JP2006264526A - Heavy article disposing structure for pilotless helicopter - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a heavy article disposing structure for a pilotless helicopter reducing output loss by decreasing air resistance, and enabling stable flying control. <P>SOLUTION: In the pilotless helicopter 1 enabling manual flying control by remote controlling operation from the ground and autonomous flying control by an autonomous controlling device mounted on a machine body, a heavy article is mounted on either one of right and left outer sides of the machine body 4. The heavy article is, for example, an autonomous controlling box 15 storing the autonomous controlling device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an arrangement structure for heavy objects mounted on an unmanned helicopter.

  The unmanned helicopter is used for spraying chemicals such as agricultural chemicals (for example, Patent Document 1) or for taking aerial photographs. This unmanned helicopter is a remote controller, and can be remotely operated according to the flight state while the user looks at the aircraft from the ground.

In such an unmanned helicopter, for example, autonomous flight control that automatically performs optimum flight control in accordance with the operating state of the engine along a flight route arbitrarily set in advance has been put into practical use. When performing such autonomous flight control, the azimuth angle sensor and attitude angle sensor (gyro) detection data and GPS data on the aircraft side are transmitted to the ground side, and an autonomous flight control command signal sent from the ground side is transmitted. The data communication device to receive is mounted on the aircraft side. In addition, a control board composed of an image communication device and a microcomputer storing an autonomous flight program when a GPS device and a camera for detecting the position and speed of the aircraft are installed is mounted on the aircraft.

  Autonomous control devices such as data communication devices, image communication devices, GPS devices and control boards necessary for autonomous flight control are stored in the autonomous control box, and devices that cannot be stored are stored in a separate sub-control box. And mounted on the aircraft.

  The unmanned helicopter fuel tank is housed inside the fuselage. Further, in order to extend the flight distance, a sub fuel tank is mounted, and when the remaining amount of the fuel tank in the fuselage decreases, the fuel tank in the fuselage is replenished by the subpump through the fuel hose.

In the conventional unmanned helicopter, the above-described autonomous control box, sub-control box, and sub-fuel tank are mounted on the left and right outer sides of the fuselage.
However, if heavy and bulky autonomous control boxes and sub fuel tanks are mounted on the left and right outer sides of the aircraft, the air resistance of the flight will increase, causing output loss. In addition, the number of parts such as a harness and a connector for connecting the autonomous control box and the sub-control box increases, which causes a decrease in connection and operation reliability.

  In addition, if a sub fuel tank is provided, a fuel hose and a sub pump are required, which increases the weight and causes a decrease in the reliability of fuel supply. Furthermore, the tilt angle of the airframe changes due to a change in the remaining amount of the sub fuel tank, and correction control is always required to fly in a stable posture, causing a reduction in the reliability of autonomous control.

JP 2002-166893 A

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an unmanned helicopter heavy object arrangement structure that can reduce air resistance, reduce output loss, and perform stable flight control.

  In order to achieve the object, the invention of claim 1 is an unmanned helicopter capable of manual flight control by remote control operation from the ground and autonomous flight control by an autonomous control device mounted on the aircraft, and only one of the left and right outer sides of the aircraft. In addition, a heavy object arrangement structure for an unmanned helicopter, which is characterized by mounting a heavy object, is provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the heavy object is an autonomous control box that houses the autonomous control device.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the heavy article is mounted on a side that cancels the inclination of the airframe according to the rotation direction of the main rotor.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the heavy object is mounted on only one of the left and right outer sides of the airframe, the air resistance is reduced and the output loss can be reduced as compared with the case where the heavy object is mounted on both the left and right sides.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the autonomous control box is provided only on one side of the airframe to reduce the size of the airframe and reduce the air resistance. In this case, each device of the autonomous control device is compactly accommodated in one autonomous control box and the sub-control box is abolished, so that a compact configuration can be obtained and the number of parts such as harnesses and connectors can be reduced and connected. And the reliability of operation is improved. In addition, by providing one fuel tank with a sufficiently large capacity inside the fuselage and eliminating the sub fuel tank, the number of parts such as fuel hoses and sub pumps can be reduced, and the weight can be reduced with a compact configuration and the reliability of fuel supply can be reduced. Is increased. In addition, a stable posture is always maintained regardless of the remaining amount in the fuel tank.

