CN118025515A - Building block type amphibious eVTOL and operation method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a building block type amphibious eVTOL and an operation method thereof, which are characterized in that building block thinking is used, building blocks are built by functional components, a building block type eVTOL is designed, ground commuting and air commuting are considered, the ground operation is not limited by the larger size of eVTOL flight components, and free commuting can be realized. Meanwhile, based on the product, an operation mode with certain feasibility is designed, the problems of limited airspace capacity, limited battery capacity and the like can be effectively solved, the point-to-point commute of a longer range is realized, and the point-to-point future three-dimensional traffic system without limitation in the real sense is realized.

Description

Building block type amphibious eVTOL and operation method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of unmanned aircrafts, in particular to a building block type amphibious eVTOL and an operation method thereof.

Background

The EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system which is independently developed in the intelligent and self-developed mode of the hundred million aviation in 10 and 13 of 2023 obtains the model qualification certificate (TC) formally issued by the civil aviation bureau of China, and is used as the unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) which obtains the TC certificate for the first time worldwide, and an important marker post is erected for the airworthiness certification of China or even the global innovation eVTOL, plays the leading demonstration role, and is more an epoch-making milestone for opening the operation of urban air traffic business.

However, most of the existing eVTOL can only operate in local scenes, has no complete and feasible normalized commercial operation mode, is limited by the problem of battery capacity and has limited range, and the point-to-point traffic without limitation cannot be truly realized.

The inventor analyzes the problem existing in the normal commercial operation of eVTOL, and finally, proposes a eVTOL operation mode by referring to the ground road operation concept; based on building block thinking, a building block type amphibious eVTOL flying vehicle is designed, so that ground conventional commuting and quick commuting of an air corridor are effectively realized, and point-to-point commuting is realized.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problem of providing a building block type amphibious eVTOL for solving the technical problem in the background technology.

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

The building block type amphibious eVTOL comprises a ground module and a flight module, wherein the ground module is a vehicle body, and main components of a cabin, a seat, a power supply system and a control system are reserved; the flying module mainly realizes a flying function, is provided with an independent power supply system and a flying control system, is integrated with the ground module in a mechanical connection mode, and a power battery in the power supply system of the flying module is designed to be detachable and replaceable.

Further, the flight module comprises a multi-rotor wing type, a fixed wing type, a rotor wing mixed type and a tilting and rotating wing type.

Furthermore, the ground module and the flight module are provided with standard mechanical and electronic interfaces for mutual integrated connection.

Furthermore, the building block type amphibious eVTOL is used for replacing the battery of the power exchange station from the upper part and the lower part of the aircraft, the bottom of the ground module is provided with a conventional battery, and the top of the flight module is provided with a power battery.

The invention also provides a running method of the building block type amphibious eVTOL, which comprises the following steps:

(1) And (3) operating line design: the system comprises a city main node and a plurality of regional distribution centers, wherein the city main node is arranged in each city;

The commuting between the departure place or the destination and the regional distribution center is realized through ground highway traffic; the carrier utilizes the existing road traffic system or the ground module function based on the building block type amphibious eVTOL products;

The commute from a plurality of regional distribution centers in the same city to a main node of the city is realized through unmanned building block type amphibious eVTOL, and after the commute reaches the regional distribution centers, a ground module loads a flight module in the regional distribution centers and flies according to a uniformly planned air corridor;

building block type amphibious eVTOL rapid flight is realized among different city main nodes through low-altitude high-speed corridor;

(2) Low-altitude high-speed corridor design: setting a low-altitude high-speed corridor along the existing high-speed railway, wherein the building block type amphibious eVTOL flies according to the planned low-altitude high-speed corridor, and arranging a power exchange station at a high-speed railway station or along the high-speed railway line;

(3) Network connection; the building block type amphibious eVTOL running line is connected with the existing high-speed rail network, so that the selectivity of a travel mode is improved, and the commute capacity is improved.

Furthermore, the flight module realizes the allocation of the flight module in each distributed center in the modes of ground transportation, autonomous flight in the air and the like in the commute valley period so as to meet reservation requirements.

