JP7265669B1 - radio altimeter, unmanned rotorcraft - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides optimization of the position of a transmitting antenna of a radio altimeter used to carry cargo and mounted on an unmanned rotary wing aircraft having no fixed wings and capable of vertical take-off and landing. An unmanned rotary wing aircraft (1) includes an immovable landing leg (60) fixed to a body (50), the landing leg (60) has a ground contact portion (61) for contacting the ground, and a frame connecting the ground contact portion (61) and the body (50). Including part 63 . Radio altimeter 70 includes a transmitting antenna 71 for emitting radio waves. The transmitting antenna 71 is fixed to the ground portion 61 of the unmanned rotary wing aircraft 1 or to a portion of the frame portion 63 located near the ground portion 61 . The position of the cargo loaded on the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is limited to a predetermined range 80 that is below the fuselage 50 and above the transmitting antenna 71 and that does not interfere with the downwash created by the plurality of rotorcraft 10. It is [Selection drawing] Fig. 1

Description

The present disclosure relates to the location of the transmitting antenna of a radio altimeter used to carry cargo and mounted on a non-fixed-wing, vertical take-off and landing unmanned rotorcraft.

Needless to mention prior art documents, so-called drones, multicopters, etc. are already well known as unmanned rotary wing aircraft that are used for transporting cargo and do not have fixed wings and are capable of vertical take-off and landing. Drones or multicopters equipped with radio altimeters are already well known.

An unmanned rotary wing aircraft that does not have fixed wings and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing moves horizontally while leaning forward in the direction of travel. Therefore, it is desirable that the transmitting antenna of the radio altimeter mounted on the unmanned rotary-wing aircraft has a large half-value angle in order to radiate radio waves toward the ground in the vertical direction from the unmanned rotary-wing aircraft that is tilted forward. However, when the half-value angle of the transmitting antenna is large, there is a high probability that the cargo mounted on the unmanned rotorcraft will be irradiated with radio waves and the receiving antenna will receive the reflected waves from the cargo. In this case, the absolute altitude of the unmanned rotorcraft cannot be measured correctly.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure aims to provide optimization of the position of the transmitting antenna of a radio altimeter used to carry cargo and mounted on a non-fixed-wing, vertical take-off and landing unmanned rotorcraft.

The technical matter set forth herein is not intended to limit the claimed invention, either expressly or implicitly, nor is it No representation is made of the possibility of accepting such limitations imposed by any person, but merely to facilitate understanding of the gist of this disclosure. A summary of the disclosure from other aspects can be obtained, for example, from the claims as filed of this patent application.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, the transmitting antenna of the radio altimeter is fixed to or near the grounding portion of the landing leg of the unmanned rotary wing aircraft, and the loading position of the cargo in the unmanned rotary wing aircraft is above the transmitting antenna. Limited.

Since the radio altimeter's transmitting antenna is located below the cargo, there is no possibility that the cargo will be illuminated by radio waves from the transmitting antenna.

The front view of an unmanned rotorcraft. The top view of an unmanned rotorcraft. A bottom view of an unmanned rotorcraft. A state in flight of an unmanned rotorcraft. A state in flight of an unmanned rotorcraft.

In an embodiment, the unmanned rotary wing aircraft 1 is an unmanned rotary wing aircraft that is used for carrying cargo and has no fixed wings and is capable of vertical take-off and landing, as shown in FIGS. It is a multicopter.

The unmanned rotorcraft 1 includes a plurality of rotor blades 10, a plurality of electric motors 20 for driving the plurality of rotor blades 10, a battery 30 for supplying electrical energy to each of the plurality of electric motors 20, and an unmanned rotor. It includes a flight controller 40 for controlling the flight of the wing aircraft 1, a fuselage 50 equipped with a plurality of electric motors 20, a battery 30 and the flight controller 40, and an immovable landing leg 60 fixed to the fuselage 50. - 特許庁The number of rotor blades 10 is preferably three or more, and in the embodiment shown in the figures, the number of rotor blades 10 is four because the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is a quadcopter. The number of wing-like bodies included in rotor 10 is often two, but is not limited to this. The electric motor 20 is, for example, a brushless direct current motor. Battery 30 is, for example, a lithium ion polymer secondary battery. The flight controller 40 has a configuration in which various sensors (eg, an acceleration sensor, an angular velocity sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, an obstacle detection sensor, a GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor) and a processor are integrated. By controlling an ESC (Electric Speed Controller; not shown in each figure), the attitude and speed of the airframe 50 are controlled. A processor is hardware for controlling external devices by performing calculations using data from various sensors, and includes calculation units, registers, peripheral circuits, and cache memories as necessary. In this example, the airframe 50 has a rectangular parallelepiped main body and four arms extending in all directions from the main body, but is not limited to this. In the example shown in each figure, one electric motor 20 is attached to each of the tips of four arms. The landing leg 60 includes a ground contact portion 61 for contacting the ground and a frame portion 63 connecting the ground contact portion 61 and the fuselage 50 . Ground contact 61 may be a ferrule or a skid.