  According to the invention of claim 3, by mounting a heavy object in a direction that cancels the inclination of the airframe based on the rotating action of the main rotor, the airframe can be maintained in a horizontal posture, and the camera image and the data processing of the gyro device can be performed. Simplification increases control accuracy and reliability. More specifically, a helicopter generally applies a rotational reaction force that opposes the main rotor to the airframe by the tail rotor in order to prevent the airframe around the main rotor shaft from rotating due to the rotational reaction force of the main rotor. As the tail rotor rotates, a rotational reaction force is applied to the airframe, and thrust in the lateral direction (the left-right direction of the airframe) is generated. In order to cancel the thrust by the tail rotor, it is necessary to generate thrust in the opposite direction to the main rotor. For this reason, by tilting the aircraft to the right or left in the direction opposite to the direction in which thrust is generated by the tail rotor, thrust is generated in the tilted direction and the aircraft moves in the left-right direction against the thrust of the tail rotor. It has stopped.

  In the present invention, since the heavy object is mounted on one side of the left and right sides of the aircraft so as to return the tilt of the aircraft at this time, the aircraft can be maintained in a substantially horizontal posture while the main rotor is inclined. The airframe includes a gyro device that detects an attitude angle, an azimuth angle sensor, and a detection device such as a GPS device that detects a position. These are mounted with reference to the horizontal. Therefore, when the aircraft tilts from the horizontal, it is necessary to correct the change in the tilt angle. In the present invention, since the tilt is returned so that the aircraft approaches the horizontal, the correction amount is small, the detection accuracy and reliability of the detection device are increased, and autonomous flight control can be executed stably and accurately.

  Further, when a camera is mounted on the aircraft, the camera is attached to the aircraft on a horizontal basis. Therefore, since the image tilts when the aircraft tilts, it is difficult to determine the attitude of the aircraft based on the image transmitted to the ground station. In the present invention, since the aircraft is maintained substantially horizontal, the posture of the aircraft can be easily and reliably identified from the camera image. Therefore, the unmanned helicopter can be easily operated while viewing the image.

1 to 3 are a side view, a top view, and a front view, respectively, of an unmanned helicopter according to the present invention.
The unmanned helicopter 1 includes a body 4 including a main body 2 and a tail body 3. A main rotor 5 is provided at the top of the main body 2, and a tail rotor 6 is provided at the rear of the tail body 3. A radiator 7 is provided at the front portion of the main body 2, and thereafter, the engine, the intake system, the main rotor shaft, and the fuel tank are accommodated in the main body 2 in this order. A large-capacity fuel tank is accommodated near the center of the fuselage to eliminate the need for an external sub fuel tank. Skids 9 are provided on the left and right lower parts of the main body 2 in the substantially central part of the airframe 4 via support legs 8. A muffler 61 provided in an exhaust pipe 60 connected to an engine (not shown) in the fuselage is disposed at the lower part of the fuselage above the front end of the skid 9.

  A control panel 10 is provided on the rear upper side of the main body 2, and an indicator lamp 11 is provided on the lower side. The control panel 10 displays check points before flight, self-check results, and the like. The display on the control panel 10 can also be confirmed at the ground station. The indicator lamp 11 displays a GPS control state, an abnormality warning of the aircraft, and the like.

  A camera device 12 accommodating an infrared camera (or a CCD camera) is attached to the lower side of the front part of the main body 2 via a camera head 13. The camera device 12 rotates about a pan axis (vertical axis) with respect to the camera head 13 and an internal camera (not shown) can rotate about a tilt axis (horizontal axis). Thereby, the camera can photograph all directions on the ground from the sky through the front window 14.

  An autonomous control box 15 is mounted on the left side of the main body 2. The autonomous control box 15 accommodates a GPS control device necessary for autonomous control, a data communication device and an image communication device communicating with the ground, a control board incorporating a control program, and the like. Autonomous control is based on flight data such as the position and speed of the aircraft, aircraft data such as the attitude and orientation of the aircraft, and operating state data such as engine speed and throttle opening, etc. Is selected automatically or in response to a command from the ground station, and optimal steering control is performed according to the driving state.

  The unmanned helicopter 1 can fly by such autonomous control and can be manually operated by a remote controller based on various flight state data transmitted from the flight state and the aircraft while visually confirming the flight state. It is.

  An antenna support frame 16 is attached to the lower surface side of the main body 2. An inclined stay 17 is attached to the antenna support frame 16. A steering data antenna 18 for transmitting / receiving steering data (digital data) such as driving state data and flight command data necessary for the above-described autonomous control to and from the ground station is attached to the stay 17. The stay 17 is further provided with an image data antenna 19 for transmitting image data (analog data) captured by the camera device 12 to the ground station.

