CN110920451B

CN110920451B - Automatic unmanned aerial vehicle ware charging system cruises

Info

Publication number: CN110920451B
Application number: CN201911059609.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王海滨; 郝利静; 钱茂冬; 肖素枝
Original assignee: Xingluo Artificial Intelligence Technology Shanghai Co ltd
Current assignee: Xingluo Artificial Intelligence Technology Shanghai Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-01
Filing date: 2019-11-01
Publication date: 2021-12-03
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-01
Also published as: CN110920451A

Abstract

The invention discloses an automatic cruise unmanned aerial vehicle charging system, which is characterized by comprising: the charging platform is used for parking a target unmanned machine to be charged; the device comprises a charger, wherein a positioning camera, a charging arm, an omnidirectional maneuvering device and a controller are mounted on a charger body, one end of the charging arm is rotatably connected with the charger body, and the other end of the charging arm is provided with a charging connector; wherein, the location camera is used for catching the positional information who acquires target unmanned aerial vehicle, and positional information includes target unmanned aerial vehicle's stop position and the mouthful position that charges, and the controller is used for according to positional information, controlling the mobile device of qxcomm technology respectively and carries out the position removal that charges the machine to and the arm that charges of control charges and charge the disconnection. The charger can complete the positioning of the unmanned machine and the charging port thereof through the positioning camera, realizes charging connection by moving in all directions, realizes an unattended automatic charging task, and has the technical characteristics of low charging position requirement, high efficiency and convenience in charging connection and automatic charging.

Description

Automatic unmanned aerial vehicle ware charging system cruises

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of automatic charging of unmanned machines, and particularly relates to a charging system of an automatic cruise unmanned aerial vehicle.

Background

In recent years, unmanned machines such as unmanned aerial vehicles and robots are rapidly developed in the fields of military affairs, fire fighting, monitoring, logistics, remote sensing mapping, power inspection and the like. However, the battery capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle is limited, and the unmanned aerial vehicle can only continuously fly for ten minutes to one hour according to different types of the unmanned aerial vehicle after being charged once, so that if the safety of the unmanned aerial vehicle is ensured and the work interruption caused by charging is shortened as far as possible, the unmanned aerial vehicle can be timely recycled and charged when the residual electric quantity of the unmanned aerial vehicle is insufficient.

The battery module loaded on the unmanned robot needs to be manually disassembled when being charged, and needs to be reinstalled after being charged. This greatly increases the labor cost and reduces the degree of automation. To reduce the dependence of unmanned robot applications on the necessity of human operation, it is a great trend to use unattended automatic charging systems.

By the restriction of unmanned aerial vehicle ware dynamic stability, motion control algorithm and meteorological illumination condition, the displacement precision of unmanned machines such as current unmanned vehicles is not high, unstable, and difficult initiative accurate identification, location and switch-on charging device are difficult to independently realize automatic charging.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a charging system of an automatic cruise unmanned aerial vehicle, which has the technical characteristics of low requirement on charging position, high-efficiency and convenient charging connection and automatic charging.

In order to solve the problems, the technical scheme of the invention is as follows:

an auto-cruise drone charging system comprising: the charging platform is used for parking a target unmanned machine to be charged; the intelligent charger comprises a charger, wherein a body of the charger is provided with a positioning camera, a charging arm, an omnidirectional maneuvering device and a controller, one end of the charging arm is rotatably connected with the body, the other end of the charging arm is provided with a charging connector, and the controller is respectively and electrically connected with the positioning camera, the charging arm and the omnidirectional maneuvering device; the controller is used for respectively controlling the omnidirectional maneuvering device to move the charger according to the position information and controlling the charging arm to perform charging connection and charging disconnection.

Further preferably, the arm that charges includes first joint, second joint, the one end of first joint with the organism is rotated and is connected, the other end of first joint with the one end of second joint is rotated and is connected, the other end of second joint is equipped with the connector that charges.

Further preferably, the omnidirectional maneuvering device comprises an omnidirectional wheel and a driving motor, the driving motor is electrically connected with the controller, and the controller controls the driving motor to drive the omnidirectional wheel to rotate through a control instruction.

Further preferably, the omni wheel comprises a wheel body and a deviation piece, wherein a plurality of deviation pieces are sequentially arranged on the circumferential side of the wheel body in the rotating direction, and each deviation piece is obliquely arranged in the same direction relative to the rotating shaft direction of the wheel body.