The radio altimeter 70 has a transmitting antenna 71 for emitting radio waves, a first receiving antenna 72 for receiving reflected waves of radio waves, radio waves radiated from the transmitting antenna 71 and reflected waves received by the first receiving antenna 72. A processor 79 for specifying the absolute altitude of the unmanned rotorcraft 1 by comparing the first cable 75 connecting the transmitting antenna 71 and the processor 79, the first receiving antenna 72 and the processor 79. A connecting second cable 76 is included. The measurement method of the radio altimeter 70 is generally an FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) method or a pulse method. When the ground portion 61 is in contact with the ground, the transmitting antenna 71 faces the ground and the maximum radiation direction of the transmitting antenna 71 is parallel to the vertical direction. When the maximum pitch angle of the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is θ, it is desirable that the half-value angle of the transmitting antenna 71 is 2θ or more. The processor 79 is attached to the fuselage 50 .

The transmitting antenna 71 is fixed to the ground portion 61 or a portion of the frame portion 63 located near the ground portion 61 . In the illustrated embodiment, the transmitting antenna 71 is fixed to a stay 90 attached to the lower end of the frame portion 63 near the ground portion 61 . The position of the cargo loaded on the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is limited to a predetermined range 80 . The predetermined range 80 satisfies the requirements of being below the fuselage 50 and above the transmitting antenna 71 and not impeding the downwash created by the multiple rotors 10 . Here, "impeding downwash" means obstructing the downdraft created by the plurality of rotor blades 10 to the extent that the unmanned rotorcraft 1 becomes difficult to levitate and fly.

In short, since the transmitting antenna 71 of the radio altimeter 70 is positioned below the predetermined range 80 where the cargo is loaded, there is no possibility that the cargo will be irradiated with radio waves from the transmitting antenna 71 . Since no reflected wave is generated from the cargo, failure in measuring the absolute altitude of the unmanned rotary wing aircraft 1 due to the reflected wave from the cargo does not occur.

A first receiving antenna 72 is fixed to the airframe 50 or the landing gear 60 . In the former case, it is desirable to be fixed to the tip of the arm of the fuselage 50 in order to prevent the cargo from interfering with the reflected waves. In the latter case, although not shown, the first receiving antenna 72 is preferably fixed to the ground portion 61 or a portion of the frame portion 63 located near the ground portion 61 . For example, the first receiving antenna 72 may be positioned next to the transmitting antenna 71 by being fixed to the stay 90 .

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the radio altimeter 70 further includes a second receiving antenna 73 for receiving the reflected wave of the radio wave from the transmitting antenna 71 and a second receiving antenna 73 connecting the second receiving antenna 73 and the processor 79 . 3 cable 77 may be included. In this case, the first receiving antenna 72 and the second receiving antenna 73 are fixed to the fuselage 50 . The first receiving antenna 72 and the second receiving antenna 73 are located outside the predetermined range 80, and in a state where the ground portion 61 is in contact with the ground, the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is viewed from the vertical direction. Then, the line connecting the first receiving antenna 72 and the second receiving antenna 73 crosses the predetermined range 80 . According to such a configuration, even if the traveling direction of the unmanned rotorcraft 1 is different by 180 degrees as shown in FIGS. reflected waves can be received satisfactorily without being affected by

<Addendum>
Although the invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes can be made and equivalents substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. deaf. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular system, device, or component thereof to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed for carrying out the invention, but include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Further, the use of the terms "first," "second," etc. does not imply order or importance, and the terms "first," "second," etc. are used to distinguish between elements. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the invention in any way. The term "comprising" and its conjugations, when used herein and/or in the appended claims, reveal the presence of the mentioned features, steps, operations, elements and/or components, does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed elements, if any. In the claims and the specification, unless otherwise stated, the terms "connect", "couple", "join", "link" or synonyms thereof and all forms thereof may be used, for example, to "connect" or "couple" to each other. does not necessarily deny the existence of one or more intermediate elements between the two that are "connected" or "connected" to each other. In the claims and in the specification, the term "arbitrary", if any, is to be understood as a term synonymous with the universal symbol ∀, unless otherwise specified. For example, the phrase "for any X" has the same meaning as "for all X" or "for each X".

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Moreover, terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be construed to have a meaning consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and this disclosure and are not explicitly defined. should not be interpreted ideally or overly formally unless

It will be appreciated that many techniques and steps are disclosed in describing the present invention. Each of these has individual advantages, and each can also be used in combination with one or more, and possibly all, of the other disclosed techniques. Therefore, to avoid clutter, this specification refrains from describing every possible combination of individual techniques or steps. Nevertheless, the specification and claims should be read with the understanding that such combinations are fully within the scope of the invention and claims.

Corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all functional elements combined with means or steps in the following claims refer to structures, if any, for performing a function in combination with other elements. intended to include , materials, or acts.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. Various changes and modifications are allowed without departing from the gist of the present invention. The selected and described embodiments are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention and its practical application. The present invention may be used in various embodiments with various modifications or variations determined according to the expected application. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and, when construed in accordance with the breadth given to fairness, lawfulness and fairness, the same It is intended to be protected.

1 Unmanned rotary wing aircraft 10 Rotor 20 Electric motor 30 Battery 40 Flight controller 50 Airframe 60 Landing leg 61 Ground part 63 Frame part 70 Radio altimeter 71 Transmitting antenna 72 First receiving antenna 73 Second receiving antenna 75 Cable 76 Cable 77 Cable 79 Processing Device 80 Predetermined range 90 Stay

Claims (4)

A radio altimeter mounted on an unmanned rotorcraft without fixed wings and capable of vertical take-off and landing, used for carrying cargo,
The unmanned rotary wing aircraft comprises a plurality of rotor blades, a plurality of electric motors for driving the plurality of rotor blades, a battery for supplying electrical energy to each of the plurality of electric motors, and the unmanned rotary wing aircraft. a flight controller for controlling the flight of the aircraft; a vehicle equipped with the plurality of electric motors, the battery, and the flight controller; and fixed landing gear fixed to the vehicle;
The landing leg includes a ground contact portion for contacting the ground and a frame portion connecting the ground contact portion and the fuselage,
The radio altimeter includes a transmitting antenna for emitting radio waves, a first receiving antenna for receiving reflected waves of the radio waves, and the radio waves radiated from the transmitting antenna and the reflected waves received by the first receiving antenna. a processor for determining the absolute altitude of the unmanned rotorcraft by comparing waves; a first cable connecting the transmitting antenna and the processor; and connecting the first receiving antenna and the processor. including a second cable;
When the ground portion is in contact with the ground, the transmitting antenna faces the ground, and the maximum radiation direction of the transmitting antenna is parallel to the vertical direction,
where the maximum pitch angle of the unmanned rotorcraft is θ, the half-value angle of the transmitting antenna is 2θ or more;
The transmitting antenna is fixed to the ground portion or a portion of the frame portion located near the ground portion,
The first receiving antenna is fixed to the airframe or the landing gear,
The position of the cargo mounted on the unmanned rotorcraft is limited to a predetermined range that is below the fuselage and above the transmitting antenna and does not interfere with the downwash created by the plurality of rotorcraft. A radio altimeter characterized by: The radio altimeter according to claim 1,
The radio altimeter, wherein the first receiving antenna is fixed to the ground portion or a portion of the frame portion located near the ground portion. The radio altimeter according to claim 1,
The radio altimeter further includes a second receiving antenna for receiving the reflected wave of the radio wave, and a third cable connecting the second receiving antenna and the processor,
The first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna are located outside the predetermined range,
A line connecting the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna crosses the predetermined range when the unmanned rotary wing vehicle is viewed from a vertical direction in a state where the ground portion is in contact with the ground;
A radio altimeter, wherein the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna are fixed to the fuselage. An unmanned rotorcraft with no fixed wings and capable of vertical take-off and landing, used to carry cargo and equipped with a radio altimeter,
The unmanned rotary wing aircraft comprises a plurality of rotor blades, a plurality of electric motors for driving the plurality of rotor blades, a battery for supplying electrical energy to each of the plurality of electric motors, and the unmanned rotary wing aircraft. a flight controller for controlling the flight of the aircraft; a vehicle equipped with the plurality of electric motors, the battery, and the flight controller; and fixed landing gear fixed to the vehicle;
The landing leg includes a ground contact portion for contacting the ground and a frame portion connecting the ground contact portion and the fuselage,
The radio altimeter includes a transmitting antenna for emitting radio waves, a first receiving antenna for receiving reflected waves of the radio waves, and the radio waves radiated from the transmitting antenna and the reflected waves received by the first receiving antenna. a processor for determining the absolute altitude of the unmanned rotorcraft by comparing waves; a first cable connecting the transmitting antenna and the processor; and connecting the first receiving antenna and the processor. including a second cable;
When the ground portion is in contact with the ground, the transmitting antenna faces the ground, and the maximum radiation direction of the transmitting antenna is parallel to the vertical direction,
where the maximum pitch angle of the unmanned rotorcraft is θ, the half-value angle of the transmitting antenna is 2θ or more;
The transmitting antenna is fixed to the ground portion or a portion of the frame portion located near the ground portion,
The first receiving antenna is fixed to the airframe or the landing gear,
The position of the cargo mounted on the unmanned rotorcraft is limited to a predetermined range that is below the fuselage and above the transmitting antenna and does not interfere with the downwash created by the plurality of rotorcraft. An unmanned rotary wing aircraft characterized by:

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