JP6715541B1 - Aircraft management server and management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To store arbitrary point information regarding an arbitrary point instructed by an operator on a flight route in a work for an air vehicle to obtain information at an information acquisition scheduled point on the flight route, and to execute after the fact. To provide a management server and management system that makes it easy to check information on arbitrary points. A management server according to the present invention is a management server, which is connected to a user terminal and a flying body via a network, and manages information acquired by the flying body, and transmits a planned flight route to the flying body. A communication unit, an information acquisition scheduled point information storage unit that stores information acquisition scheduled point information regarding points at which the aircraft is scheduled to acquire the acquisition information on the scheduled flight route, and instructs the scheduled flight route during flight. An arbitrary point information storage unit that stores arbitrary point information regarding the generated arbitrary points. [Selection diagram] Fig. 7

Description

The present invention relates to an aircraft management server and management system.

In recent years, aircrafts such as drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (hereinafter collectively referred to as “aircraft”) have begun to be used in industry. Under such circumstances, Patent Document 1 discloses a system in which an object is sequentially imaged at a plurality of waypoints set in advance.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2014-089160

However, when the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is used for surveying, inspection, or the like, an operator collectively confirms the captured images after the aircraft sequentially captures the target at a plurality of preset waypoints. Become. Therefore, when the object to be photographed is large or wide, the number of images to be confirmed by the operator can be enormous. Then, for example, when re-checking the image set as the attention target by the worker such as finding an abnormality, the worker has to find the attention image from a large number of images having similar appearances. Therefore, the confirmation work becomes complicated. Furthermore, it is difficult to intuitively understand at which position on the map the point at which the target image was captured was captured.

Further, it is possible to consider a configuration in which an operator takes an image of an air vehicle at an arbitrary point, instead of the form disclosed in Patent Document 1, but the image capturing point may be different every time. Not suitable for fixed-point observation.

The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and in particular, in a work in which an air vehicle acquires information at an information acquisition scheduled point on a flight route, an arbitrary point designated by an operator on the flight route It is an object of the present invention to provide a management server and a management system in which information on arbitrary points regarding the information is stored and it is easy to confirm information on the arbitrary points afterwards.

A main invention of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is a management server which is connected to a user terminal and a flying body via a network and manages the acquired information acquired by the flying body. A communication unit that transmits to the body, an information acquisition scheduled point information storage unit that stores information acquisition scheduled point information regarding points on the scheduled flight route for which the flight object will acquire the acquisition information, and a flight scheduled flight route. An arbitrary point information storage unit that stores arbitrary point information relating to an arbitrary point instructed therein, wherein the arbitrary point information is position information of the arbitrary point, or an elapsed time from a flight start point to the arbitrary point. A management server, which is any one of information and flight distance information from a flight start point to the arbitrary point.

According to the present invention, in particular, in the work of acquiring information at the information acquisition scheduled point on the flight route, the arbitrary point information relating to any point instructed by the operator on the flight route is stored, It is possible to provide a management server and a management system that make it easy to confirm information about an arbitrary point afterwards.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the management system by embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the management server of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the user terminal of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the flying body of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the function of the management server of FIG. It is a flow figure showing an outline of a flow of processing of this system. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process especially regarding acquisition of arbitrary point information among the flows of a process of this system. It is a figure which shows the example of a report production|generation by embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of another generation of the report by embodiment of this invention.