The invention has the advantages that:

The invention designs a building block eVTOL by taking the thinking of the building blocks into consideration and adopting the building block building mode of all functional components, which gives consideration to ground commute and air commute, and the ground operation is not limited by the larger size of eVTOL flight components any more, thus realizing free commute. Meanwhile, based on the product, an operation mode with certain feasibility is designed, the problems of limited airspace capacity, limited battery capacity and the like can be effectively solved, the point-to-point commute of a longer range is realized, and the point-to-point future three-dimensional traffic system without limitation in the real sense is realized.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a typical prior art vector thrust eVTOL product;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a typical lift + cruise eVTOL product of the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a typical prior art multi-rotor eVTOL product;

FIG. 4 is a use scenario view of passenger UAM (passenger UAM);

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a multi-stage run channel according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a multi-level +networked point-to-point operation in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a small Peng integrated flier;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a modular eVTOL;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of a floor module structure;

fig. 10 is a schematic view of a flight module structure.

In the figure, 1-ground module, 11-luggage rack, 111-pinhole, 2-flight module, 3-electric latch device, 4-pin plate.

Detailed Description

The following describes the embodiments of the present invention further with reference to the drawings. The description of these embodiments is provided to assist understanding of the present invention, but is not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, the technical features of the embodiments of the present invention described below may be combined with each other as long as they do not collide with each other.

As shown in the figure:

And (3) a step of: current situation for eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft)

EVTOL are not a cursory step on the move, and are currently faced with many challenges such as improving the performance of eVTOL itself (especially battery capacity), airspace management planning, infrastructure, regulatory and standard construction, noise, and social and public impact. For the current situation of airspace management, eVTOL products cannot fly arbitrarily in the airspace, which causes difficulty in realizing point-to-point commuting like a taxi, so how to solve the contradiction between eVTOL route fixing and commuting point scattering is a core problem for realizing normalized eVTOL point-to-point commuting.

The invention designs a building block eVTOL by taking the thinking of the building blocks into consideration and adopting the building block building mode of all functional components, which gives consideration to ground commute and air commute, and the ground operation is not limited by the larger size of eVTOL flight components any more, thus realizing free commute. Meanwhile, based on the product, an operation mode with certain feasibility is designed, the problems of limited airspace capacity, limited battery capacity and the like can be effectively solved, the point-to-point commute of a longer range is realized, and the point-to-point future three-dimensional traffic system without limitation in the real sense is realized.

1.1 Present state of development of eVTOL products

According to the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) statistics, there are more than 250 items eVTOL worldwide, almost 188 manufacturers eVTOL. These eVTOL products can be broadly divided into three categories:

(1) Vector thrust (Tilt-X): in different use stages, the vertical take-off, landing and cruising are realized by changing the thrust direction. Typical examples are Lilium-Jet, joby-S4, etc., up to 97 of these eVTOL types, and typical products are shown in FIG. 1. ;

(2) Lift+cruise (lift+cruise): the lifting force and the cruising propeller are independent, and respectively realize vertical lifting and cruising. Typical examples include Boeing-PAV, wisk-Cora, walland, peak fly, imperial future, and Mingpeng Hui Tian in China, the number of eVTOL is 97, and typical products are shown in FIG. 2;

(3) Multiple twist wing profile (Multi-copters): the cruising-free propeller can completely realize flying by controlling the lifting force of multiple rotors. Typical examples are Ehang-216, volocity, LIFT-Hexa, etc., up to 119 (with 46 single hoverable aircraft, 19 electric gyroplanes) for this class eVTOL, and typical products are shown in fig. 3.

In summary, the number of the three types eVTOL is approximately equivalent, and the number is more than 30%, wherein the multi-rotation wing type accounts for nearly 40%.

1.2 Different types eVTOL of aircraft implementation difficulty, flight speed, voyage and application scenarios

(1) The Multi-rotating wing type (Multi-copters) eVTOL aircraft comprises more than three rotors, flight control is realized by adjusting the rotating speed, and hovering flight performance is good. Because aerodynamic force is not adopted in the flight process, the design is simpler, but the flight speed is low, the load is small, the range is short, and the method is only suitable for short-distance air transportation in cities.

