WO2020015695A1 - Ducted fan unmanned aerial vehicle and housing thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a housing of a ducted fan unmanned aerial vehicle. The housing comprises an outer housing formed by foaming of a foam material, and a hard bearing frame internally provided in the outer housing. The housing meets the requirement for a strong housing of a ducted fan unmanned aerial vehicle, while also reducing the overall weight thereof. The housing can increase the endurance mileage of an unmanned aerial vehicle without changing battery capacity, has a simple production process and low production costs, and satisfies processing requirements of wholesale production. The present invention further relates to a ducted fan unmanned aerial vehicle using the housing.

Description

Ducted drone and its casing

This application claims the priority of a Chinese patent application filed on July 20, 2018 with the Chinese Patent Office, with the application number 201810803894.6, and the invention name being "a ducted drone and its casing", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference Incorporated in this application.

Technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of design and production of unmanned aerial vehicles, in particular to a ducted unmanned aerial vehicle and its casing.

Background technique

The traditional UAV has a complex curved surface and the propeller protrudes from the fuselage, so its structure is more complex, its weight is difficult to be smaller, and customized production is required, resulting in higher production costs.

The ducted drone is small and easy to carry. However, the casing of the ducted drone is usually made of engineering plastics. Although it meets the strength requirements of the entire drone, its overall weight is still large, which leads to The drone's range is small.

Therefore, how to meet the strength requirements of the drone on the one hand, and effectively reduce the weight of the drone shell, increase the cruising range, and reduce the production cost are technical issues that need to be solved by those skilled in the art.

Summary of the invention

In order to meet the strength requirements of the drone on the one hand and effectively reduce the weight of the drone housing, the present invention discloses a ducted drone housing. The body includes a shell formed by foaming a foamed material, and a rigid load-carrying skeleton built into the shell.

The invention also discloses a ducted drone, which includes a casing and a ducted fan arranged in the casing, and the casing is the casing disclosed in any one of the above.

The shell of the ducted drone disclosed in the present invention adopts a mode of combining a foamed shell and a hard bearing skeleton. The hard bearing skeleton ensures the strength of the entire shell, and the drone has a large weight. The power motors, flight controllers, and electronic governors are installed on the rigid load-carrying frame. The foamed shell is mainly used to fill the outer shape of the shell, and to ensure the accuracy of the aerodynamic shape of the duct. It can also be used for Install lighter attachments.

This kind of casing not only meets the requirements for the strength of the ducted drone, but also effectively reduces the overall weight. With the same battery capacity, it can effectively increase the cruising range of the drone, and its production The process is simple and the production cost is low, which meets the process requirements for mass production.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an angled drone disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a ducted drone disclosed in another embodiment of the present invention from another angle;

3 is a schematic plan view of FIG. 2;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of the front side in FIG. 2;

5 is a schematic structural diagram of a left side in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a casing after an upper foaming shell is removed according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

7 is a schematic plan view of the structure of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a hard supporting skeleton disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention.

Among them, 1 is the shell, 2 is the ducted hole, 3 is the ducted protective cover, 4 is the infrared lighting, 5 is the camera, 6 is the positioning groove, 7 is the positioning protrusion, 8 is the fuselage skeleton, and 9 is the culvert. Road support ring, 10 is the support rod, 11 is the upper foam shell, 12 is the lower foam shell, 13 is the motor, 14 is the fan, 15 is the fan fixing nut, 16 is the fairing, and 17 is the brushless electronic adjustment Speed device, 18 is the canal tail vertebra, 19 is the airborne ammunition, 20 is the battery, 21 is the flight controller, 22 is the bearing orifice, and 23 is the connecting rod.

detailed description

One of the cores of the present invention is to provide a ducted drone housing, which meets the strength requirements of the drone on the one hand, and can also effectively reduce the weight of the drone housing.

Another core of the present invention is to provide a ducted drone using the above-mentioned casing.

Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 8, the casing of the ducted drone disclosed in the present invention includes a casing 1 and a skeleton, wherein the casing 1 is a foamed casing formed of a foamed material, and the skeleton is built-in A rigid load-bearing skeleton in the housing 1.