The contents of the embodiments of the present invention will be listed and described. The flight management server and the flight management system according to the embodiment of the present invention have the following configurations.
[Item 1]
A management server that manages the acquired information acquired by the aircraft, which is connected to the user terminal and the aircraft via a network,
A communication unit for transmitting the planned flight route to the aircraft,
An information acquisition scheduled point information storage unit that stores information acquisition scheduled point information regarding points at which the flight object is scheduled to acquire the acquisition information on the scheduled flight route,
An arbitrary point information storage unit that stores arbitrary point information regarding an arbitrary point instructed during the flight on the planned flight route;
Equipped with
The arbitrary point information is any one of position information of the arbitrary point, elapsed time information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point, and flight distance information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point. Management server characterized by.
[Item 2]
The acquisition information related to the arbitrary point information, or an arbitrary acquisition information setting unit that sets the acquisition information of the information acquisition scheduled point closest to the arbitrary point as arbitrary acquisition information, and the arbitrary acquisition information in the acquisition information. Further comprising a marker giving unit for giving a marker identifiable as
The management server according to item 1, which is characterized in that
[Item 3]
And a report generation unit that generates a report in which display information indicating the arbitrary point or the arbitrary point information is superimposed on a map image,
The management server according to item 1 or 2, which is characterized in that
[Item 4]
The report generation unit generates a report emphasizing the arbitrary acquisition information,
The management server according to item 3, characterized in that
[Item 5]
The acquisition information is a captured image from the flying object,
The management server according to items 1 to 4, characterized in that
[Item 6]
A management system for an aircraft, which includes a management server that manages the acquired information acquired by the aircraft, which is connected to the user terminal and the aircraft via a network,
The management server is:
Sending the planned flight route to the aircraft;
Store information acquisition scheduled point information regarding points on the flight scheduled route at which the air vehicle is scheduled to acquire the acquisition information;
The aircraft acquires information at the information acquisition scheduled point;
Storing arbitrary point information relating to arbitrary points designated during flight on the planned flight route;
The arbitrary point information is any one of position information of the arbitrary point, elapsed time information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point, and flight distance information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point;
Aircraft management system.

<Details of the embodiment>
Hereinafter, with respect to an unmanned air vehicle management server and a flight management system according to an embodiment of the present invention, an embodiment of a management system (hereinafter referred to as “the present system”) will be described in particular. In the accompanying drawings, the same or similar reference numerals and names are given to the same or similar elements, and redundant description of the same or similar elements may be omitted in the description of each embodiment. Further, the features shown in each embodiment can be applied to other embodiments as long as they do not contradict each other.

<Structure>
As shown in FIG. 1, the present system includes a management server 1, a plurality of user terminals 2 and 3, one or more flying bodies 4, and one or more flying body storage devices 5. The management server 1, the user terminals 2 and 3, the flying body 4, and the flying body storage device 5 are communicably connected to each other via a network. Note that the illustrated configuration is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, the configuration may be such that the user does not have the aircraft storage device 5 and is carried by a user.

<Management server 1>
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the management server 1. Note that the illustrated configuration is an example, and other configurations may be included.

As illustrated, the management server 1 is connected to the plurality of user terminals 2, 3 and the flying body 4 and the flying body storage device 5, and constitutes a part of the present system. The management server 1 may be a general-purpose computer such as a workstation or a personal computer, or may be logically realized by cloud computing.

The management server 1 includes at least a processor 10, a memory 11, a storage 12, a transmission/reception unit 13, an input/output unit 14, and the like, which are electrically connected to each other via a bus 15.

The processor 10 is an arithmetic unit that controls the overall operation of the management server 1, controls transmission/reception of data between each element, and executes information processing necessary for execution of applications and authentication processing. For example, the processor 10 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and executes a program or the like for this system stored in the storage 12 and expanded in the memory 11 to execute each information processing.

The memory 11 includes a main memory configured by a volatile storage device such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and an auxiliary storage configured by a non-volatile storage device such as a flash memory or an HDD (Hard Disc Drive). .. The memory 11 is used as a work area or the like of the processor 10, and also stores a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) executed when the management server 1 is started, and various setting information.

The storage 12 stores various programs such as application programs. A database that stores data used for each process may be built in the storage 12.

The transmission/reception unit 13 connects the management server 1 to the network and the block chain network. The transmission/reception unit 13 may include a short-range communication interface of Bluetooth (registered trademark) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).

The input/output unit 14 is an information input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an output device such as a display.

The bus 15 is commonly connected to the above-mentioned elements and transmits, for example, an address signal, a data signal and various control signals.

<User terminals 2 and 3>
The user terminals 2 and 3 shown in FIG. 3 also include a processor 20, a memory 21, a storage 22, a transmission/reception unit 23, an input/output unit 24, and the like, which are electrically connected to each other via a bus 25. Since the function of each element can be configured similarly to the management server 1 described above, detailed description of each element will be omitted.

<Aircraft 4>
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the flying body 4. Flight controller 41 can include one or more processors, such as programmable processors (eg, central processing units (CPU)).

Further, the flight controller 41 has a memory 411 and can access the memory. Memory 411 stores logic, code, and/or program instructions that the flight controller can execute to perform one or more steps. The flight controller 41 may also include sensors 412 such as an inertial sensor (acceleration sensor, gyro sensor), GPS sensor, proximity sensor (e.g., rider).