(2) The vector propulsion (Tilt-X) eVTOL aircraft adopts the same propulsion unit, hovers and cruises in a tiltable manner, adopts different propulsion modes in different flight phases and has a transition process, thereby increasing the complexity of the overall design. But the vector propulsion type (tin-X) can achieve higher flying speeds and greater range.

(3) The Lift and cruising composite (Lift+cruise) eVTOL aircraft integrates the characteristics of fixed wing and rotor aircraft, the design of the wing is beneficial to lifting range, and the rotor is convenient to realize vertical take-off and landing. The propulsion devices are designed differently and separately, and the overall performance is between that of a multi-rotating wing type and a vector propulsion type.

The three configurations are comprehensively compared in the table below.

1.3EVTOL manned applications

According to the report of the topic study by Lawslai and Luo Lanbei, eVTOL manned applications in the future have focused mainly on taxis in the air (36%), airport buses (35%) and inter-urban flights up to 250 km (29%), as shown in FIG. 4.

However, the present eVTOL battery capacity and loading capacity are limited, and the present eVTOL battery capacity can only run at a short distance, so that urban flight or package delivery of a small number of passengers is satisfied, but eVTOL for normalizing manned operation is still early, and further, larger market space is still required to be covered for achieving normalized commercial operation in the future eVTOL.

And II: eVTOL run solution design:

2.1 existing eVTOL run solution

In the aspect of air traffic solution, although the unmanned aerial vehicle air traffic system solution of oneself is issued by the best step, the boeing, the aeronautical passenger, even including the billion navigation, the following problems all exist:

Firstly, the designed solutions can only operate on a small scale, and can not operate normally.

Secondly, the need to build dedicated terminal buildings or tarmac at great cost is one of the main reasons for limiting the operation scale, and there is a problem of incompatibility with other companies eVTOL;

Again, each solution does not take into account the maximum use of existing infrastructure and other types of traffic operation, the design of the solution is too constrained by eVTOL ontology features, resulting in the difficulty of the final solution to operate normally.

Finally, it is considered herein that the mode of operation should be determined first and then eVTOL matched to it should be designed instead of planning the traffic solution based on eVTOL product.

In eVTOL product development, the authors believe that there are several problems:

a) The products are designed firstly under the condition that no specific operation mode exists, and then possible operation scenes are defined based on the products; this is one of the main reasons for the relatively rapid development of eVTOL products, namely the less constraint, but is also a main problem with this mode;

b) It is very difficult to build the operation support system by the capabilities and resources of a single company, thereby promoting the local application of eVTOL;

c) Furthermore, the energy source problem is only solved by the aircraft, the range is limited, the invalid load is not too high, and the scheme of rapid energy source supplement and replacement is not considered, so that the design scene is more in consideration of short-distance flight and cannot adapt to long-distance flight;

d) Because of limited usage scenarios and higher operating costs, currently eVTOL is developed more for high-end customer groups and less for average consumers, even though these products may be used in the future in travel, rental, etc., for average consumers, very high consumption is achieved, and customer groups are limited, which also results in limited final profitability. Without sufficient profit points, the product is difficult to have strong vitality;

e) Finally, each company is camping, lacks communication and negotiation, cannot find a common point, promotes the operation mode and the construction aspect of an operation support system to effectively work with a supervision organization and a government, and further promotes eVTOL systematic development.

In summary, there is currently no feasible normalized mode of operation for eVTOL, and development of eVTOL products also lacks support for the operating scenario, resulting in more of a technical solution than the scenario-based product development.

According to the eVTOL operation mode and the product development current analysis result, in order to quickly push eVTOL to realize the normalized manned operation, a reasonable and feasible operation mode solution must be specified first, and then eVTOL products are developed pertinently based on the operation mode and the accumulation of the existing eVTOL technology, so that the high unification of the products and the operation can be realized.