  An azimuth angle sensor 20 based on geomagnetism or the like is provided on the lower surface side of the tail body 3. The azimuth sensor 20 detects the orientation of the aircraft (east, west, south, and north). The main body 2 is further provided with a posture angle sensor (not shown) composed of a gyro device.

A main GPS antenna 21 and a sub GPS antenna 22 are provided on the upper surface side of the tail body 3. A remote control receiving antenna 23 for receiving a command signal from the remote control pilot is provided at the rear end of the tail body 3.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an unmanned helicopter according to the present invention.
The camera device 12 includes an infrared camera (or CCD camera) 24 mounted on the camera head 13.
In the autonomous control box 15, an image control device 25 that receives video data from the camera 24, an image communication device 26 that transmits image data to the ground station, and data necessary for autonomous control are transmitted and received between the ground station. A data communication device 27, a control board 28 including a microcomputer storing an autonomous control program, a main GPS receiver 29 connected to the main GPS antenna 21, and a sub-GPS connected to the sub-GPS antenna 22. The receiver 30 is accommodated.

  The body 4 includes an image data antenna 19 for sending analog image data to the ground station and control data for sending and receiving digital control data to and from the ground station from the image communication device 26 and the data communication device 27 in the autonomous control box 15, respectively. The antenna 18 is provided on the lower surface side of the main body 2 (FIG. 1) as described above. The azimuth angle sensor 20 is connected to the control board 28 in the autonomous control box 15. In the body 4, an attitude angle sensor 31 including a gyro device or the like is provided and connected to a control box 32. The control box 32 drives the five servo motors 33 in data communication with the control board 28 in the autonomous control box 15. The three servo motors 33 control the main rotor to control the movement of the airframe in the front-rear, left-right, and vertical directions together with the servo motor for engine control, and the servo motor for tail rotor control controls the rotation of the airframe.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the ground station.
The ground station 53 that communicates with the unmanned helicopter 1 includes a GPS antenna 34 that receives signals from GPS satellites, a communication antenna 35 that performs data communication with the unmanned helicopter 1, and image data from the unmanned helicopter 1. The three image receiving antennas 36 are installed on the ground.

The ground station 53 includes a data processing unit 37, a monitoring operation unit 38, and a power supply unit 39.
The data processing unit 37 includes a GPS receiver 40, a data communication device 41, an image communication device 42, and a communication board 43 connected to these communication devices 40, 41, 42.

The monitoring operation unit 38 includes a manual controller (remote control pilot machine) 44, a base controller 45 for operating a camera and controlling the aircraft, a backup power source 46, a personal computer 47 connected to the base controller 45, and a personal computer. Monitor 48 and an image monitor 49 connected to the base controller 45 for displaying image data.

  The power supply unit 39 includes a generator 50 and a backup battery 52 connected to the generator 50 via a battery booster 51. The backup battery 52 is connected to the fuselage and supplies a voltage of 12 V when the generator 50 is not operating, such as during a check before flight. During the flight, a voltage of 100 V is supplied from the generator 50 to the data processing unit 37 and the monitoring operation unit 38.

  The image data reflected on the image monitor 49 of the ground station 53 is transmitted to the remote monitoring room 54 via the DV recorder 55 and can be viewed in the remote monitoring room 54.

  In the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 described above, the autonomous control box 15 that is a heavy object is mounted only on the left side of the aircraft, and no heavy object is mounted on the right side. Thereby, the inclination of the airframe by the main rotor 5 can be canceled and the airframe can be kept almost horizontal. That is, in order to prevent counterclockwise rotation of the airframe 4 due to counterclockwise rotation of the main rotor 5, a rotational reaction force that opposes the main rotor is applied to the airframe by the tail rotor 6. At this time, thrust to the left of the body 4 is generated by the tail rotor 6. In order to cancel the thrust of the tail rotor 6 in the left direction of the aircraft, the main rotor 5 is tilted to the right when viewed from the rear of the aircraft (lowering the right side and raising the left side) to generate and balance the thrust in the right direction. . At this time, since the autonomous control box 15 which is a heavy object is mounted on the left side, a counterclockwise moment acts in the rear view of the aircraft, and as a result, only the aircraft is lowered on the left side while the main rotor 5 is tilted to the right. Is returned to level. In this state, the counterclockwise moment due to the weight of the autonomous control box and the counterclockwise moment due to the inclination of the main rotor are balanced and stable.