The memory 411 may include, for example, a separable medium such as an SD card or a random access memory (RAM) or an external storage device. The data obtained from the cameras/sensors 42 may be directly transmitted to and stored in the memory 411. For example, still image/moving image data captured by a camera or the like is recorded in an internal memory or an external memory. The camera 42 is installed on the flying body 4 via a gimbal 43.

The flight controller 41 includes a control module (not shown) configured to control the state of the air vehicle. For example, the control module may adjust the spatial arrangement, velocity, and/or acceleration of an air vehicle having 6 degrees of freedom (translational motions x, y and z, and rotational motions θ _x , θ _y and θ _z ). , ESC44 (Electric Speed Controller) to control the propulsion mechanism (motor 45, etc.) of the aircraft. The motor 45 supplied from the battery 48 rotates the propeller 46 to generate lift of the flight vehicle. The control module can control one or more of the states of the mount and sensors.

The flight controller 41 is configured to send and/or receive data from one or more external devices (eg, transceiver (prop) 49, terminal, display, or other remote controller). It is possible to communicate with the unit 47. The transceiver 49 can use any suitable communication means such as wired communication or wireless communication.

For example, the transmission/reception unit 47 uses one or more of a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), infrared, wireless, WiFi, a point-to-point (P2P) network, a telecommunication network, cloud communication, and the like. can do.

The transmission/reception unit 47 transmits and/or receives one or more of data acquired by the sensors 42, a processing result generated by the flight controller 41, predetermined control data, a user command from a terminal or a remote controller, and the like. be able to.

The sensors 42 according to the present embodiment may include an inertial sensor (acceleration sensor, gyro sensor), a GPS sensor, a proximity sensor (eg, rider), or a vision/image sensor (eg, camera).

<Management server functions>
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating functions implemented in the management server 1. The management server 1 includes a communication unit 110, a flight mission generation unit 120, an arbitrary acquisition information setting unit 130, a marker addition unit 140, a report generation unit 150, and a storage unit 160. The flight mission generation unit 120 includes a route generation unit 122, an evaluation unit 124, and a correction unit 126. The storage unit 160 also includes various databases such as a flight route information storage unit 162, a flight log storage unit 164, an arbitrary point information storage unit 166, and an interface information storage unit 168. Although not shown, the flight route information storage unit 162 stores information acquisition scheduled point information, which is information about preset information acquisition points (so-called waypoints) on the flight route. A scheduled point storage unit is also included.

The communication unit 110 communicates with the user terminals 2 and 3 and the flying body 4. The communication unit 110 also functions as a reception unit that receives a flight request from the user terminals 2 and 3. It should be noted that the flight request may include any of the flight location, the flight purpose, and the number of air vehicles. The flight mission generation unit 120 generates a flight mission. The flight mission includes at least the planned flight route. The scheduled flight route is generated by the route generation unit 122 with reference to the flight route information storage unit 162. The scheduled flight route is based on the information (for example, position information, storage state information, storage machine information, etc.) in the aircraft storage device 5 managed by the management server 1, and is the aircraft storage device at the departure or return destination. It may be generated as a flight route including the positions of 5 as well.

In the present embodiment, an evaluation unit 124 that evaluates whether or not the generated flight mission is appropriate may be provided. The evaluation unit 124 may evaluate the suitability of the flight mission by a score or the like by the user's operation on the flight mission, machine learning based on flight missions accumulated in the past, or the like. If the score is not within the predetermined range, the flight mission is corrected by the correction unit 126.

In the present embodiment, for example, the information (still image, moving image, voice, and other information) acquired by the air vehicle 4 is the flight information at the information acquisition scheduled point on the flight scheduled route set in the flight mission. It is accumulated in the log storage unit 164. In addition, when the user specifies from the user terminals 2 and 3 an arbitrary point on the planned flight route that is different from the information acquisition scheduled point, arbitrary point information regarding the arbitrary point (for example, position information acquired from a GPS sensor or flight). Information on the elapsed time from the start point, flight distance information, etc.) is accumulated in the arbitrary point information storage unit 166. When acquiring the arbitrary point information, the air vehicle can also acquire the information. Thereby, the acquisition information regarding the arbitrary point information can be acquired separately from the acquisition information regarding the information acquisition scheduled points. However, in that case, there is a problem that the data management of both acquisition information becomes complicated, and the data capacity in the management server 1 and the communication amount from the air vehicle 4 also increase. Although an embodiment will be described in which only the above is stored, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments when the problem can be tolerated.