2.2EVTOL operational design requirement analysis

According to national comprehensive three-dimensional traffic network planning outline, by 2035, we need to realize national 123 travel traffic circles, namely: the urban area is commuted for 1 hour, the urban group is accessed for 2 hours, the main city of the whole country is covered for 3 hours, and aiming at the development outline, the design requirements are as follows:

a) The point-to-point passenger carrying operation can be realized;

b) The operation mode can realize operation support by utilizing the existing infrastructure as much as possible or by simple building;

c) The hybrid traffic mode, namely ground, water surface and air amphibious traffic, can be adopted;

d) Under the ground state, the space occupation is not more than the space occupied by the same-industry-carried automobile;

e) In the flying state, the empty weight of the product is as low as possible and is not more than 50% of the maximum take-off weight; the industrial load is as large as possible, so that the commute requirements of 2-5 people are met;

f) The power supply can be replaced quickly; in the parking state, the existing charging device can be used for charging.

2.3EVTOL operating mode design

Based on design requirements, the invention refers to the current ground road operation concept, namely multi-level and networking, whether road traffic or rail traffic is classified into a plurality of levels, and then the road traffic is linked to form a network, so that point-to-point transportation is finally realized. For example, there are general roads, urban expressways, etc. in the city, and rail traffic includes subways, high-speed rails, etc., and similarly, the multi-stage operation channel can be designed by using eVTOL, as shown in fig. 5.

First, a run line is designed, and if one wants to go from the departure place of city a to the destination of city B, one can design the following path: origin a city area hub a city master node B city area hub destination.

The commuting of the urban area distribution center from the departure place A is realized through ground road traffic, and the attention is paid to the fact that the road traffic can utilize the existing road traffic system or can be based on the self functions of eVTOL products, so that the rapid commuting of the urban area distribution center from the departure place A can be realized.

The commuting of the urban main node of the regional hub is then realized by eVTOL unmanned aerial vehicles, and the part of communication, the existing majority eVTOL, can realize the part of commuting, and the only thing to be solved is the planning of the air corridor, so that the planning of the individual air corridor is realistic in practice due to the limited quantity of the regional hub.

After reaching the city master station, the quick flight of eVTOL can be realized according to the low-altitude high-speed corridor uniformly planned by the country, thereby reaching other city master stations. After arrival, the commute within the destination city can run in the same manner, i.e., the final destination can be reached. However, this part of commute is limited by eVTOL battery capacity problems, voyage is generally limited, at this moment, the idea of setting a gas station on a highway is consulted, and an air corridor power station switching solution is provided, for example, the power switching of a vehicle is only about 3 minutes, and our eVTOL is completely and automatically driven, and the quick automatic switching of a battery can be realized by designing a modular battery scheme, so that the battery capacity problem is converted into the power switching problem, and the complexity of the technology is greatly reduced.

Then, how to set up the fast passageway in the air and how to arrange the power exchange stations are the most important, and the method also refers to the construction thought of the expressway and the high-speed rail. At present, great capital cost is put into highway and rail transit, and the capital cost is needed to be utilized as much as possible, so the proposal of the solution of arranging a low-altitude high-speed corridor along a high-speed rail is provided, on one hand, the layout of the existing high-speed rail station is more mature, and the problems of accessibility, criticism and the like are less; the second aspect is that the high-speed rail is free from electricity shortage and electric facilities along the line, and the construction and reconstruction are convenient; and eVTOL can be connected with the existing high-speed rail network, so that the selectivity of a travel mode is increased, and the commute capacity is further improved.

For the power exchange station, the existing high-speed rail station can be reused, and the quick power exchange station can be newly built, as the roadside power exchange station of the electric vehicle. For the situation of power exchange congestion possibly encountered, the power exchange can be reserved in advance through a route planning system, so that the congestion probability of the power exchange can be reduced through optimizing the system, and if the situation is truly developed to the step, the normal operation of eVTOL is realized.

