CN214776631U - Aircraft combined camera and aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of imaging equipment and discloses an aircraft combination camera and an aircraft, wherein the aircraft combination camera is carried by the aircraft and comprises a containing shell, a mounting plate connected with the containing shell and a plurality of cameras fixed on the mounting plate; the cameras are arranged in an arc-shaped symmetrical mode and located on the same vertical plane, the field angles of the cameras are at least mutually connected and gradually increase from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras, and the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras independently are arranged horizontally to form a target focal plane located on the same horizontal plane. Through the utility model, the manufacturing and using cost of the combined camera is remarkably reduced, and the mapping of the land information with large width, high flux and high resolution and the detection of the target object in the land and a plurality of characteristic objects contained in the target object are realized; meanwhile, the image distortion of the target object and a plurality of characteristics contained in the target object is remarkably reduced.

Description

Aircraft combined camera and aircraft

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of surveying and mapping of aircrafts, in particular to an aircraft combined camera and an aircraft.

Background

In the field of aircraft image recognition technology, image acquisition in an aerial form by a digital camera using imaging elements such as a CCD or a CMOS is one of the mainstream technologies in the field of mapping at present. High resolution images are a prerequisite for identifying ground objects. Due to limitations in the imaging device fabrication process, X/Y addressing, and manufacturing costs, the prior art imaging devices are typically packaged in rectangular shapes, and the images captured and formed are also typically rectangular. For example, the CMOS chip size of a full-frame camera is 36 × 24 mm. Consequently also can only form the rectangle image when utilizing the aircraft (for example rotor unmanned aerial vehicle) to survey and drawing the parcel on a certain height to can't form wide picture image when leading to adopting single digital camera to take photo by plane survey and drawing, and do not satisfy wide field of view and shoot the demand.

Although the camera lens arrangement structure with the compound eye structure with a large viewing field disclosed in the chinese utility model patent publication No. CN207051657U can capture high-pixel images with a large viewing field, the prior art still has the defects of large number of cameras and high manufacturing and using costs; more importantly, the above prior art cannot be applied in the field of aircraft surveying, especially in the application scenario of surveying the plot in low altitude range using unmanned aircraft. The foregoing prior art also has a defect that the number of cameras used is too large, and the fields of view formed by the cameras overlap greatly, which is not favorable for the splicing process of subsequent photos and the identification of the content in all photos.

It is necessary to improve a camera device used in the mapping process of an opposite target based on an unmanned aerial vehicle and other aircrafts in the prior art to solve the above problems.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An object of the utility model is to disclose an aircraft combination camera and aircraft for solve among the prior art and adopt a plurality of cameras to carry out low latitude aviation survey and drawing to the parcel and wait to discern the technical problem that camera quantity was excessive and the image sensor price is high to the camera when a plurality of characteristics thing that contain in target object or the target object in the discernment parcel, and reduce image distortion, improve and survey and draw the adaptability to various complicated profile topography.

In order to achieve one of the above objects, the present invention provides an aircraft combination camera carried by an aircraft, including:

the camera comprises a containing shell, a mounting plate connected with the containing shell, and a plurality of cameras fixed on the mounting plate;

the cameras are arranged in an arc shape and are located on the same vertical plane, the field angles of the cameras are at least mutually connected and gradually increase from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras, and the sub-focal planes independently formed by the cameras are horizontally arranged to form a target focal plane located on the same horizontal plane.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the present invention further comprises: the camera mounting structure comprises a plug board for penetrating a camera and being connected with the camera, wherein a plurality of slots for the plug board to movably plug are arranged on a mounting board, the cameras are symmetrically arranged in an arc shape and fixed by the plug board, the motion direction of the aircraft is perpendicular to the mounting board, the cameras are symmetrically arranged in a vertical plane, the number of the cameras is at least two, and the motion direction of the aircraft is perpendicular to the vertical plane.

As a further improvement of the present invention, an even number of cameras are symmetrically and arc-symmetrically arranged in the mounting plate fixed mounting.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the present invention further comprises: a stabilizing system disposed between the containment case and the aircraft, the stabilizing system selected from a pan/tilt head or a damper.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the target focal plane is located between a feature contained by the target in the plot and the top of the target.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the accommodating case accommodates a driving system connected to the camera, the driving system includes:

the attitude detection unit, the field angle adjusting unit and the focusing processing unit;

the attitude detection unit detects flight height parameters, determines a total field angle formed by the aircraft combined camera based on the height of the target object and the target imaging width, and splices the field angles of the adjacent cameras through the field angle adjusting unit so as to enable the field angles of the adjacent cameras to be at least connected with each other;

the focusing processing unit receives the height and flight height parameters of the target object, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction so as to form target focal planes positioned on the same horizontal plane;

the target imaging breadth is composed of imaging breadths formed by the cameras in the aircraft combination cameras independently, and the flight height parameter comprises absolute height formed between the aircraft and the land or relative height formed between the aircraft and the top of a target object in the land.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the accommodating case accommodates a driving system connected to the camera, the driving system includes:

the attitude detection unit, the field angle adjusting unit and the focusing processing unit;

the attitude detection unit detects flight height parameters, determines a total field angle formed by the aircraft combination camera based on a preset distance formed by a feature object contained in the target object and the top of the target object and a target imaging width, and splices the field angles of adjacent cameras through the field angle adjusting unit so that the field angles of the adjacent cameras are at least connected with each other;

the focusing processing unit receives the preset distance and the flight height parameters, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction so as to form a target focal plane positioned on the same horizontal plane;

