JPH1045098A - Unmanned helicopter for industrial use - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To greatly reduce the space required for transportation and for storage by dividing the drive shaft of a tail rotor blade into the airframe main body side and the tail boom side, and engaging them in a rotating direction. SOLUTION: An airframe main body 11 and a tail boom 12 are formed separately, and the tail boom 12 can be freely removably secured to the airframe main body 11 by a lock 14 attached to the airframe main body 11. The drive shaft of a tail rotor blade is divided into the airframe main body 11 side and the tail boom 12 side, which are designed so that they can easily be connected together.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the structure of an industrial unmanned helicopter used for aerial photography, pesticide spraying, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional helicopter of this type has a fuselage having a total length of, for example, about 2 m. The fuselage is assembled at a factory to form a complete body, that is, the product has a structure in which the entire fuselage is integrated. Therefore, the aircraft could not be easily divided.

[0003]

However, even if the total length is 2 m, the airframe is quite large. For example, in the case of an application for spraying pesticides, for example, the total length is 4 m in order to increase the loading amount of the pesticides. Unmanned helicopters with large airframes have also been considered. Therefore, in such an unmanned helicopter, for example, a large packing box is required at the time of transporting a product, and a large mounting space for transporting is required, which increases transport costs.

In addition, a large storage space is required for storage, and a large warehouse or garage for storage is required. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an industrial unmanned helicopter that can significantly reduce the space required for transportation and storage in view of the above-mentioned problems.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the main body and the tail boom are separately formed, and the tail boom is detached from the main body by a locking tool attached to the main body. The drive shaft of the tail rotor blade is freely fixed, is divided into a body body side and a tail boom side, and is structured to be engaged in the rotation direction.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the drive shaft on the tail boom side is formed of a carbon fiber pipe. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first and second aspects of the present invention, the fixing portion of the tail boom to the body of the body is cylindrical, and the drive shaft on the tail boom side is housed therein, and the locking member is provided. Is provided with two sets of a support base having a cylindrical concave surface, one end of which is locked to the support base, and the other end of which is removably fixed, and a clamp for fastening and fixing the fixing part to the support base. The fixing portion is fastened and fixed at two locations in the axial direction by a locking tool, and a positioning projection projected from a peripheral surface of the fixing portion is engaged with a hole provided in a clamp to be positioned. You.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, a joint is provided in each of the two cylinders of the fixing portion. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the third and fourth aspects of the present invention, a guide groove extending in the axial direction is formed in the cylindrical concave surface of the support base, and the guide projection is positioned and guided in the guide groove. Are protruded from the peripheral surface of the fixed portion.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, the concave surface of the support base is substantially a semi-cylindrical surface, and the guide grooves are formed at both ends in the circumferential direction. By the engagement with the projection, the upward movement of the fixing portion is suppressed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the entire configuration of an industrial unmanned helicopter according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2A and 2B show the divided state. In this example, the fuselage body 11 shown in FIG. 2A and the tail boom 12 shown in FIG. 2B are configured separately. Airframe body 11
The part of the chassis 13 protruding rearward is provided with a locking member 14.
The tail boom 12 is attached and fixed to the body 11 by the locking member 14. 2A and 2B show the main rotor blade 15,
This shows a state where the tail rotor blade 16 has been removed.

The drive shaft of the tail rotor blade 16 is divided into a body body 11 side and a tail boom 12 side, and these divided drive shafts are attached to the body boom 11 by engaging the tail boom 12 in the rotation direction. And are easily connected. FIG. 3 shows details of the connecting portion of the drive shaft. The drive shaft 17A that has passed through the inside of the cylindrical tail boom 12 protrudes from the end of the tail boom 12, and a joint coupler 18 is attached to the protruding end.

The joint coupler 18 comprises a cylindrical mounting portion 19 provided with a slot and a connecting portion 21 following the mounting portion. The connecting portions 21 are opposed to each other on the axis of the mounting portion 19 with the axis thereof interposed therebetween. The structure has a pair of engagement pieces 22. The pair of engagement pieces 22 are located on the same circumference, and in this example, are each formed in an arc shape having a central angle of about 90 °.

