid Aerial Surveillance System: A Drone-Tethered Airship for Prolonged Remote Monitoring

Continuous remote aerial surveillance over extended durations poses significant challenges, particularly in environments where deploying ground-based infrastructure for tethered drones or aerostats is impractical. Conventional multirotor drones offer agility but are constrained by limited endurance, while airships provide energy-efficient lift but lack control authority and are vulnerable to wind disturbances. This paper presents a novel hybrid aerial platform that combines a helium-lifted airship with a multirotor drone, integrating the benefits of buoyant lift and rotor-based control. The drone acts as both a propulsion system and a dynamic anchor via a tethered winch mechanism, enabling stable station-keeping and modular operation. A detailed design methodology is presented, including mission-driven sizing and subsystem architecture. Comparative analysis with a pure multirotor configuration demonstrates significant gains in endurance and operational range, underscoring the platform’s potential for persistent surveillance and remote monitoring applications.