Compared with the prior art, the casing of the ducted drone disclosed in the present invention adopts a pioneering mode of combining a foamed shell and a rigid bearing skeleton. The rigid bearing skeleton ensures the strength of the entire casing. The heavy-duty power motors, flight controllers, and electronic governors of the UAV are installed on the rigid load-carrying skeleton; the foam shell is mainly used to fill the outer shape of the shell and ensure the aerodynamic shape of the duct. The accuracy can also be used to install some light weight accessories.

This kind of casing not only meets the requirements for the strength of the ducted drone, but also effectively reduces the overall weight. With the same battery capacity, it can effectively increase the cruising range of the drone, and its production The process is simple and the production cost is low, which meets the process requirements for mass production.

Specifically, the casing 1 includes an upper foamed casing 11 and a lower foamed casing 12, and after the upper foamed casing 11 and the lower foamed casing 12 are fastened together, the interior of the casing 1 is formed into a shape of a rigid supporting skeleton. For a suitable installation cavity, the upper foam shell 11 and the lower foam shell 12 are connected by fasteners, or they are snapped together, or bonded.

It should be noted that the shape of the casing 1 is not limited. In order to improve the ability of the ducted drone to pass through a narrow space, the shape of the casing 1 in this embodiment is preferably a rectangular parallelepiped.

Please refer to FIG. 6 to FIG. 8. The hard bearing frame disclosed in this embodiment includes a fuselage frame 8, a duct support ring 9 and a motor support frame. The fuselage frame 8 extends in the longitudinal direction of the drone. The role of 8 is to provide strength support for the entire rigid load-carrying skeleton, and at the same time provide the installation foundation for other components. Connected to the fuselage frame 8, the role of the motor support frame is to provide a mounting base for the motor 13, the motor support frame is arranged in the duct support ring 9, and the casing 1 is provided with duct holes on the top and bottom surfaces in the thickness direction. 2. The culvert hole 2 and the culvert support ring 9 are provided in a one-to-one correspondence.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the longitudinal direction of the drone refers to a forward direction of the drone during flight, and the lateral direction of the drone refers to a direction perpendicular to the forward direction.

Please refer to FIGS. 6 and 7. A plurality of duct support rings 9 on either side of the fuselage skeleton 8 are provided, and the centers of the duct support rings 9 on the same side are located on the same straight line. The longitudinal direction of the drone is parallel; of course, most of the duct support rings 9 on the same side may be located on the same straight line. The culvert support ring 9 may be a square ring, a polygonal ring, etc. The culvert support ring 9 in this embodiment is specifically a circular ring. The motor support frame includes a motor bearing sleeve and a plurality of struts 10, and the motor bearing sleeve is located on the culvert. The center of the support ring 9 ensures that the axis of the motor and the axis of the ducted support ring 9 are arranged concentrically. The support rods 10 are distributed in the ducted support ring 9 in the circumferential direction, and one end of the support rod 10 is connected to the ducted support ring. The inner wall of 9 is connected, and the other end is connected to the motor bearing sleeve, so that the motor bearing sleeve is firmly supported in the center of the duct support ring 9.

As shown in FIG. 6, the motor 13 is built into the motor bearing sleeve. A fan 14 is installed on the output shaft of the motor 13, and the fan 14 is fastened to the output shaft of the motor 13 through a fan fixing nut 15. The tail end of the motor is installed There is a ductus coccyx 18.

In this embodiment, in the same bypass support ring 9, the included angle between any two adjacent support rods 10 is equal, that is, the support rods 10 are evenly distributed in the support support ring 9, which is more specific There are four supporting rods 10 in each of the culvert support rings 9, wherein the two support rods 10 form a longitudinal diameter that passes through the center of the culvert support ring 9 and is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the casing (or drone). Rod, the other two support rods 10 form a transverse diameter rod that passes through the center of the duct support ring and is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the casing (or drone), and a longitudinal diameter rod and a transverse diameter rod in each duct support ring 9 It is connected to an integrated structure. The longitudinal diameter rods in the duct support ring 9 on the same side of the fuselage frame 8 connect the duct support ring on the same side to an integrated structure. In addition, the shell also includes The horizontally extending connecting rods 23 of the human machine and the duct support rings on both sides of the fuselage frame 8 are connected by the connecting rods 23 passing through the fuselage frame 8.