To attach the joint coupler 18 to the drive shaft 17A, the drive shaft 17A is inserted into the attachment portion 19, and bolts 23 are passed through the attachment portion 19 and the drive shaft 17A in the radial direction.
It is performed by tightening and fixing. On the other hand, FIG.
In the drawing, reference numeral 17B denotes a drive shaft on the side of the fuselage body 11, and although not shown, one end of the drive shaft 17B is connected to a transmission driven by the engine. A joint coupler 18 is attached to the other end of the drive shaft 17B, similarly to the drive shaft 17A.
8 are engaged with each other at positions where the positions of the engagement pieces 22 are shifted from each other by 90 °, so that the engagement pieces 22 are engaged with each other in the rotational direction and are connected to each other, that is, the rotation of the drive shaft 17B is Is transmitted to

In this example, a carbon fiber pipe (carbon pipe) is used for the drive shaft 17A. Since the carbon pipe is strong against twisting and is flexible, for example, both drive shafts 17 are used.
Even if there is some axis deviation between A and 17B, the axis deviation can be absorbed by bending the drive shaft 17A, and a good connection state between the two joint couplers 18 can always be obtained. The drive shaft 17B
For example, a stainless steel pipe is used.

In attaching the tail boom 12 to the body 11 of the vehicle, the drive shafts 17A, 17
Along with the connection of B, an electric connection for driving a servomotor (not shown) housed in the tail boom 12 for changing the pitch of the tail rotator 18 is required, and this connection is made as shown in FIG. , Connectors 25, 2
6 is connected. In the figure, 2
Reference numerals 7 and 28 denote cable cords connected to the servomotor and the control circuit, respectively.

Next, the fixing of the cylindrical fixing portion of the tail boom 12 by the locking member 14 will be described. The locking device 14 is provided with two sets of a support base 31 and a clamp 32, and as shown in FIG. 4, they are arranged in the front-rear direction at a portion where the chassis 13 of the body 11 protrudes rearward. Mounted and mounted. The support base 31 has a cylindrical concave surface 33, and the concave surface 33 is attached to the chassis 13 with the concave surface 33 serving as an upper surface. A clamp 32 bent in an arc shape is attached to the support base 31 so as to face the concave surface 33. One end of the clamp 32 is fixed to the support base 31 by, for example, screwing, and the other end is bent outward to form a hook. The hook 34 is detachably fixed to the support base 31. .

The fixing of the hook 34 of the clamp 32 is performed by a rotary fastener 35 attached to the support 31 in this example. The rotary fastener 35 is such that its hook-like piece 37 moves by rotating a knob 36, and this hook-like piece 37 is hooked on the hook-like portion 34 of the clamp 32,
By rotating the knob 36, the hook 34 of the clamp 32 is pulled into the rotating fastener 35. A commercially available rotary fastener 35 of this type can be used.

The fixing portion 38 of the tail boom 12 is fixed to the support base 31 by loosening the two rotating fasteners 35 and removing the clamp 32, as shown by the arrow in FIG. After being sequentially inserted between the support 31 and the clamp 32 of the set, the clamp 3 is rotated by the rotating fastener 35.
2 by tightening the fixing part 3
8 are fixed to the support base 31 at two locations in the axial direction. FIG. 5 shows this fixed state.

The clamp 32 is made of, for example, stainless steel, has a plurality of round holes 39 formed thereon, and further has a positioning hole 41 formed at the top thereof. Since the projecting positioning projections 42 are accommodated and positioned, the fixing portion 38 is positioned and fixed to the support base 31 and the displacement is prevented.

As shown in FIG. 6, nodes 43 for preventing deformation are provided in the two cylinders of the fixed portion 38 of the tail boom 12 which are fastened by the clamps 32, respectively. The node 43 is made of a metal plate having a plurality of round holes 44 formed thereon, and is attached to the inner peripheral surface of the fixing portion 38 by screwing. In the drawing, reference numeral 45 denotes a bearing that supports the drive shaft 17A.

In this example, the node 43 is fixed to the fixing portion 38 by three screws 46, of which one screw 4
The screw head No. 6 is used as the positioning protrusion 42 described above. In FIG. 6, illustration of the clamp 32 and the rotary fastener 35 is omitted. On the other hand, each section 43
Are used as guide projections 47 in this example. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, two guide grooves 48 are formed on the concave surface 33 of each support base 31 so as to extend in the axial direction (front-rear direction), and support the fixing portion 38 from behind. Stand 31
When inserted between the clamps 32 and the guides 32, the guide projections 47 are positioned and guided in the guide grooves 48, so that the circumferential position of the fixing portion 38 can be easily determined.