The arbitrary acquisition information setting unit 130 acquires the acquisition information related to the arbitrary point information storage unit 166 (for example, the same as the position information of the arbitrary point or a still image or moving image including the position, the same as the elapsed time information of the arbitrary point or the same). (Such as voice including time), or the acquisition information of the information acquisition scheduled point closest to the arbitrary point (for example, the acquisition information closest to the position information of the arbitrary point and the information acquisition scheduled point, (The acquisition information immediately before the acquisition of the arbitrary point information selected based on the elapsed time information) is set as the arbitrary acquisition information.

The marker attaching unit 140 attaches a marker that can be subsequently identified as the arbitrary acquisition information to the acquisition information set as the arbitrary acquisition information. The marker may be in any form as long as it can be discriminated as arbitrary acquisition information afterwards, for example, a form in which an identification code or a flag is added in data management, or a judgment mark is added to the acquisition information itself (for example, , Characters or graphics may be superimposed on a part of a still image or video, a specific sound may be inserted at the beginning or end of the sound), a specific character string may be added to the data name of recorded data, It is not limited to this.

The report generation unit 150 generates report information to be transmitted to the user terminals 2 and 3 based on the flight log storage unit 164. The report according to the present embodiment may be, for example, the inspection result of the inspection target facility, the security result of the security target facility, or the like, but may be various reports according to needs.

The report generation unit 150 may generate the report information by referring to the arbitrary acquisition information setting unit 130, the marker addition unit 140, and the arbitrary point information storage unit 166. As a more specific example, when generating the report information from the acquired information and the map image, the display information indicating the arbitrary point information is superimposed on the map image (for example, the arbitrary point information itself or the abbreviated one is used as a character. Display, superimpose marks etc. on arbitrary points, emphasize display of arbitrarily acquired information (for example, frame the thumbnail images of still images and videos set in arbitrarily acquired information, position of acquired audio information) The color of the mark or the like superimposed on is different from other colors, etc.), but is not limited thereto.

The interface information storage unit 168 stores various control information to be displayed on the display unit (display or the like) of the user terminals 2 and 3.

With reference to FIG. 6, an outline of the processing flow of this system will be illustrated. The user transmits a flight request from the user terminals 2 and 3 (SQ101). The management server 1 refers to the storage unit 160 (see FIG. 5) (SQ102) and generates a flight mission (SQ104). The generated flight mission is directly (or indirectly via a terminal or a radio transmitter) transmitted to the flying body 4 (SQ106). The flying body 4 transmits (reports) the information acquired during the execution of the flight mission to the management server 1 in real time (or after the fact) (SQ108). The management server 1 generates a report based on the information (flight log) acquired from the flying body 4 (SQ110). The management server 1 outputs the generated report as a result to the user terminals 2 and 3 (SQ112). The flight start position of the flying body 4 may be a place installed by the user or the flying body storage device 5 selected by the management server 1. The same applies to the flight end position of the flying body 4.

With reference to FIG. 7, an example of the flow of processing particularly related to the acquisition of arbitrary point information among the flow of processing of the present system will be described. First, the management server 1 transmits a flight mission to the flying body 4 (SQ106). The air vehicle 4 starts information acquisition by the air vehicle 4 at the information acquisition scheduled point (way point) on the flight scheduled route set in the flight mission (SQ201). When the instruction to acquire the arbitrary point information at the arbitrary points is transmitted from the user terminals 2 and 3, the flying body 4 acquires the arbitrary point information (SQ202) and transmits the arbitrary point information to the storage unit 160 to transmit the arbitrary points. The information is stored in the information storage unit 166 (SQ205). The arbitrary point information may be transmitted in real time, or may be transmitted together with the flight log after being accumulated in the flying body 4. Further, the instruction to acquire the arbitrary point information may be directly transmitted from the user terminals 2 and 3 to the flying body 4, or may be transmitted to the flying body 4 via the management server 1. When the air vehicle 4 has acquired information at all information acquisition scheduled points (way points), the information acquisition ends (SQ206), the flight log is transmitted to the storage unit 160, and is stored in the flight log storage unit 164. Yes (SQ108). As described above, in the management server 1, the arbitrary acquisition information setting unit 130 sets the arbitrary acquisition information and the marker adding unit 140 adds the marker (SQ207). Finally, as described above, the management server 1 generates a report in the report generation unit 150 (SQ110), and outputs the report to the user terminals 2 and 3 as a result (SQ112).