Of course, according to actual needs, it is also possible to design 3, 5, 6 and other numbers of struts 10 in each of the duct support rings 9 as long as they can stably support the motor bearing sleeve without interfering with other components. .

As can be seen from Figs. 6-8, the duct support ring 9 is divided into two groups by the fuselage skeleton 8. The duct support rings 9 located on the same side of the fuselage skeleton 8 form a group. In each group, two adjacent The outer edges of the root culvert support ring 9 are fixedly connected to each other as a whole, and in the same group of culvert support rings 9, the culvert support ring 9 is symmetrical about the transverse mid-axis of the fuselage skeleton 8. The so-called lateral mid-axis means that the mid-axis extends in the transverse direction of the drone and passes through the midpoint of the fuselage skeleton 8. So far, the bypass support ring 9 is not only about the longitudinal symmetrical setting of the drone, but also about Horizontal symmetrical setting of drone.

Please refer to FIG. 8. The fuselage skeleton 8 in the embodiment of the present invention is specifically composed of vertical orifice plates oppositely arranged and rigidly connected by fasteners (such as screws or bolts), and the cross section of the fuselage skeleton 8 is rectangular. The upper and lower ends of the fuselage skeleton 8 are open. The fuselage skeleton 8 may be composed of one or more segments. The fuselage skeleton 8 in this embodiment is specifically formed by connecting two segments to each other.

In order to further optimize the technical solution in the foregoing embodiment, this embodiment further includes a bearing orifice plate 22, which is fastened to the bottom of the fuselage frame 8 and connected to two vertical orifice plates to carry the orifice plate 22. A battery installation cavity is formed by enclosing the vertical hole plate. The battery 20 is built in the battery installation cavity. In order to ensure the heat dissipation requirements of the battery 20, a hole for heat dissipation is also provided on the bearing hole plate 22. A plurality of heat dissipation holes are arranged in parallel with each other. As shown in Figure 8.

In this embodiment, there are three duct support rings 9 located on the same side of the fuselage skeleton 8, and among the three duct support rings, the center of the duct support ring 9 located in the middle is located in the lateral direction of the casing. On the sub-axis, the horizontal mid-axis of the casing and the horizontal mid-axis of the fuselage skeleton 8 are the same straight line. The two segments constituting the fuselage skeleton 8 are equal in length. The mounting groove for mounting the flight controller 21 is shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, and the center of the mounting groove is located on the lateral mid-axis of the casing, and the lateral diameter rod in the middle of the bypass support ring 9 penetrates In the mounting groove, the flight controller 21 is embedded in the mounting groove and is mounted on a transverse diameter rod.

At the same time, the casing 1 should be provided with six duct holes 2 corresponding to the duct support ring 9. The six duct holes 2 constitute two rows of duct holes parallel to the longitudinal direction of the shell. Among them, the duct The diameter of hole 2 is D. In any one of the culvert hole queues, the distance between the centers of two adjacent culvert holes 2 is L ₁ , where 21D / 20≤L ₁ ≤3D / 2 ; The distance between the two rows of the bypass channel is L ₂ , where 21D / 20≤L ₂ ≤3D / 2, the center of any one of the bypass channels 2 is adjacent to the bypass channel 2 The distance between the edges of the shell is L ₃ , where 11D / 20≤L ₃ ≤3D / 5. In other words, two adjacent culvert holes in each row of culvert hole queues are substantially tangent to each other or not more than 1D / 2 from each other, and the corresponding culvert holes 2 in two adjacent rows of culvert hole queues are opposite each other. Cut or spaced apart from each other by no more than 1D / 2, the edge of each culvert hole 2 and the housing 1 is no more than 1D / 10 in the longitudinal and lateral directions, and the four corners of the housing 1 are rounded to Reduce wind resistance during flight and improve the aesthetics of the drone.