the target imaging width is composed of imaging widths formed by cameras in the aircraft combined camera independently, the height of the target is defined by the height of the feature alone or the height of the feature and a preset distance formed by the feature from the top of the target where the feature is located, and the flight height parameter comprises the absolute height formed between the aircraft and the ground or the relative height formed between the aircraft and the top of the target in the ground.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the driving system further includes: a graphic scaling unit;

the figure zooming unit adjusts the minor focal plane independently formed by each camera to gradually increase from the inner side to the outer side along the camera arrangement direction along the minor edge of the vertical direction so as to adjust the minor focal plane to be trapezoidal, the minor focal plane after being adjusted by the same camera is positioned on the inner side to be reduced, and the length of the minor edge of the same minor focal plane in the vertical direction on the outer side is greater than that of the minor focal plane in the vertical direction before being adjusted.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the driving system further includes: a speed detection unit;

the speed detection unit detects the real-time flight speed of the aircraft and outputs imaging frequency instructions to each camera according to the adjusted length of the short side of each sub-focal plane in the vertical direction;

the short sides of the inner sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the continuous imaging process are at least connected, and the length of the long sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the horizontal direction in the continuous imaging process is kept unchanged.

Based on the same idea, the present application also discloses an aircraft comprising:

a machine body with at least one power mechanism,

the fuselage is equipped with an aircraft combination camera as disclosed in any one of the inventions of the above.

Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the utility model are that:

through the utility model discloses, the excessive technical problem of dependence camera quantity that exists when having solved among the prior art and adopting a plurality of cameras to carry out low latitude aviation survey and drawing to the parcel, can use the less and single lower digital camera of cost of quantity to realize the big broad width survey and drawing of shooing in succession, the manufacturing and the use cost of combination camera have been reduced remarkably, can realize bigger survey and drawing broad width under the prerequisite of camera quantity as far as possible, thereby realized the parcel information survey and drawing of big broad width high flux high resolution, the detection of a plurality of characteristics that target object and target object contained in realizing the parcel provides high accuracy, the image of high accuracy, and the image distortion of a plurality of characteristics that target object and target object contained has been reduced remarkably.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an aircraft combination camera according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the aircraft combination camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a topological view of an aircraft combination camera when connected to an aircraft;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the connection of the fields of view formed by the cameras when the aircraft combined camera passes over the terrain to continuously photograph the terrain by six independent cameras in the combined camera;

fig. 5 is a schematic view showing that the field angles of six cameras in the aircraft combination camera gradually increase from the inside to the outside in the camera arrangement direction;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a focal distance Fi of the cameras in each field of view, an included angle α i between a normal line of the cameras and a perpendicular bisector, and a horizontal width Wi of a parcel corresponding to a single picture acquired by a single camera when the fields of view formed by the respective cameras are connected to each other, where the horizontal width Wi of the parcel is a width formed in a sub-focal plane along a horizontal direction (H) of an image sensor of the camera;

FIG. 7 is a schematic spatial view of an aircraft-onboard aircraft combination camera continuously shooting a parcel above the parcel by sweeping along a set path;

fig. 8 is a system architecture diagram of an aircraft of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic view illustrating adjustment of a sub-focal plane formed when an aircraft combined camera photographs a target and one or more features included in the target according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of six photographs taken of a parcel after six cameras positioned on a vertical plane and arranged arc-symmetrically before a zoom operation is not performed;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the six pictures of FIG. 10 taken at sub-focal planes based on each camera, after zooming the pictures in the vertical direction;

fig. 12 is a perspective view of an aircraft according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention is described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, but it should be understood that these embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that the functions, methods, or structural equivalents or substitutions made by these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.

It will be understood that the terms "center," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," "counterclockwise," "axial," "radial," "circumferential," and the like, as used herein, are intended to refer to an orientation or positional relationship illustrated in the drawings, which is for convenience and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element so referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and is not to be construed as limiting the present disclosure.

Before describing in detail various embodiments of the present invention, meanings of technical terms referred to in the specification are briefly described or defined.

Term "Image sensor with a plurality of pixels": included in the present application are, but not limited to, a cmos (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) Image Sensor, a ccd (Charge Coupled device) Image Sensor or a Contact Image Sensor (CIS), an LBCAST Sensor (laser built-in Charge Accumulator and Sensing Transistor Array), and any electronic chip capable of storing Image content in the prior art.

Term "FOV": and a field of view, and includes a horizontal field of view, a vertical field of view, and a diagonal field of view. In view of the application scene requirements of various examples of the present application and the fact that photographs or pictures obtained based on image sensors are generally rectangular, the FOV is more practical to use with respect to a horizontal field angle.

Term "Normal line": the camera comprises a plurality of lens groups with main optical axes.

Term "Picture frame"and term"Photograph"having technical equivalents, are all digital format image files obtained based on a single camera.

The first embodiment is as follows:

fig. 1 to 11 show an embodiment of an aircraft combination camera according to the present invention.

The present embodiment discloses an aircraft combination camera 100. The aircraft combination camera 100 is mounted on an aircraft 500 flying at low altitude, and a small-range plot is photographed and mapped according to a set photographing frequency through reasonable selection of the aircraft combination camera 100 according to an inventive arrangement mode and the field angle and the photographing angle of each camera, and finally a plurality of pictures including all the features in the plot are obtained completely. The overall movement locus formed by the aircraft combined camera 100 during the process of shooting the plot can be in a folded form.