Further preferably, the omni wheel comprises a wheel body and vertical parts, wherein a plurality of vertical parts are sequentially arranged on the circumferential side of the wheel body in the rotating direction, and the axis of each vertical part is perpendicular to the rotating shaft direction of the wheel body.

Further preferably, the charging platform is provided with a stop positioning mark, and the stop positioning mark is an image mark or a signal element.

Further preferably, the charging platform is coated with a smooth wear-resistant layer, and the smooth wear-resistant layer is used for reducing the moving resistance of the charger and protecting the stop positioning mark.

Further preferably, the edge of the charging platform is provided with a limiting part, and the limiting part is used for limiting the moving range of the charger on the charging platform.

Further preferably, one side of the limiting part close to the charger is provided with a buffering part.

Further preferably, the machine body is further provided with a lighting module, and the lighting module is electrically connected with the controller.

Due to the adoption of the technical scheme, compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages and positive effects:

1) according to the invention, the position information of the unmanned aerial vehicle to be charged is actively searched through the positioning camera based on the recognition technologies such as machine vision, the stopping position of the unmanned aerial vehicle is firstly found, the omnidirectional maneuvering device is controlled to automatically enable the charger to be close to the unmanned aerial vehicle, the position of the charging port of the omnidirectional maneuvering device is found through the movement around the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the charging arm is controlled to carry out charging connection, so that the requirement on the landing positioning precision of the unmanned aerial vehicle is reduced, the charging connection can be realized under the condition that the unmanned aerial vehicle stops and has a position error, and the technical effects of low charging position requirement, high efficiency, convenience and automatic charging are achieved;

2) according to the invention, through the double-joint power-on arm, the moving range of the charging connector is expanded, the device is suitable for unmanned machines at more different charging interface positions, and the technical effects of expanding the application range and improving the charging connectability are achieved;

3) according to the invention, the stop positioning mark is arranged on the charging platform, so that the unmanned aerial vehicle can perform stop positioning guidance, the unmanned aerial vehicle is stopped in the charging range of the charging platform, the charging platform is coated with the smooth wear-resistant layer, the moving resistance is reduced, the stop positioning mark is prevented from being shielded, covered and damaged by scratches caused by the movement of the unmanned aerial vehicle and a charger, and the technical effects of reducing abnormal parking of the unmanned aerial vehicle and prolonging the service life are achieved;

4) according to the invention, the limit piece is arranged at the edge of the charging platform to limit the moving range of the charger, and meanwhile, the buffer piece is arranged at the edge to slow down the impact of the charger on the limit piece and prevent the charger from moving out of the charging platform.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of the auto-cruise drone charging system of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a charger of the automatic cruise unmanned aerial vehicle charging system of the invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a charger body of the automatic cruise unmanned aerial vehicle charging system of the invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of an omni-wheel configuration of the auto-cruise drone charging system of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic view of another omni-directional wheel configuration of the auto-cruise drone charging system of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

1-a charger; 11-positioning a camera; 12-a charging arm; 121-first joint; 122-a second joint; 13-a charging connection; 14-omnidirectional motorized devices; 141-omni wheel; 1411-wheel body; 1412-a deflector; 1413-vertical members; 142-a drive motor; 15-a lighting module; 16-a power interface; 2-a charging platform; 21-stop positioning mark; 22-a stop; 23-buffer.

Detailed Description

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following description will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some examples of the invention, and that for a person skilled in the art, other drawings and embodiments can be derived from them without inventive effort.

For the sake of simplicity, the drawings only schematically show the parts relevant to the present invention, and they do not represent the actual structure as a product. In addition, in order to make the drawings concise and understandable, components having the same structure or function in some of the drawings are only schematically illustrated or only labeled. In this document, "one" means not only "only one" but also a case of "more than one".