Further, the fuselage ducted same side of the backbone 8 supporting an outer circumference of the fuselage skeleton ring 9 as the closest distance between 8 L _{4, wherein, 1D / 20≤L 4 ≤1D / 2} .

As shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 8, installation space for the brushless electronic governor 17 is left at the two symmetrical end positions of the fuselage skeleton 8. The brushless electronic governor 17 is installed therein, and is the same as the fuselage skeleton 8. On the side, an ammunition mounting bracket is also provided in the area formed between two adjacent ducting support rings 9 and the fuselage skeleton 8. The ammunition mounting bracket may be specifically designed to be circular, and the ammunition mounting bracket and the fuselage skeleton 8 and The outer circle of at least one of the two ducted support rings 9 is tangent. After the on-board ammunition 19 is mounted on the ammunition mounting bracket, the ducted drone can also perform special combat tasks.

In consideration of the aerodynamic characteristics of the ducted drone, in this embodiment, the upper surface of the motor support frame is also covered with a fairing 16 to improve the airflow characteristics in the ducted hole 2 and to protect the fan 14 and avoid the fan blades Collision with external objects, and at the same time prevent flying objects such as sand, dust and debris from entering the duct hole 2. In this embodiment, a duct protection cover 3 is also installed in the air inlet and outlet of the duct hole 2. The duct protective cover 3 is substantially flush with the upper surface and the lower surface of the casing 1. Of course, the duct protective cover 3 may be provided only in the air inlet or the air outlet of the duct 2.

In the shell disclosed in the present invention, the foaming material may be foam, and the rigid supporting frame may be engineering plastic, or a metal material (such as aluminum alloy) with a small density and sufficient strength, or a carbon fiber or glass. Fiber, etc., the casing not only meets the requirements for the strength of the ducted drone, but also effectively reduces the overall weight. With the same battery capacity, it can effectively increase the drone's cruising range. The production process is simple and the production cost is low, which meets the technical requirements for mass production.

In addition, a ducted drone is disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention. The ducted drone adopts the casing disclosed in any one of the above embodiments.

In the ducted drone, a plurality of mounting openings are provided on the side of the casing. The mounting opening is provided with an infrared illuminating light 4 and a camera 5 for image acquisition. The number and setting of the camera 5 and the infrared illuminating light 4 The position and the like are not limited, and can be adaptively designed according to the actual use of the drone. In this embodiment, the infrared illuminator 4 and the camera 5 are disposed on the side or the bottom of the housing 1, as shown in FIG. 5, the camera 5 is arranged near the longitudinal central axis or is located on the longitudinal central axis. The infrared illuminating lamps 4 are specifically two, which are respectively located on two sides of the camera 5.

Furthermore, one of the top surface and the bottom surface of the housing 1 is provided with a positioning groove 6, and the other is provided with a positioning protrusion 7 corresponding to the position of the positioning groove 6 in the thickness direction of the housing, and the positioning concave The groove 6 is recessed toward the inside of the housing 1, the positioning protrusion 7 is protruded toward the outside of the housing 1, and the positioning protrusion 7 can be adapted to the positioning groove 6.

It should be noted that the shape of the positioning groove 6 in the above embodiment is not limited. The positioning groove 6 may be a circular groove, a rectangular groove, a regular groove, or an irregularly shaped groove. The cross-sectional shape of the positioning protrusion 7 may be the same as or different from the shape of the positioning groove 6, as long as the positioning protrusion 7 in two adjacent drones stacked adjacently can be inserted into the positioning groove 6, and the positioning protrusion 7 and positioning groove 6 can position the drone in the circumferential direction.