The space remote sensing camera carried on the satellite has the defect of very high price, and is not suitable for the mapping requirement of a small-range land parcel. Meanwhile, the remote sensing satellites also have a certain width for shooting the surface of the earth, so that if the whole earth needs to be surveyed, a plurality of remote sensing satellites are required to alternately shoot according to running orbits with different heights and different angles. Therefore, the remote sensing technology used by the remote sensing satellite in the prior art is not suitable for performing the retracing type photographing and mapping on a small-range plot so as to form an application scene of a complete plot image.

An aircraft combination camera 100 disclosed in the present embodiment is intended to take a wide-format image by continuously shooting a parcel while flying over the parcel at an irradiation angle formed by a set installation angle using two or more cameras including image sensors having a relatively low pixel (or effective pixel). While the ground is guaranteed to be shot, the manufacturing and using cost of the aircraft combined camera 100 is reduced as much as possible, the target object contained in the ground and one or more features contained in the target object are quickly and efficiently collected, the target object in the ground is further identified, high-flux and large-width shooting is achieved, and accurate data information is provided for specific operations (such as accurate disease removal, accurate emasculation, accurate picking and the like) to be executed next. In this embodiment, the image sensor included in the camera may be a cmos chip with 1200 ten thousand pixels. Meanwhile, the camera disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may also be regarded as a video camera including an image sensor or any imaging device capable of digital imaging (a generic concept of a camera).

Compared with a COMS chip (the chip size is 36 x 24mm, and the effective pixels are more than 2400 ten thousand) of a full-frame camera, the APS-C camera adopting an image sensor with 1200 thousand pixels and even lower pixel value is lower in cost for manufacturing the combined camera. As a semiconductor device, in an actual process, the aspect ratio of the image sensor cannot be made too large (usually 3:2 or 4:3), so that even a full-frame camera with high pixels is used, a wide-frame imaging area U still cannot be obtained, and a single camera is used for scanning horizontally, so that large-width high-throughput photo collection cannot be realized.

Foregoing description "Wide frame image"preferably, a substantially bar-shaped region formed by the plurality of cameras in the horizontal direction (H) based on the long side of the rectangular image obtained by the image sensor within the field of view (i.e., the aforementioned" horizontal direction (H) "and in the direction indicated by the arrow 102 in fig. 10), i.e., the wide imaging region U in fig. 7. Of course, the foregoing "Wide frame image"may also be a substantially bar-shaped area formed by the plurality of cameras in the vertical direction (V) based on the short sides of the rectangular image obtained by the image sensor within the field of view; relative to the former "Wide frame image", the latter forming"Wide frame image"is slightly smaller because the cross section of the field of view formed by the image sensor based on the lens group configured by the camera in the main optical axis direction in the technology is generally approximately 3:2 or 4:3 rectangular.

Referring to fig. 1 to 2, an aircraft combination camera 100 is mounted on an aircraft 500.

The aircraft combination camera 100 includes: the storage case 20, the attachment plate 30 connected to the storage case 20, and a plurality of cameras (i.e., the camera 41 to the camera 46) fixed to the attachment plate 30. The cameras are located on a vertical plane and are arranged in an arc shape, the field angles of the cameras are at least mutually connected and gradually increased from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras, and sub focal planes independently formed by the cameras are horizontally arranged to form a target focal plane located on the same horizontal plane. Preferably, all the cameras are arranged in an arc symmetry mode in a vertical plane.

The housing case 20 includes a main body 201 and a bent portion 211 extending laterally from the top of the main body 201, and a plug board 302 for the cameras 41 to 46 to penetrate through and connected to the cameras 41 to 46, wherein the moving direction of the aircraft 500 is perpendicular to the mounting board 30. The mounting plate 30 is provided with a plurality of slots 301 which are arranged in an arc shape and are used for the insertion plate 302 to be movably inserted, and the cameras 41-46 are symmetrically arranged in an arc shape and are fixed by the insertion plate 302. The slots 301 are arranged in pairs and disposed on the same side of the mounting plate 30. The camera extends vertically through the patch panel 302 and is connected to the patch panel 302. The bent portion 211 is opened with a plurality of through holes 221 to fixedly connect the accommodating case 20 to the aircraft 500 by a connector such as a bolt (not shown). Each camera is fixedly connected with the mounting plate 30 in a movable disassembly mode, and normal lines (shown by dotted lines in fig. 5) formed by all the cameras are symmetrically arranged in a fan shape and all point to the land; preferably, the normal lines of all the cameras may be located on the same vertical plane or partially located on the same vertical plane, and the vertical plane defined by the normal lines of the cameras is parallel to the vertical plane of the mounting plate 30. Meanwhile, the moving direction of the aircraft 500 is perpendicular to the mounting plate 30, the cameras are symmetrically arranged in a vertical plane, the number of the cameras is at least two, and the moving direction of the aircraft 500 is perpendicular to the vertical plane.

Preferably, the aircraft combination camera 100 shown in the present embodiment further includes: a stabilizing system arranged between the containment casing 20 and the aircraft 500, the stabilizing system being selected from a pan head or a damper. The stabilization system is mounted between the bend 211 and the fuselage 51 of the aircraft. The stabilization system can ensure that the lens of all the cameras in the aircraft combined camera 100 always keeps the downward shooting posture, and effectively prevent the defect of picture blurring caused by the shake of the aircraft or various maneuvers. The aircraft combination camera 100 disclosed in this embodiment can be used as a standalone system to be mounted on various types of aircraft, such as a rotorcraft, an unpowered aircraft, or a fixed wing aircraft.