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of generating a report in this embodiment. A planned flight route 81 (a route that has been flown at the time of report generation) is displayed on the map image 80. For the sake of explanation, FIG. 8 shows the planned flight route 81 and the planned information acquisition points 82 (information acquired points at the time of report generation), but these may not be displayed at the time of report generation. Further, the still image 83 is superimposed on the map image 80 as the acquired information, and the still image 85 is emphasized by the frame enclosure different from the other still images 83 as the arbitrary acquired information. Further, a mark 84 indicating an arbitrary point is superimposed on the map image 80, and the arbitrary point information is displayed as a character on the mark 84.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of generating a report in this embodiment. On the map image 80, only the still image 85 is superimposed as the acquisition information that is the closest to the arbitrary point as the arbitrary acquisition information, and the frame enclosure is highlighted in red, for example. Further, a mark 84 indicating an arbitrary point is superimposed on the map image 80, and the arbitrary point information is displayed as a character on the mark 84. As shown in FIG. 8, the mark 84 may be displayed so as to be superimposed on the still image 85 depending on the position of an arbitrary point.

8 and 9 show an example of generating a report as an example, the present invention is not limited to this, and still images 83 may have a range in which they overlap each other.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The flying object of the present invention can be used in airplane-related industries such as multicopter drones, and further, the present invention can be preferably used as an aerial imaging flying object equipped with a camera and the like. It can also be used in various industries such as security field, agriculture, infrastructure monitoring, surveying, inspection of sports venues such as golf courses and tennis courts, inspection of roofs of buildings such as factories and warehouses.

The above-described embodiments are merely examples for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not for limiting the interpretation of the present invention. It goes without saying that the present invention can be modified and improved without departing from the spirit thereof and that the present invention includes equivalents thereof.

1 Management Server 2 User Terminal 4 Aircraft

Claims (6)

A management server that manages the acquired information acquired by the aircraft, which is connected to the user terminal and the aircraft via a network,
A communication unit for transmitting the planned flight route to the aircraft,
An information acquisition scheduled point information storage unit that stores information acquisition scheduled point information regarding points at which the flight object is scheduled to acquire the acquisition information on the scheduled flight route,
An arbitrary point information storage unit that stores arbitrary point information regarding an arbitrary point instructed during the flight on the planned flight route;
Equipped with
The acquisition information is at least one of a still image and a moving image,
At the arbitrary point, neither the still image nor the moving image is acquired as the arbitrary point information,
A management server characterized by the above. The arbitrary point information is position information of the arbitrary point, or elapsed time information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point, flight distance information from the flight start point to the arbitrary point information,
The management server according to claim 1, wherein: The acquisition information related to the arbitrary point information, or an arbitrary acquisition information setting unit that sets the acquisition information of the information acquisition scheduled point closest to the arbitrary point as arbitrary acquisition information,
The acquisition information further comprises a marker providing unit for providing a marker that can be discriminated as the arbitrary acquisition information,
The management server according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized in that. And a report generation unit that generates a report in which display information indicating the arbitrary point or the arbitrary point information is superimposed on a map image,
The management server according to claim 1 , wherein the management server is a management server. The report generation unit generates a report emphasizing the arbitrary acquisition information,
The management server according to claim 4 , wherein: A management system for an aircraft, which includes a management server that manages the acquired information acquired by the aircraft, which is connected to the user terminal and the aircraft via a network,
The management server is
Send the scheduled flight route to the aircraft,
The information acquisition scheduled point information regarding the point at which the air vehicle is scheduled to acquire the acquisition information on the scheduled flight route is stored,
At the information acquisition scheduled point, the aircraft acquires information,
Stores arbitrary point information regarding arbitrary points instructed during flight on the planned flight route,
The acquisition information is at least one of a still image and a moving image,
At the arbitrary point, neither the still image nor the moving image is acquired as the arbitrary point information ,
Aircraft management system.

Images