The above is a multi-level + networked point-to-point flow (see fig. 6), and in fact many key details need to be noted. Firstly, the road traffic is completely compatible with the existing road traffic when running on the ground, but the urban road traffic is easy to be jammed due to more vehicles, so the duty ratio of the road traffic on the ground is not too large, and various transfer is avoided only for realizing the purposes of starting from home or going home in one step. In order to reduce the commute duty ratio of ground highway traffic, the regional distribution center is arranged at a bus station, a parking lot, a large-scale mall, a square and the like at a larger point, and the places can be used for supporting operation after being reconstructed due to complete matching.

Then, the convenience of power change is realized, the power change is mainly reserved, and the efficiency is improved from the planning level; secondly, the power exchange station can expand capacity in two dimensions of level and three-dimensional, the capacity of exchanging electricity in the same time is increased, and for some large-scale power exchange stations, the electricity exchange can be directly realized through the flight module of exchanging the electricity, so that the capacity of exchanging electricity is further improved.

The allocation problem of the flight modules can be referred to the shared bicycle operation mode, and the flight modules can be allocated in various distributed centers in a mode of ground transportation, autonomous flight in the air and the like in a commute valley period so as to meet reservation requirements. The flight module is an unmanned system capable of autonomously flying, and unmanned automatic flying can be realized according to a set route.

The above is the point-to-point operation mode design scheme proposed by the present invention.

Thirdly,: toy bricks type amphibious eVTOL design

Based on the designed operation mode, the invention designs eVTOL matched with the operation mode, and the operation mode is as follows.

At present eVTOL adopts an integrated layout scheme, namely, the flight function and the loading function are designed integrally, wherein the flight part is fixed, and is also like a hilly converging sky variable form, the front half part of the vehicle realizes the loading function, the rear half part of the vehicle is a battery and a flight part, the flight part adopts a foldable mode for reducing the occupied space during ground commute, and the design has the advantage of being capable of flying at any time, and has the disadvantage of being too high in weight of an aircraft, as shown in fig. 7.

The invention provides a building block eVTOL layout scheme based on the running requirements of two scenes of ground commute and fast flight in the air, which comprises the following specific schemes:

This eVTOL mainly comprises two parts, namely ground module 1 and flight module 2, and two modules pass through mechanical interface automatic butt joint, realize control system's wireless or wired link in the time of the butt joint, and mechanical interface can be including a plurality of electronic bolt devices 3 that are located ground module 1 top and a plurality of pin plates 31 that are located the fixed corresponding position in flight module 2 bottom, for the connection is firm, can set up pinhole 111 with the help of luggage rack 11 of roof both sides, and electronic bolt device 3 inserts in the pinhole 111 after passing pin plate 31 to realize quick butt joint and separation.

For the ground module part, functions of loading, control and the like are mainly provided, which are similar to those of a normal electric automobile. In order to reduce weight and rent, main components such as a cabin, a seat, a power supply system, a control system and the like are mainly reserved, and other facilities are integrated or simplified as much as possible on the premise of ensuring safety.

For the flight module part, mainly the flight function is realized, and the flight module part is provided with an independent power supply system and a flight control system, so that the eVTOL flight can be realized through integration with a ground module, and the flight module part can also be used as an independent aircraft to fly according to a set route. The flight module can be of various forms, namely a multi-rotor wing type, a fixed wing and rotor wing mixed type, or a tilting rotor wing type, and particularly, the type of flight suit is related to the distance and time requirements of commute. If short distance commute, multiple rotors are typically selected, if long distance commute, it is generally recommended to select a mix, while tilting rotors are selected as needed, building block eVTOL is schematically shown in fig. 8.

Remarks: the invention provides structural improvement, namely, a flight module and a ground module are split, the loading part of the existing unmanned aerial vehicle can be omitted, the loading part is realized by integrating the ground module, no matter the functions of the flight module and the ground module (equivalent to adding a mechanical interface and an electrical interface on the top of a small roof with light weight design) can be realized, so that a person skilled in the art can install the principle of the invention on the basis of understanding the design idea of the invention and reconstruct the principle of the invention on the basis of the prior art, the electrical interface and the mechanical interface belong to the mature technology, and the electricity exchanging design of a battery also belongs to the prior art and is not repeated.