The cameras are positioned in the vertical plane and symmetrically arranged in an arc shape, the number of the cameras is at least two, and the motion direction of the aircraft is perpendicular to the vertical plane, wherein "Vertical plane"is collectively defined by the X-O-Z axis in FIG. 7. The aircraft 500 performs uniform speed flight, acceleration flight or deceleration flight, and other attitudes above the terrain in a direction parallel to the Y-axis, and the aircraft 500 is controlled by setting a path in automatic flight operations. The cameras 41 to 46 in the embodiments of the present application may also be optical cameras or optical video cameras using films as photosensitive elements.

The aircraft combination camera 100 comprises six cameras, namely, a camera 41 to a camera 46, which are located on a vertical plane and are arranged in an arc symmetry manner. The vertical plane is parallel to the mounting plate 30. The number of cameras included in the aircraft combination camera 100 may be increased or decreased according to the actual width of the land to be photographed, the height of the aircraft, and the predetermined resolution. The aircraft combination camera 100 further includes: the drive system 10 of the camera is connected. The driving system 10 can be implemented by using a semiconductor chip based on an FPGA chip, an SoC chip, or an MCU chip. Referring to fig. 3, the driving system 10 is controlled by an aircraft flight control system 200, the flight control system 200 is electrically connected to the driving system 10, and the driving system 10 is connected to each camera through a wire (not shown). The flight control system 200 is selected from a Cortex-A series processor based on an MCU chip, a CPU processor or an ARM architecture, and the flight control system 200 controls the aircraft 500 to perform maneuvering actions such as cruise, turning, climbing, diving, rolling and the like.

Referring to fig. 4 to 6, the field angles of the cameras are at least connected with each other and gradually increase from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras, and the sub-focal planes independently formed by the cameras are horizontally arranged to form the target focal planes located on the same horizontal plane. The field angle (FOV) theta formed by each camera is gradually increased from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras. The focal length F, the illumination angle α i and the field angle θ formed by each camera in the respective field of view are shown in fig. 4-6. The respective cameras are equally spaced in the horizontal direction in the sub-focal plane, so that the length of the photographs formed by the cameras 41 to 46 in the sub-focal plane in fig. 10 in the horizontal direction shown by the arrow 102 is equal.

The target may be a crop in the plot or a feature on the crop, for example, the target may be rice and the feature may be an ear of rice, a pest, or the like. So-called "Feature object"belongs to"Target object"and can be considered to be located at the top, middle, top, or any one of the regions in the vertical direction of the" target ".

As shown in fig. 9, when the aircraft combination camera 100 is carried by the aircraft 500 and is flying with a horizontal attitude, the aircraft combination camera 100 flies over the target object along the set path. The target focal plane is located between the parcel and an isolation plane 106 located above the top of a target located in the parcel, the isolation plane 106 forming an isolation distance h6 from the target top 109. The target focal plane is formed by splicing a plurality of sub focal planes along the horizontal direction. The plots are vertically queued with a plurality of sorghum grains (i.e., a "target" subset). The top surface 105 forms a relative height h2 with the target top 109 and the target top 109 forms a target height h1 with the plot. The top surface 105 and the plot form an absolute height h3, the absolute height h3 being equal to the sum of the target height h1 and the relative height h 2.

The target contains one or more features and in this embodiment, the level 107 at which the lowest feature in the target is located is selected. The horizontal surface 107 and the top 109 of the target object form a predetermined distance h 4. The target height h1 is equal to the sum of the preset distance h4 and the feature height h 5. Preferably, in this embodiment, the target focal plane is located between a feature contained by the target in the parcel and the target top 109, i.e., in the area in the vertical direction of the target as shown by bracket M3 in fig. 9. The object height h1 may be the average height that objects in the plot have. The feature height h5 may be an average height that the features have.

The rectangular sub-focal planes formed by all the cameras on or suspended in the area above the terrain are also rectangular. The resolution in all the sub-focal planes is the same, and the boundaries of the fields of view between two adjacent cameras are connected with each other or partially overlapped, and most preferably, the boundaries of the fields of view between two adjacent cameras are connected with each other, so that the six sub-focal planes formed by the six cameras are connected with each other along the horizontal direction shown by the arrow 102 in fig. 10, so as to form the target focal plane located at the same horizontal plane. The cameras 41-43 and the cameras 44-46 are symmetrically arranged. The cameras 43,44 take photographs P1 that are identical and symmetrically arranged along the central axis 101; the cameras 42,45 take photographs P2 that are identical and symmetrically arranged along the central axis 101; the cameras 41,46 take photographs P3 that are identical and symmetrically arranged along the central axis 101.

In particular, in the present embodiment, the applicant creatively arranges the plurality of cameras included in the combined camera, and preferably an even number of cameras, in a symmetrical arrangement manner, so that a plurality of finally obtained photos also form a mirror-symmetrical shape distribution, which is beneficial to reducing the calculation overhead of subsequent splicing processing and recognition of the photos, and calculation of extracting the images of the target object included in the photos and/or the feature object included in the target object, and the like, thereby improving the efficiency of efficiently mapping and counting the target object required to be collected in the land parcel and/or the feature object information included in the target object. Therefore, the even number of cameras are symmetrically arranged in an arc shape, and the effect is better compared with the odd number of cameras which are symmetrically arranged in an arc shape.