The following describes an auto-cruise drone charging system according to the present invention in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. Advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, the present embodiment provides an auto-cruise drone charging system, including: the charging platform 2 is used for parking a target unmanned machine to be charged; the charger comprises a charger 1, wherein a positioning camera 11, a charging arm 12, an omnidirectional maneuvering device 14 and a controller are mounted on a machine body of the charger 1, one end of the charging arm 12 is rotatably connected with the machine body, the other end of the charging arm 12 is provided with a charging connector 13, and the controller is respectively and electrically connected with the positioning camera 11, the charging arm 12 and the omnidirectional maneuvering device 14; wherein, location camera 11 is used for catching the positional information who obtains target unmanned aerial vehicle, and positional information includes target unmanned aerial vehicle's the stall position and charges mouthful position, and the controller is used for according to positional information, respectively controlling omnidirectional mobile device 14 to carry out the position removal that charges machine 1 to and control arm 12 that charges to carry out the connection and the disconnection of charging.

The structure of the present embodiment will now be explained:

referring to fig. 2, the positioning camera 11 of the present embodiment determines the stop position of the target unmanned aerial vehicle in the picture of the photographing charging platform 2 through image processing and image analysis based on recognition technologies such as machine vision, and then photographs the target unmanned aerial vehicle to visually recognize the position of the charging port thereof. In particular, the positioning camera 11 may be a normal or infrared camera. Preferably, be equipped with recognizable sign on the unmanned aerial vehicle ware, can supply the camera 11 of location to discern the parking position and charge mouthful position. Preferably, the body is further provided with an illumination module 15, and the illumination module 15 is electrically connected with the controller to increase the illumination intensity, improve the image quality (brightness, contrast, etc.), improve the positioning accuracy, and identify and position the index such as speed when the positioning camera 11 works.

Referring to fig. 2, the charging arm 12 includes a first joint 121 and a second joint 122, one end of the first joint 121 is rotatably connected to the body, the other end of the first joint 121 is rotatably connected to one end of the second joint 122, and the other end of the second joint 122 is provided with a charging connector 13. Specifically, in this embodiment, the first joint 121 is sleeved on the driving shaft of the body, and the second joint 122 is sleeved on the driving shaft of the first joint 121, so that the first joint 121 and the second joint 122 can be driven by the motor to rotate the joints, thereby controlling the position of the charging connector 13. In the present embodiment, the first joint 121 and the second joint 122 have the same rotation direction, and can move in a wide range in the height direction, and the charging connection at each position can be realized by matching with the horizontal movement of the omnidirectional maneuvering device 14, and similarly, the rotation direction of the first joint 121 and the second joint 122 may be different, and similarly, the charging connection at different positions can also be realized. This embodiment has enlarged the mobility scope of charging connector 13 through the power-on arm of double joint, is applicable to the unmanned aerial vehicle of more different interface positions that charge, reaches the technological effect of enlarging the range of application, improving the connectability that charges.

Referring to fig. 2 and 3, the omnidirectional maneuvering device 14 includes an omnidirectional wheel 141 and a driving motor 142, the driving motor 142 is electrically connected to the controller, and the controller controls the motor to drive the omnidirectional wheel 141 to rotate through a control command. In this embodiment, the driving motor 142 is disposed at the bottom of the charger 1, and is provided with 4 driving motors 142, which respectively drive the 4 omnidirectional wheels 141 to move toward the charger 1 in each direction. The number of the omni wheels 141 and the driving motors 142 is not limited to 4, but may be other number combinations.

Referring to fig. 3, the charger 1 of this embodiment is further provided with a storage battery and a power interface 16, the storage battery can be charged through the power interface 16, and when the unmanned aerial vehicle needs to be charged, the charger 1 charges the electric energy of the storage battery to the unmanned aerial vehicle. Similarly, the charger 1 of this embodiment also can supply power by wire, connects external power source through power source 16, directly provides the electric energy that the unmanned aerial vehicle ware charges.