The ducted fan of the unmanned aerial vehicle disclosed in the above embodiment is disposed inside the casing 1. Since there are no components such as an external propeller and a wing, its own occupied space is significantly reduced; in addition, since the present invention The top and bottom surfaces of the disclosed drones are flat structures, so they are particularly suitable for stacking. The top and bottom surfaces of two unmanned aerial vehicles that are adjacent to each other after stacking fit together, which minimizes space. At the same time, since one of the top surface and the bottom surface of the housing 1 is provided with a positioning groove 6 and the other is provided with a positioning protrusion 7 corresponding to the position of the positioning groove 6 in the thickness direction, After being stacked, the positioning protrusions 7 and the positioning grooves 6 of the two adjacent drones will be mated, thereby playing a role of circumferential limit and effectively avoiding the tilting and sliding of the drone.

The ducted drone and its casing provided by the present invention have been described in detail above. Specific examples are used herein to explain the principle and implementation of the present invention. The description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method of the present invention and its core ideas. It should be noted that, for those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the principle of the present invention, several improvements and modifications can be made to the present invention, and these improvements and modifications also fall within the protection scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims (26)

1. A casing of a ducted drone, characterized in that the casing includes a shell (1) formed by foaming a foamed material, and a hard bearing skeleton built into the shell (1).
2. The casing according to claim 1, characterized in that the casing comprises an upper foam casing (11) and a lower foam casing (12), and the upper foam casing (11) and the After the lower foaming shell (12) is fastened, the inside of the shell (1) forms a mounting cavity adapted to the shape of the rigid load-bearing skeleton.
3. The housing according to claim 2, wherein the rigid bearing skeleton comprises:

   Fuselage skeleton (8) extending in the longitudinal direction of the drone;

   Along the lateral direction of the drone, the duct support rings (9) are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the fuselage skeleton (8), and the duct support rings (9) are connected to the fuselage skeleton (8). on;

   A motor support frame provided in the duct support ring (9) and used for installing the motor (13);