As for the technical solution of how to identify and extract features from the photos, the operations based on the HOG features and the SVM classifier, which are commonly used in the field of computer image processing, can be used for realizing the operations, and the one or more features included in a specific target or the target (for example, the sorghum ears included in the sorghum plants, and the sorghum ears are features) are extracted and identified by a trained positive sample set and a trained negative sample set, and the background interference is prevented.

As shown in fig. 5, the size and pixels of the image sensor included in the camera determine the resolution of the pictures taken in the sub-focal planes at the same height h. For example, a CMOS chip with 1200 ten thousand pixels. The number of pixels in the vertical direction (V) is 3000 pixels (pixel points), and the number of pixels in the horizontal direction (H) is 4000 pixels. If the preset resolution is 1pixel/mm, the horizontal width Wi of the land parcel corresponding to a single photo is 4000mm (4 meters), and the vertical width Wi of the land parcel is 3000mm (3 m). In fig. 5W is 24 meters. The field angles of the cameras are typically fixed, i.e., the horizontal field angle and the vertical field angle of each camera are fixed.

In the present embodiment, the angle of view of the camera is a horizontal angle of view. The sum of the horizontal widths Wi of the land areas corresponding to the six photographs obtained by the six cameras is W, and is regarded as the length of the wide imaging area U in the horizontal direction in fig. 8. During the sweep of the aircraft 500 over the terrain to be mapped along the aircraft flight path shown by the dashed line in fig. 8, the terrain to be mapped is continuously photographed by the aircraft combination camera 100 and the target object contained in the terrain to be mapped and/or one or more features contained in the target object are acquired. In this embodiment, six photographs, which are formed by arranging the six sub-focal planes in arc symmetry with each other at a low cost to form the six sub-focal planes with contents connected with each other, record image information corresponding to the target object or the feature in the target object in the parcel.

Referring to fig. 5 and 9, it is assumed that the target focal plane formed by the combined camera is located exactly at the horizontal plane 107 where the feature included in a specific target object is located on the parcel. When the height of the aircraft combination camera 100 from the feature is 10 meters (relative height h2+ preset distance h4), the horizontal field angle of the cameras 43,44 is 22 °, the horizontal field angle of the cameras 42,45 is 17 °, and the horizontal field angle of the cameras 41,46 is 11.5 °. The normal line of the camera 43 forms an illumination angle of 11 ° with the central axis 101, the normal line of the camera 42 forms an illumination angle of 30.5 ° with the central axis 101, and the normal line of the camera 41 forms an illumination angle of 44.75 ° with the central axis 101. The focal length F formed by the camera 43 in its field of view is 10.18 meters, the focal length F formed by the camera 42 in its field of view is 11.6 meters, and the focal length F formed by the camera 41 in its field of view is 14.08 meters.

Since the irradiation angle formed between the normal line of each camera and the central axis 101 is kept fixed and the horizontal field angle of each camera is kept fixed, when the aircraft combination camera 100 is carried by the aircraft 500 and sweeps over the parcel, the horizontal width Wi of the parcel corresponding to the picture obtained by each camera is also kept 4 meters all the time; meanwhile, the field angles (and particularly the horizontal field angles) of any two cameras are mutually connected, so that the horizontal width Wi of the plot corresponding to the pictures obtained by the cameras is ensured to be continuously connected and arranged, a shooting blind area cannot exist, and the omission of the feature objects contained in the target objects vertically standing on the plot is effectively avoided. In general, the angle between the normal line of the lenses of the cameras 43 and 44 and the central axis 101 is small, and the normal line can be regarded as being almost perpendicular to the land, so that the image distortion of the target object in the picture taken by the cameras 43 and 44 in the sub-focal plane is small.

In the embodiment, the reduction of the field angle from inside to outside is beneficial to reducing the image distortion of the target object contained in the pictures taken by the outer cameras (the cameras 42 and 45 are relative to the cameras 43 and 44 positioned at the inner sides) or the outermost cameras (the cameras 41 and 46 are relative to the cameras 42 and 45 positioned at the inner sides), and is also beneficial to the subsequent identification and extraction operation of the feature objects in all the pictures, so that the accuracy of the whole process of mapping and identifying the feature objects in all the pictures by the various target objects in the ground block by the aircraft combination camera 100 is remarkably improved, and the problem of detection omission is prevented.

As shown in fig. 8, the drive system 10 includes: a posture detecting unit 110, a field angle adjusting unit 120, and a focus processing unit 150.

The attitude detecting unit 110 detects the flying height parameter of the combined camera 500, and determines the total angle of field formed by the combined camera based on the height of the target object and the target imaging width. When the six cameras are all enabled, the total field angle is 101 °, i.e., twice the sum of 11.5 ° +17 ° +22 °, and the target imaging width is 24 meters. The angle of view of the camera (here, the angle of view is also a horizontal angle of view) is adjusted by this angle of view adjusting unit 120. When the six cameras are fixed on the mounting plate 30, the angle of view (preferably, the horizontal angle of view) of each camera can be finely adjusted by the angle-of-view adjusting unit 120 so that the boundaries of the field of view of each camera are engaged with each other.