The horizontal balance state of the aircraft will be further described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 6A to 6C are rear views of the aircraft.
As shown in (A), the main rotor 5 rotates clockwise (R1), and by this reaction, the machine body 4 tries to rotate counterclockwise (R2). In order to prevent the rotation R <b> 2 of the airframe 4, the tail rotor 6 applies a rotational force against the R <b> 2 to the airframe 4. That is, the tail rotor 6 generates wind force of the wind direction w so as to face the rotation R2 of the machine body. The rotation of the body 4 is prevented by the counter action of the tail rotor 6. However, this generates a leftward thrust F1 with respect to the fuselage 4. In order to prevent the aircraft body 4 from moving to the left due to the thrust F1, the main rotor 5 is tilted to the right in a rear view as shown in FIG. As a result, a rightward thrust F2 is generated and the leftward thrust F1 is canceled.

  At this time, in the present invention, as shown in (C), since the autonomous control box (heavy object) 15 is provided on the left side of the machine body, a counterclockwise moment M2 acts on the machine body 4 in the rear view. As a result, the airframe 4 tilted to the right rotates counterclockwise and returns to the horizontal. At this time, the main rotor 5 is inclined with respect to the horizontal airframe 4 so as to cancel the leftward thrust F1 as described in FIG. Therefore, the thrust F1 to the left of the body 4 by the tail rotor 6 is equal to the thrust F2 to the right of the body 4 by the main rotor 5 (F1 = F2), and the body 4 does not move in the left-right direction. Further, the clockwise moment M1 of the main rotor 5 with respect to the machine body 4 is equal to the counterclockwise moment M2 of the heavy object 15 (M1 = M2), and the machine body 4 balances in a horizontal posture without rotating.

  The autonomous control box 15 is mounted on the side (left side in the embodiment) that cancels the inclination of the airframe according to the rotation direction of the main rotor 5 as described above. The heavy object is not limited to the autonomous control box, and may be a fuel tank or a chemical tank.

  The present invention can be applied to other unmanned helicopters for spraying agrochemicals or other aerial photographs for surveying.

The side view of the unmanned helicopter concerning the present invention. The top view of the unmanned helicopter of FIG. The front view of the unmanned helicopter of FIG. The block block diagram of the unmanned helicopter concerning this invention. The block block diagram of a ground station. The operation explanatory view of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: Unmanned helicopter, 2: Main body, 3: Tail body, 4: Airframe, 5: Main rotor, 6: Tail rotor, 7: Radiator, 8: Support leg, 9: Skid, 10: Control panel, 11: Display Light: 12: Camera device, 13: Head, 14: Window, 15: Autonomous control box, 16: Antenna support frame, 17: Stay, 18: Steering data antenna, 19: Image data antenna, 20: Azimuth angle sensor, 21: Main GPS antenna, 22: Sub GPS antenna, 23: Remote control receiving antenna, 24: Camera, 25: Image control device, 26: Image communication device, 27: Data communication device, 28: Control board, 29: Main GPS reception 30: Sub GPS receiver, 31: Attitude angle sensor, 32: Control box, 33: Servo motor, 34: GPS antenna, 5: Communication antenna, 36: Image receiving antenna, 37: Data processing unit, 38: Monitoring operation unit, 39: Power supply unit, 40: GPS receiver, 41: Data communication device, 42: Image communication device, 43: Communication board 44: Remote controller 45: Base controller 46: Backup power supply 47: Personal computer 48: Monitor 49: Image monitor 50: Generator 51: Battery booster 52: Backup battery 53: Ground station 54: Remote monitoring room, 55: DV recorder, 60: Exhaust pipe, 61: Muffler.

Claims (3)

In an unmanned helicopter capable of manual flight control by remote control operation from the ground and autonomous flight control by the autonomous control device mounted on the aircraft,
An unmanned helicopter heavy load arrangement structure in which a heavy load is mounted on only one of the left and right outer sides of the fuselage.   The unmanned helicopter heavy load arrangement structure according to claim 1, wherein the heavy load is an autonomous control box in which the autonomous control device is housed. The unmanned helicopter heavy load arrangement structure according to claim 1, wherein the heavy load is mounted on a side that cancels the inclination of the airframe according to the rotation direction of the main rotor.

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