If the concave surface 33 of the support table 31 is formed as a substantially semi-cylindrical surface and the guide grooves 48 are provided at both ends in the circumferential direction, guide protrusions (screw heads) as shown in FIG. 47 engages with the guide groove 48,
The upward movement of the fixing part 38 on the support base 31 is suppressed, that is, the fixing part 38 is moved on the support base 31 to
When fixed to the tail boom 12, the tail boom 12 does not tilt and the horizontal state is maintained.
2 can be connected very easily.

To remove the tail boom 12 from the body 11 of the body, the connectors 25 and 26 are disengaged from each other, and the two rotary fasteners 35 are loosened, so that the hooks 34 of the clamp 32 and the hooks 37 of the rotary fastener 35 are removed. , The tail boom 12 can be easily pulled back by pulling the tail boom 12 backward.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the fuselage can be divided into the fuselage body 11 and the tail boom 12. Therefore, the packaging box for transportation can be small,
Since the required space is small, it is easy to transport and the cost can be reduced.

In addition, the storage space is small even during storage, so that the storage is easy. further,
For example, when performing maintenance and maintenance of the aircraft, the body 11 and the tail boom 12 can be divided, so that the work becomes easier by that amount, so that the maintainability can be improved and the maintenance cost can be reduced.

When the aircraft is crashed during operation, for example, when only the tail boom 12 is damaged, the unit can be replaced only at that portion, so that the damage can be dealt with inexpensively and quickly. According to the second aspect of the present invention, even when the drive shafts 17A and 17B are misaligned when the body body 11 and the tail boom 12 are connected to each other,
By bending the drive shaft 17A, they can be connected well.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the attachment and detachment of the tail boom 12 to and from the body 11 can be performed extremely easily.
The deformation of the second fixing portion 38 due to the tightening of the locking member 14 can be prevented. Further, according to the invention of claim 5, when the fixing portion 38 is inserted between the support base 31 and the clamp 32 of the locking member 14, the fixing portion 38 is positioned and guided, and according to the invention of claim 6, Since the horizontal state of the tail boom 12 is maintained during the fixing work, the work becomes easier.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the appearance of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a divided state of FIG. 1, A is a side view of an airframe main body, and B is a side view of a tail boom.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining details of a connection portion of a drive shaft.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining a method of fixing the tail boom to the body of the vehicle using a locking tool.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a fixed state of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of FIG. 5 with a part omitted.

Claims (6)

[Claims] An airframe body and a tail boom are formed separately from each other, and the tail boom is detachably fixed to the airframe body by a locking tool attached to the airframe body, and a tail rotor blade drive is provided. An industrial unmanned helicopter, wherein a shaft is divided into the body body side and the tail boom side and is engaged in a rotating direction. 2. The industrial unmanned helicopter according to claim 1, wherein the drive shaft on the tail boom side is made of a carbon fiber pipe. 3. The industrial unmanned helicopter according to claim 1, wherein a fixing portion of the tail boom to the body of the vehicle is cylindrical, and a drive shaft on the tail boom side is provided therein. The locking tool is housed, the support having a cylindrical concave surface, and a clamp having one end locked to the support, the other end being removably fixed, and tightening and fixing the fixing portion to the support. Are provided, and two positions in the axial direction of the fixed portion are fastened and fixed by the locking tool, and positioning protrusions provided on the peripheral surface of the fixed portion are provided on the clamp. An industrial unmanned helicopter characterized in that it is positioned by being engaged with a hole provided. 4. The industrial unmanned helicopter according to claim 3, wherein a node is provided in each of the two cylinders of the fixed portion. 5. The industrial unmanned helicopter according to claim 3, wherein a guide groove extending in the axial direction is formed on the cylindrical concave surface of the support base, and the guide groove is positioned and guided by the guide groove. An industrial unmanned helicopter, wherein a guide projection is provided on a peripheral surface of the fixing portion. 6. The industrial unmanned helicopter according to claim 5, wherein the concave surface of the support base is substantially a semi-cylindrical surface, and the guide grooves are formed at both ends in the circumferential direction. An unmanned helicopter for industrial use, wherein the movement of the fixing portion above the support base is suppressed by engagement with the guide projection.