Further, when the photographed parcel has an extremely irregular shape, for example, the width of the parcel under the preset path is smaller than the width of the six photographs in the horizontal direction in fig. 9, the camera may be rotated. The direction of motion of the aircraft is then perpendicular to the vertical direction (V). At this time, the six fields of view may be further spliced by the field angle adjusting unit 120, so that the length in the horizontal direction shown by the arrow 102 in fig. 10 becomes shorter to adapt to the scene with the reduced land width, and feature information not belonging to the land is prevented from appearing in the photos taken in the partial cameras. At this time, the horizontal direction (H) of the image sensor of the camera is actually parallel to the flight path of the aircraft, so that the imaging frequency of each camera can be properly reduced, and information of all the features in the land mass capable of completely reflecting the complex contour in all the photos can be finally obtained. Of course, regardless of whether the cameras are rotated, when the width of the land under the preset path is significantly smaller than the width of the six photographs in the horizontal direction in fig. 10, an instruction to stop photographing may be issued to the outermost cameras, i.e., the cameras 41, 46. Therefore, the calculation cost of the whole process of finally storing, splicing and identifying the characteristic objects of all the photos is reduced.

The focusing processing unit 150 receives the height h1 of the target object and the flight height parameter, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction, so as to form a target focal plane located on the same horizontal plane, and the sub-focal plane and the target focal plane are always parallel to the plane where the parcel is located. When the plot is inclined (in terms of elevation), the focusing processing unit 150 adjusts the sub-focal planes of the cameras, and ensures that the independent sub-focal planes formed by the cameras are at least level with or equal to the average elevation plane of the feature, so as to avoid the occurrence of severe blurring of the picture obtained by imaging based on the sub-focal planes in the field of view of the cameras, and to make the contour of the target object and/or the feature clear.

The target imaging breadth is composed of imaging breadth formed by each camera in the combined cameras independently, and the flight height parameter comprises absolute height h3 formed between the aircraft and the plot or relative height h2 formed between the aircraft 500 and the top 109 of the target object in the plot. Based on the determined preset resolution and flying height parameters and the arrangement angle of the camera along the arc direction, the target focal plane is adjusted to any position or target position in the region M1 in a manner of manually and/or automatically adjusting the focusing distance Fi of the camera, so that the target object in the land parcel or one or more features in the target object can be shot.

As a reasonable variation of the present embodiment, the attitude detecting unit 110 detects the flying height parameter, determines the total field angle formed by the combined cameras based on the preset distance h4 formed by the feature object included in the object and the top 109 of the object and the imaging width of the object, and performs stitching on the field angles of the adjacent cameras by the field angle adjusting unit 120 so that the field angles of the adjacent cameras at least join each other. The focusing processing unit 150 receives the preset distance and the flying height parameters, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction, so as to form the target focal planes located on the same horizontal plane. Wherein the target height is defined by the feature height h5 alone or the feature height h5 is defined in combination with a predetermined distance h4 that the feature is located from the top of the target, and the fly height parameter comprises an absolute height h3 defined between the aircraft and the lot or a relative height h2 defined between the aircraft and the top 109 of the target in the lot. Therefore, in this embodiment, the height of the target can refer to the height h1 formed by the target standing vertically on the parcel, or the height h5 formed by one or more features in the target, which can be determined according to the object to be obtained. The object to be acquired may be a target object or a feature in the target object.

The target object or one or more features in the target object in the parcel may be photographed based on the determined preset resolution and flying height parameters and the arrangement angle of the camera in the arc direction by adjusting the target focal plane to the region M2, and most preferably the region M3, by adjusting the focal distance Fi of the camera in a manual and/or automatic focusing manner. Typically, the pistil, fruit of the crop is typically located in the middle or top of the plant, so adjusting the target focal plane to region M2, and most preferably to region M3, allows all features below the median plane 106 to the level 107 of the lowest feature in the target to be photographed and focused to obtain image information corresponding to the features in the plant. Therefore, the target focal plane shown in the present embodiment and the second embodiment is a dynamically selectable range, which is the sharpest image formed by an object (e.g., a feature) located in the target focal plane.

In this embodiment, the technical means for performing the gradual scaling on the original photograph can reduce the problem of image distortion caused by lengthening of the target object and/or the feature in the target object in the sub-focal plane when the normal line of the camera and the central axis 101 are in the inclined posture in the photograph taken by the camera located at the outer side or the outermost side, reduce the calculation overhead in the process of performing the stitching operation on the subsequent plurality of large-width images to form the picture content included in the complete parcel of picture, and improve the accuracy of identifying the feature in the parcel of picture.

Referring to fig. 11, in the present embodiment, the image zooming unit 140 adjusts a short side of the sub-focal plane formed by each camera independently along the vertical direction (i.e. a side formed by the photo in the sub-focal plane along the vertical direction) to gradually increase from the inner side to the outer side along the camera arrangement direction, so as to adjust the sub-focal plane to be trapezoidal, the short side of the sub-focal plane adjusted by the same camera on the inner side is reduced, and the length of the short side of the same sub-focal plane on the outer side is greater than the length of the short side of the sub-focal plane in the vertical direction before adjustment. The scaling of the short side of the original picture along the vertical direction corresponding to each individual sub-focal plane is gradually increased, for example, the scaling from the innermost side to the outermost side is 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, … …, 1.2 respectively. Since a distant object is generally small in terms of visual angle and camera imaging principle, enlarging the short side of the original image located on the outer side and reducing the short side located on the inner side contributes to reducing distortion of image contents in a photograph obtained by the sub-focal plane on the outer side. Performing the zoom operation on the original photographs (i.e., photographs P2, P3 in fig. 9) means performing the zoom-out in the vertical direction as a whole, while the length in the horizontal direction of the photographs obtained in the sub-focal plane based on the respective cameras is not reduced, i.e., the individual imaging widths of photographs P1 to P3 in the horizontal direction in the sub-focal plane remain unchanged after the zoom processing is performed on photographs P1 to P3 in fig. 10. Six original photographs in the form of rectangles in fig. 10. After the short side of the original picture is subjected to the scaling processing, the target imaging width is kept unchanged, and the imaging width formed by the single picture in each sub-focal plane along the horizontal direction is also kept unchanged. The effect of fig. 11 is formed after scaling processing is performed on the short sides of the six original photographs in the rectangular shape in fig. 10.