Fourth, the method comprises the following steps: case of operation scene

A) Reservation by eVTOL rental platform, determination of time, place, personnel, baggage, destination, etc

B) Dispatching orders according to loading and route information, and planning regional distribution centers, on-road power exchange arrangement and the like;

c) Before departure, the ground module goes to a boarding place and transports passengers to a regional distribution center (the passengers can purchase the ground module by themselves, so that the passengers can choose to directly drive to the regional distribution center; the ground module can be of various brands, and only mechanical and electronic interfaces are required to be arranged according to the standard for integration with the flight module;

d) After reaching the regional distribution center, the vehicle enters a fixed channel and is loaded with a flight suit;

e) Delivering the combined eVTOL to a certain height through a jump type platform, reaching a certain speed, starting the operation of the flying component, reaching the target power, and officially taking off eVTOL;

f) eVTOL fly along an urban air corridor to a city main station at a speed of 120-180 km/h;

g) According to an air traffic management system, automatically queuing into an air rapid corridor, and rapidly flying at a speed of 180-300 km/h;

h) The batteries can be replaced according to the planning and the requirements in the process, the batteries can be replaced from the upper part and the lower part of the aircraft, the bottom of the ground module is a conventional battery, and the top of the flight module is a power battery;

i) And (3) reaching a target city master station, automatically switching city air corridors, reaching a target area distribution center, unloading flight components, and finally transporting passengers to a destination through a ground module to finish a commuting task.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, and yet fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims (6)

1. A building block type perch eVTOL, which is characterized in that: the system comprises a ground module and a flight module, wherein the ground module is a vehicle body, and main components of a cabin, a seat, a power supply system and a control system are reserved; the flying module mainly realizes a flying function, is provided with an independent power supply system and a flying control system, is integrated with the ground module in a mechanical connection mode, and a power battery in the power supply system of the flying module is designed to be detachable and replaceable.

2. The modular perch eVTOL of claim 1, wherein: the flight module comprises a multi-rotation wing type, a fixed wing type, a rotor wing mixed type and a tilting rotation wing type.

3. The modular perch eVTOL of claim 2, wherein: and the ground module and the flight module are respectively provided with a standard mechanical and electronic interface for mutual integrated connection.

4. The modular perch eVTOL of claim 1, wherein: the building block type amphibious eVTOL is characterized in that the battery of the power exchange station is replaced from the upper part and the lower part of the aircraft, the bottom of the ground module is a conventional battery, and the top of the flight module is a power battery.

5. A method of operating a modular perch eVTOL as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: the method comprises the following steps:

(1) And (3) operating line design: the system comprises a city main node and a plurality of regional distribution centers, wherein the city main node is arranged in each city;

The commuting between the departure place or the destination and the regional distribution center is realized through ground highway traffic; the carrier utilizes the existing road traffic system or the ground module function based on the building block type amphibious eVTOL products;

The commute from a plurality of regional distribution centers in the same city to a main node of the city is realized through unmanned building block type amphibious eVTOL, and after the commute reaches the regional distribution centers, a ground module loads a flight module in the regional distribution centers and flies according to a uniformly planned air corridor;

building block type amphibious eVTOL rapid flight is realized among different city main nodes through low-altitude high-speed corridor;

(2) Low-altitude high-speed corridor design: setting a low-altitude high-speed corridor along the existing high-speed railway, wherein the building block type amphibious eVTOL flies according to the planned low-altitude high-speed corridor, and arranging a power exchange station at a high-speed railway station or along the high-speed railway line;

(3) Network connection; the building block type amphibious eVTOL running line is connected with the existing high-speed rail network, so that the selectivity of a travel mode is improved, and the commute capacity is improved.

6. The method of operation of modular perch eVTOL of claim 5, wherein: the flight module realizes the allocation of the flight module in each distributed center in a mode of ground transportation, autonomous air flight and the like in a commute valley period so as to meet reservation requirements.