   Wherein, the top surface and the bottom surface of the casing (1) in the thickness direction are provided with duct holes (2) at positions corresponding to the duct support ring (9).
4. The casing according to claim 3, characterized in that each of the culvert support rings (9) on either side of the fuselage skeleton (8) includes a plurality of culvert support rings on the same side (9) The centers are all on the same straight line, or most of the culvert support rings (9) on the same side are on the same straight line, and the straight line and the unmanned The machine's longitudinal direction is parallel.
5. The casing according to claim 3, characterized in that the duct support ring (9) is a circular ring, the motor support frame comprises a motor bearing sleeve and a plurality of supporting rods (10), and the motor bearing sleeve It is located at the center of the culvert support ring (9), the support rods (10) are distributed in the culvert support ring (9) along the circumferential direction, and one end of the support rod (10) is connected to the culvert. The inner wall of the support ring (9) is connected, and the other end is connected to the motor bearing sleeve.
6. The housing according to claim 5, characterized in that, in the same culvert support ring (9), the included angle between any two adjacent support rods (10) is equal.
7. The casing according to claim 6, characterized in that four of the support rods (10) are arranged in any one of the culvert support rings (9), wherein two of the support rods (10) A longitudinal diameter rod passing through the center of the culvert support ring (9) and parallel to the longitudinal direction of the shell is formed, and two other support rods (10) are formed through the center of the culvert support ring (9) and A transverse diameter rod perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the casing, the longitudinal diameter rod and the transverse diameter rod in any one of the culvert support rings (9) are connected into an integrated structure; the casing further includes a section along the drone The laterally extending connecting rods, the duct support rings (9) on both sides of the fuselage skeleton (8) are connected by means of the connecting rods passing through the fuselage skeleton (8).
8. The housing according to claim 4, characterized in that the outer edges of the culvert support rings (9) located on the same side of the fuselage skeleton (8) are fixed to each other as a whole, and are located in the fuselage The bypass support ring (9) on the same side of the skeleton (8) is symmetrical about the transverse mid-axis of the fuselage skeleton (8).
9. The housing according to claim 3, characterized in that the fuselage skeleton (8) is composed of vertical orifice plates which are oppositely arranged and rigidly connected by fasteners, and the cross-section of the fuselage skeleton (8) The cross section is rectangular.
10. The housing according to claim 9, further comprising a bearing orifice plate (22) fastened to the bottom of the fuselage frame (8) and connected to two of the vertical orifice plates. A bearing hole plate (22) is enclosed with the vertical bottom plate to form a battery installation cavity, and the bearing hole plate (22) is further provided with a heat radiation hole for the battery (20) to dissipate heat.
11. The housing according to claim 8, characterized in that, in the longitudinal direction of the drone, the fuselage skeleton (8) is formed by a plurality of segments connected together.
12. The housing according to claim 11, characterized in that there are three said bypass support rings (9) located on the same side of said fuselage skeleton (8), and three said bypass support rings ( In 9), the center of the duct support ring (9) located in the middle is located on the lateral mid-axis of the casing.
13. The housing according to claim 12, characterized in that the fuselage skeleton (8) is formed by connecting two segments of equal length, and the positions where the two segments are connected are formed for installing flight control. And the center of the mounting groove is located on the lateral mid-axis of the casing.
14. The casing according to claim 12, characterized in that the casing is provided with six of the culvert holes (2) corresponding to the culvert support ring (9), and six of the culvert holes (2) forming two rows of culvert holes parallel to the longitudinal direction of the shell, wherein the diameter of the culvert holes (2) is D, and in any one of the culvert holes, two adjacent The distance between the centers of the culvert holes (2) is L ₁ , where 21D / 20≤L ₁ ≤3D / 2.
15. The casing according to claim 14, wherein a distance between two rows of the culvert hole queues is L ₂ , wherein 21D / 20≤L ₂ ≤3D / 2.
16. The housing according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the distance between the center of any one of the culvert holes (2) and the edge of the housing adjacent to the culvert hole (2) is L ₃ Among them, 11D / 20≤L ₃ ≤3D / 5.
17. The housing according to claim 12, characterized in that the distance between the outer circumference of the duct support ring (9) and the fuselage skeleton (8) located on the same side of the fuselage skeleton (8) The closest distance is L ₄ , where 1D / 20≤L ₄ ≤1D / 2.
18. The housing according to claim 3, characterized in that the two spaced ends of the fuselage frame (8) are symmetrically left with installation space for installing the brushless electronic governor (17).
19. The casing according to claim 12, characterized in that, on the same side of the fuselage skeleton (8), between two adjacent bypass duct support rings (9) and the fuselage skeleton (8) An ammunition mounting bracket is also provided in the formed area. The ammunition mounting bracket is circular, and the ammunition mounting bracket is connected to the outer frame of the fuselage frame (8) and at least one of the duct support rings (9). Circle tangent.
20. The casing according to claim 3, further comprising a duct protection cover (3) installed in the duct hole (2).
21. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the material of the shell is foam, and the material of the rigid supporting frame is engineering plastic, carbon fiber, glass fiber or aluminum alloy.
22. The casing according to claim 2, characterized in that the upper side foamed shell (11) and the lower side foamed shell (12) are connected by fasteners, or are engaged with each other, or are bonded.
23. The casing according to any one of claims 1-15, 17-22, characterized in that the shape of the casing (1) is a rectangular parallelepiped, so as to improve the ability of the ducted drone to pass through a narrow space. .
24. The housing according to any one of claims 1-15, 17-22, wherein a positioning groove (6) is provided on one of a top surface and a bottom surface of the housing (1), and One is provided with a positioning protrusion (7) corresponding to the position of the positioning groove (6) in the thickness direction of the casing (1), and the positioning groove (6) faces the inside of the casing (1) Recessed, the positioning protrusion (7) protrudes toward the outside of the casing (1), and the positioning protrusion (7) and the positioning groove (6) can fit.
25. A ducted drone includes a casing and a ducted fan provided in the casing, wherein the casing is a casing according to any one of claims 1-24.
26. The drone according to claim 25, characterized in that a plurality of mounting openings are also provided on the side or bottom of the casing, and infrared lighting (4) is provided in the mounting opening and is used for image acquisition. Camera (5).

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