The shorter side of the photograph P2 on the inner side is reduced to be smaller than the shorter side of the original photograph, and the shorter side of the photograph P2 on the outer side is enlarged to be larger than the original photograph. As shown in fig. 10, the horizontal boundary 82 of the short side of the photograph P2 located on the outer side is located on the outer side of the horizontal boundary 81 of the short side of the photograph P2. Similarly, the short edge of the inner side of the photo P3 is reduced to be smaller than the original photo, and whether it is necessary to reduce the short edge of the photo P1 to the inner side is determined according to the situation; the short side of the photograph P3 on the outside is enlarged to be larger than the original photograph. As shown in fig. 10, the horizontal boundary 83 of the short side of the photograph P3 located on the outer side is located on the outer side of the horizontal boundary 82 of the short side of the photograph P2. Therefore, after the original photograph obtained based on each sub-focal plane is zoomed by the graphic zoom unit 140 in the arrangement direction from the inner side to the outer side of the cameras arranged in arc symmetry in the combined camera, the short side of the sub-focal plane at the outer side is shorter than the short side at the inner side, and the zoom strategy of gradually zooming in the short side of the original image obtained by each sub-focal plane from the inner side to the outer side is preferably performed.

The speed detection unit 130 detects the real-time flying speed of the aircraft 500, and outputs an imaging frequency command to each camera, and the imaging frequency command is input by at least the graphic scaling unit 140 to determine the imaging frequency of each camera for the length of the short side of each sub-focal plane reduced in the vertical direction. The short sides of the inner sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the continuous imaging process are at least connected, and the length of the long sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the horizontal direction in the continuous imaging process is kept unchanged. Preferably, the program frequency of each camera is determined by the minimum length of the short side of each sub-focal plane zoomed in the vertical direction, so that all the cameras in all the photos obtained in fig. 11 are located at the inner side in the vertical direction and the short sides are connected end to end in the vertical direction after the zooming process, thereby preventing the omission of the target object in the parcel or a plurality of features contained in the target object.

The detecting unit 110, the field angle adjusting unit 120, the focusing processing unit 150, the speed detecting unit 130 and the image zooming unit 140 shown in this embodiment may be implemented individually by using independent devices (e.g., an image display chip or an SoC chip), or may be implemented together by using a single device.

Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, the imaging frequency of the camera is controlled by the velocity component of the aircraft 500 in the horizontal direction, and the imaging frequency of the camera located on the outer side is greater than that of the camera located on the inner side. As shown in fig. 11, since the two short sides of the photograph located at the outer side in the vertical direction are respectively subjected to the reduction operation and the enlargement operation. Therefore, it is possible to synchronize the imaging frequencies of the camera 42 and the camera 45 accurately and synchronize the imaging frequencies of the camera 41 and the camera 46 accurately according to the reduction ratio of the short side of the photograph located on the inner side after the zoom operation is performed. So that the imaging frequency of the camera located on the outer side (both camera 42 with respect to camera 43 and camera 41 with respect to camera 42 refer to the camera located on the outer side) is kept higher than that of the camera located on the inner side. Simultaneously, the short edges formed by the short edges of the same camera positioned on the inner side in the process of twice urban shooting are at least connected or partially overlapped, and the target object or one or more features contained in the target object are prevented from being omitted.

The purpose of considering at least the velocity component of the aircraft in the horizontal direction is to prevent missing part of the content or causing serious overlapping of the pictures when shooting the target object contained in the parcel and several features contained in the target object. For the outer camera or the outermost camera, too high imaging frequency may cause the photos to overlap too much, and too low imaging frequency may cause omission of the target object in the land and several features included in the target object.

The aircraft combination camera 100 of the present embodiment is limited to at least a velocity component in the horizontal direction because the aircraft 500 is usually kept in a stable heading while flying along a predetermined path, and only the height of the feature is required to be raised/lowered due to airflow interference and obstacle avoidance. When the aircraft 500 swings left and right or climbs/lowers, since the field angle of each camera remains unchanged and the preset resolution is set, the imaging frequency of the cameras can be increased or decreased by the technical means of adjusting the imaging frequency of the outer side camera and the outermost side camera on the premise that the specification of the image sensor remains unchanged, and missing or excessive overlapping of contents caused when the target object in the plot and a plurality of features contained in the target object are photographed is prevented.

Example two:

referring to fig. 12, the present embodiment discloses an aircraft 500, and includes: a fuselage 51 with at least one power mechanism, the fuselage 51 being equipped with an aircraft combination camera as disclosed in the first embodiment. The aircraft 500 is selected from a rotorcraft, an unpowered aircraft, or a fixed wing aircraft. The aircraft may be a manned aircraft or an unmanned aircraft.

Referring to fig. 12, the aircraft further employs a quad-rotor drone (a subordinate concept of a rotary-wing aircraft). The quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a body 51, wherein the body 51 is connected with four power devices 53 (such as a brushless direct current motor and a subordinate concept of the power devices) through four cross rods 52, and the power devices 53 are provided with blades 521. Two landing gears 54 are provided below the fuselage 51.