Referring to fig. 2 and 4, the omni wheel 141 of the present embodiment includes a wheel body 1411 and a plurality of deviation members 1412, wherein the wheel body 1411 is sequentially provided with the plurality of deviation members 1412 along the circumferential side of the rotation direction, and each deviation member 1412 is disposed in an inclined manner in the same direction relative to the rotation axis direction of the wheel body 1411. The periphery of the rotation direction of the wheel body 1411 is a contact surface with the charging platform 2, and a deviation piece 1412 inclined at a certain angle is arranged on the contact surface, instead of being arranged vertically or parallel to the rotation axis direction, the deviation piece 1412 in this embodiment is cylindrical, spherical or arc-shaped, so that when the omnidirectional wheel 141 rotates forwards, the deviation piece 1412 and the charging platform 2 contact and rub against each other, two driving forces perpendicular to each other are generated on the omnidirectional wheel 141, one driving force drives the wheel to move forwards, the other driving force drives one side of the wheel perpendicular to the advancing direction to move, which side is related to the inclined direction and the direction of rotation of the omnidirectional wheel 141, and the advancing direction is the direction toward which the positioning camera 11 of the charger 1 faces. Specifically, referring to fig. 3, the 4 omnidirectional wheels 141 of the present embodiment are used symmetrically left and right and front and back, so that the charger 1 can move omnidirectionally: if all the omnidirectional wheels 141 rotate synchronously in the forward direction, the driving forces perpendicular to the forward direction are mutually offset due to symmetry, and the driving forces in the forward direction are mutually superposed, so that the forward movement of the charger 1 is realized; if the front and rear adjacent omnidirectional wheels 141 rotate synchronously around different directions and the left and right adjacent omnidirectional wheels 141 rotate synchronously around different directions, the driving forces in the advancing direction are mutually offset due to symmetry, and the driving forces perpendicular to the advancing direction are mutually superposed, so that the charger 1 laterally moves in the perpendicular direction and the advancing direction; in this way, the movement of the charger 1 in each direction can be realized by adjusting and controlling the rotation speed and the steering of each omni-directional wheel 141.

Likewise, the omnidirectional maneuvering device 14 of the present embodiment is not limited to the above-described solution, but may be: the omnidirectional wheel shown in fig. 5 is adopted, the omnidirectional wheel is arranged on the peripheral side surface of the charger body, preferably, the omnidirectional wheels can be symmetrically arranged left, right, front and back, the omnidirectional wheels can rotate around the front and back direction, and the omnidirectional wheels can rotate around the left and right direction, wherein the omnidirectional wheel in the scheme comprises a wheel body 1411 and vertical members 1413, the wheel body 1411 is sequentially provided with a plurality of vertical members 1413 along the peripheral side of the rotation direction, the axis of each vertical member 1413 is perpendicular to the rotation axis direction of the wheel body 1411, and the vertical members 1413 in the embodiment are cylindrical, spherical or arc-shaped. Therefore, the rotation speed and the steering of each omnidirectional wheel are adjusted and controlled, so that the movement of the charger in each direction can be realized: if the omnidirectional wheels which are symmetrical front and back do not rotate, and the omnidirectional wheels which are symmetrical left and right rotate forwards or backwards, the charger can move forwards or backwards, wherein the omnidirectional wheels which are symmetrical front and back do not block the movement in the process of moving forwards or backwards due to the arrangement of the vertical part 1413; if the omnidirectional wheels which are symmetrical left and right do not rotate, the omnidirectional wheels which are symmetrical front and back rotate leftwards or rightwards, and the charger can move leftwards or rightwards; if all the omnidirectional wheels rotate around the same rotating direction, the charger can rotate in place.

Referring to fig. 1, the charging platform 2 is provided with a stop location mark 21, and the stop location mark 21 is an image mark or a signal element. Specifically, the image marker may be an image with a certain range or reference point, and the signal element may be a positioning marker with electromagnetic wave characteristics, such as a black-and-white or colored non-active light emitting pattern, an image, or a visible light source, a heat source, a radiation antenna, etc. with a certain color/spectrum.

Preferably, the charging platform of this embodiment is coated with smooth wearing layer, and smooth wearing layer is used for reducing the removal resistance of machine that charges to and the protection is shut down the location sign. The charging platform can adopt proper surface treatment, material coating and other processes to ensure that the surface of the charging platform is smooth and wear-resistant so as to reduce the moving resistance and prevent the stop positioning mark from being shielded, covered and damaged by scratches caused by the movement of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the charger.

Preferably, referring to fig. 1, a limiting member 22 is disposed at an edge of the charging platform 2, the limiting member 22 is used to limit a moving range of the charging machine 1 on the charging platform 2, a buffering member 23 is disposed on one side of the limiting member 22 close to the charging machine 1, the buffering member 23 may be an elastic buffering member 23, when the charging machine 1 moves to a boundary, the charging machine 1 is prevented from moving out of the charging platform 2, and meanwhile, an impact force of the charging machine 1 is reduced.