The aircraft combination camera 100 as disclosed in the first embodiment may be mounted below (or forward or rearward) the fuselage 51 through a bend 211 in the containment case 20 or below other conventional auxiliary mounting means disposed laterally between the two landing gears 54. The quad-rotor drone may be equipped with one or more aircraft combination cameras 100. The aircraft 500 is wirelessly connected to the remote control system 400, and the remote control system 400 includes a cloud platform or a ground base station. The aircraft combination camera 100 is also connected to a positioning system 300 located within the aircraft 500 to provide coordinate parameters, position parameters, etc. for the aircraft. The positioning system 300 is selected from a GPS positioning system or a beidou positioning system.

Please refer to the description of the first embodiment, which will not be repeated herein.

The above list of details is only for the practical implementation of the present invention, and they are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all equivalent implementations or modifications that do not depart from the technical spirit of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Furthermore, it should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment may contain only a single embodiment, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should integrate the description, and the embodiments may be combined as appropriate to form other embodiments understood by those skilled in the art.

Claims (10)

1. An aircraft combination camera carried by an aircraft, comprising:

the camera comprises a containing shell, a mounting plate connected with the containing shell, and a plurality of cameras fixed on the mounting plate;

the cameras are arranged in an arc shape and are located on the same vertical plane, the field angles of the cameras are at least mutually connected and gradually increase from the outer side to the inner side along the arrangement direction of the cameras, and the sub-focal planes independently formed by the cameras are horizontally arranged to form a target focal plane located on the same horizontal plane.

2. The aircraft combination camera of claim 1, further comprising: the camera mounting structure comprises a plug board for penetrating a camera and being connected with the camera, wherein a plurality of slots for the plug board to movably plug are arranged on a mounting board, the cameras are symmetrically arranged in an arc shape and fixed by the plug board, the motion direction of the aircraft is perpendicular to the mounting board, the cameras are symmetrically arranged in a vertical plane, the number of the cameras is at least two, and the motion direction of the aircraft is perpendicular to the vertical plane.

3. The aircraft combination camera of claim 2, wherein the mounting plate fixedly mounts an even number of cameras in a symmetrical and arc-symmetrical arrangement.

4. The aircraft combination camera of claim 2, further comprising: a stabilizing system disposed between the containment case and the aircraft, the stabilizing system selected from a pan/tilt head or a damper.

5. The aircraft combination camera of claim 2, wherein the target focal plane is located between a feature contained by the target in the terrain and a top of the target.

6. The aircraft combination camera of claim 2, wherein the containment case houses a drive system connected to the camera, the drive system comprising:

the attitude detection unit, the field angle adjusting unit and the focusing processing unit;

the attitude detection unit detects flight height parameters, determines a total field angle formed by the aircraft combined camera based on the height of the target object and the target imaging width, and splices the field angles of the adjacent cameras through the field angle adjusting unit so as to enable the field angles of the adjacent cameras to be at least connected with each other;

the focusing processing unit receives the height and flight height parameters of the target object, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction so as to form target focal planes positioned on the same horizontal plane;

the target imaging breadth is composed of imaging breadths formed by the cameras in the aircraft combination cameras independently, and the flight height parameter comprises absolute height formed between the aircraft and the land or relative height formed between the aircraft and the top of a target object in the land.

7. The aircraft combination camera of claim 2, wherein the containment case houses a drive system connected to the camera, the drive system comprising:

the attitude detection unit, the field angle adjusting unit and the focusing processing unit;

the attitude detection unit detects flight height parameters, determines a total field angle formed by the aircraft combination camera based on a preset distance formed by a feature object contained in the target object and the top of the target object and a target imaging width, and splices the field angles of adjacent cameras through the field angle adjusting unit so that the field angles of the adjacent cameras are at least connected with each other;

the focusing processing unit receives the preset distance and the flight height parameters, and synchronizes the focal lengths of the sub-focal planes formed by the cameras according to the arrangement angles of the cameras along the arc direction so as to form a target focal plane positioned on the same horizontal plane;

the target imaging width is composed of imaging widths formed by cameras in the aircraft combined camera independently, the height of the target is defined by the height of the feature alone or the height of the feature and a preset distance formed by the feature from the top of the target where the feature is located, and the flight height parameter comprises the absolute height formed between the aircraft and the ground or the relative height formed between the aircraft and the top of the target in the ground.

8. The aircraft combination camera of claim 6 or 7, wherein the drive system further comprises: a graphic scaling unit;

the figure zooming unit adjusts the minor focal plane independently formed by each camera to gradually increase from the inner side to the outer side along the camera arrangement direction along the minor edge of the vertical direction so as to adjust the minor focal plane to be trapezoidal, the minor focal plane after being adjusted by the same camera is positioned on the inner side to be reduced, and the length of the minor edge of the same minor focal plane in the vertical direction on the outer side is greater than that of the minor focal plane in the vertical direction before being adjusted.

9. The aircraft combination camera of claim 8, wherein the drive system further comprises: a speed detection unit;

the speed detection unit detects the real-time flight speed of the aircraft and outputs imaging frequency instructions to each camera according to the adjusted length of the short side of each sub-focal plane in the vertical direction;

the short sides of the inner sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the continuous imaging process are at least connected, and the length of the long sides of the sub focal planes of the same camera in the horizontal direction in the continuous imaging process is kept unchanged.

10. An aircraft, characterized in that it comprises:

a machine body with at least one power mechanism,

the fuselage is fitted with an aircraft combination camera as disclosed in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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