The charging process of the present embodiment will now be explained:

referring to fig. 1, when a target unmanned machine is parked on a charging platform 2, a positioning camera 11 of a charger 1 captures the target unmanned machine, a controller acquires a parking position of the target unmanned machine, the controller drives an omnidirectional maneuvering device 14 to move the charger 1 according to the parking position, automatically moves to a position near the target unmanned machine and moves around the unmanned machine, so that the positioning camera 11 captures a charging port position of the unmanned machine, and when the charging port position is found, the controller controls a charging connector 13 of a charging arm 12 to move towards the charging port according to the charging port position to establish charging connection, and in the process, the positioning camera 11 monitors a connection process to continuously correct the position of the charging arm 12. When the unmanned aerial vehicle finishes charging, the charging arm 12 of the charger 1 automatically disconnects the charging connection with the unmanned aerial vehicle, releases the unmanned aerial vehicle, and drives away from the unmanned aerial vehicle for a certain distance if necessary, so that the unmanned aerial vehicle can timely and safely leave the charging platform 2, for example, no obstacle is required in the surrounding space when the unmanned aerial vehicle safely takes off.

This embodiment is through the location camera shooting based on identification technology such as machine vision, the positional information of waiting the unmanned aerial vehicle ware that charges is sought voluntarily, at first the parking position who finds unmanned aerial vehicle ware, the automatic machine that charges that makes of control omnidirectional movement is close unmanned aerial vehicle ware, secondly find its mouthful position of charging through surrounding unmanned aerial vehicle motion, the arm that charges is controlled carries out the charging connection, thus, the requirement to unmanned aerial vehicle ware descending positioning accuracy has been reduced, can also realize the charging connection under the condition that there is position error at unmanned aerial vehicle ware shut down, it requires lowly to have reached the charging position, the charging connection is high-efficient convenient, the technological effect of automatic charging.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Even if various changes are made to the present invention, it is still within the scope of the present invention if they fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An auto-cruise drone charging system, comprising:

the charging platform is used for parking a target unmanned machine to be charged;

the intelligent charger comprises a charger, wherein a body of the charger is provided with a positioning camera, a charging arm, an omnidirectional maneuvering device and a controller, one end of the charging arm is rotatably connected with the body, the other end of the charging arm is provided with a charging connector, and the controller is respectively and electrically connected with the positioning camera, the charging arm and the omnidirectional maneuvering device; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning camera is used for capturing and acquiring position information of the target unmanned aerial vehicle, the position information comprises a stop position and a charging port position of the target unmanned aerial vehicle, and the controller is used for respectively controlling the omnidirectional maneuvering device to move the position of the charger and controlling the charging arm to perform charging connection and charging disconnection according to the position information;

the omnidirectional maneuvering device comprises an omnidirectional wheel and a driving motor, the driving motor is electrically connected with the controller, and the controller controls the driving motor to drive the omnidirectional wheel to rotate through a control instruction;

the omnidirectional wheel comprises a wheel body and deflection parts, wherein a plurality of deflection parts are sequentially arranged on the circumferential side of the wheel body along the rotating direction, each deflection part is obliquely arranged in the same direction relative to the rotating shaft direction of the wheel body, and the omnidirectional wheel of the charger is symmetrical left and right and front and back;

or the omnidirectional wheel comprises a wheel body and vertical parts, wherein the wheel body is sequentially provided with a plurality of vertical parts along the circumferential side of the rotating direction, the axis of each vertical part is perpendicular to the rotating shaft direction of the wheel body, and the omnidirectional wheel of the charger is arranged on the circumferential side surface of the charger body;

the charging arm comprises a first joint and a second joint, one end of the first joint is rotatably connected with the machine body, the other end of the first joint is rotatably connected with one end of the second joint, and the other end of the second joint is provided with the charging connector;

the charging platform is provided with a stop positioning identifier which is an image mark or a signal element;

the charging platform is coated with a smooth wear-resistant layer, and the smooth wear-resistant layer is used for reducing the moving resistance of the charger and protecting the stop positioning mark;

a limiting piece is arranged at the edge of the charging platform and used for limiting the moving range of the charger on the charging platform;

one side that the locating part is close to the machine that charges is equipped with the bolster.

2. The auto-cruise drone charging system according to claim 1, wherein said body further mounts a lighting module, said lighting module being electrically connected with said controller.