KR101118766B1 - System for managing uav, and terminal device in station and operating method therof - Google Patents

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle management system, a station terminal device applied thereto, and a method of operating the same are disclosed. In an unmanned aerial vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the present invention, in response to at least one unmanned aircraft transmitting a landing request signal, and a landing request signal of an unmanned aerial vehicle, a landing guide for inducing landing to a landing point by an unmanned aerial vehicle At least one station terminal device that transmits a signal and manages landing information of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point. This makes it easy to manage the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Description

Unmanned aerial vehicle management system and station terminal device applied thereto and its operation method {SYSTEM FOR MANAGING UAV, AND TERMINAL DEVICE IN STATION AND OPERATING METHOD THEROF}

The present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle management system and a station terminal apparatus applied thereto and a method of operating the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle management system for substituting management of an unmanned aerial vehicle, and a station terminal apparatus applied thereto and an operating method thereof. It is about.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) refers to an unmanned aerial vehicle, also referred to as an Uninhabited Aerial (Air) Vehicle, due to the fact that there are pilots remotely controlled from the ground because no human is aboard. do.

Drones can be classified by mission, flight altitude, and size. First, mission drones include civil aircraft, unmanned target aircraft, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, unmanned attack aircraft (unmanned fighters), and unmanned combat helicopters. Secondly, unmanned aerial vehicles based on flight altitudes include HALEs above 45,000ft, MALEs below 45,000ft, and LALEs below 20,000ft. Third, the unmanned aerial vehicle according to size may include a small UAV, a micro air vehicle (MAV), and a nano air vehicle (NAV).

Drones were developed for military use and were designed to perform tasks that are difficult for humans to perform. However, as the field of application of the drone expands, popularization is gradually progressing.

Generally, electricity is mainly used as a driving source of the drone. That is, the drone is provided with a battery in the drone and is driven by electric charging, and when the battery is exhausted, the drone is no longer driven.

In order for the drone to perform its mission smoothly, the battery must be charged before all of its power is exhausted. Because of the nature of drones, it is impossible for a person to determine in advance whether a driver is exhausted. Therefore, in order to prevent the drone from operating in an unexpected place, a system that can be charged before all of the driver is exhausted is required. .

Moreover, it may not be a problem when one agency manages a small number of drones, but when the number of drones managed by one institution increases, it is difficult to arrange a separate manpower for managing the drone. have.

The present invention provides an unmanned aerial vehicle management system for facilitating the management of an unmanned aerial vehicle, and a station terminal apparatus applied thereto, by acting at a station connected to the unmanned aerial vehicle and a network, which is difficult to be directly performed by an institution operating an unmanned aerial vehicle. It is an object to provide a method of operation thereof.

In an unmanned aerial vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the present invention, in response to at least one unmanned aircraft transmitting a landing request signal, and a landing request signal of an unmanned aerial vehicle, a landing guide for inducing landing to a landing point by an unmanned aerial vehicle At least one station terminal device that transmits a signal and manages landing information of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point.

The drone may be capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Also, there are a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles and station terminal apparatuses, and when any one of the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles transmits a landing request signal, one of the plurality of station terminal apparatuses is one station terminal in proximity to the unmanned aerial vehicle which has transmitted the landing request signal. The device can respond.

When the unmanned aerial vehicle transmits a landing request signal, a plurality of station terminal apparatuses transmits the landing guidance signal in response to the landing request signal, and transmits the landing guidance signal from the unmanned aerial vehicle. One of the station terminals may be selected to land at the landing point.

The station terminal device may charge the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the remaining battery amount determined by determining the remaining battery capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle is less than or equal to the reference residual amount.

The station terminal device may further manage storage information for storage from the time of landing of the unmanned aerial vehicle to the time of takeoff and charging information for battery charging of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

On the other hand, the station terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention, the landing point designation for designating the landing point of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the landing request signal transmitted from the at least one unmanned aerial vehicle to the landing point designated by the unmanned aerial vehicle And a communication unit for transmitting a landing guidance signal for inducing landing, and a control unit for managing landing information of the unmanned aerial vehicle that landed when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point.

The station terminal apparatus further includes a storage unit, wherein the communication unit receives work data from the landed unmanned aerial vehicle, and the storage unit stores the received work data through the communication unit.

When the landing request signal is received from the unmanned aerial vehicle, the control unit further includes an authentication unit for authenticating the unmanned aerial vehicle using an identification code included in the landing request signal, and the control unit, if the authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle by the authentication unit, landing The point designator allows you to specify a landing point. In this case, the landing point designation unit may designate one of the empty landing points as a landing point by using a plurality of landing code for each landing point.

The battery remaining amount determining unit may determine a remaining battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the charging unit may be further configured to charge a battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the remaining battery level is less than or equal to a predetermined standard remaining amount by the battery remaining amount determining unit.

The drone may include a plurality of drones, and may further include a storage unit configured to store at least one of landing information and charging information on battery charging of the drone for each drone.

The billing unit may further include a billing unit that charges the charging fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle using the stored charging information.

It may further include an upgrade unit for determining the version of the firmware of the unmanned aerial vehicle landed, and for upgrading the firmware when the determined version of the firmware is less than the latest version.

The controller may further manage storage information from the time when the landed unmanned aerial vehicle lands to the time when the landed drone is taken off.

The storage unit may further include a storage unit for storing the storage information, and a billing unit for charging the storage fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle using the stored storage information.

In addition, the operation method of the station terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention, receiving a landing request signal from at least one unmanned aerial vehicle, determining the landing point of the unmanned aerial vehicle transmitting the landing request signal, unmanned aerial vehicle And transmitting a landing guidance signal for inducing landing to the landing point determined to be determined, and if the drone lands at the landing point, managing landing information of the landed unmanned aerial vehicle.

Receiving the work data from the landed unmanned aerial vehicle, and storing the received work data.

When the landing request signal is received, the method may further include authenticating the unmanned aerial vehicle using the identification code included in the landing request signal, and the determining may determine the landing point only when the unmanned aerial vehicle is successfully authenticated. have.

In the determining step, one of the empty landing points may be determined as a landing point using a plurality of landing code for each landing point.

The method may further include determining a battery remaining amount of the unmanned aerial vehicle that has landed, and charging the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the remaining amount of battery is less than or equal to a predetermined reference level.

The plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles may further include storing at least one of landing information and charging information regarding battery charging of the unmanned aerial vehicle for each unmanned aerial vehicle.

The method may further include charging a charge rate of the drone according to the belonging of the drone using the stored charging information.

The method may further include determining a version of the firmware of the unmanned aerial vehicle that has landed, and if the version of the firmware is less than or equal to the latest version, upgrading the firmware.

The method may further include managing custody information from the time when the drone landed to the time of takeoff.

The method may further include storing the storage information, and charging the storage fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle using the stored storage information.

According to the unmanned aerial vehicle management system of the present invention and a station terminal apparatus applied thereto and a method of operating the same, an agency performing a task of managing an unmanned aerial vehicle in a station having a station terminal apparatus, thereby performing a task using an unmanned aerial vehicle. There is no need to manage drones directly. For this reason, it is not necessary for each institution to arrange a management manpower for managing the drone or to provide a separate storage location.

In addition, by moving to an adjacent station before the drone completes its mission or runs out of batteries, the drone may be indiscriminately left unspecified.

1 is a network diagram of an unmanned aerial vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a block diagram of a station terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention;
3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a station terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a station terminal device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Objects, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily understood through the following preferred embodiments associated with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein and may be embodied in other forms. Rather, the embodiments disclosed herein are provided so that the disclosure can be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In this specification, when an element is referred to as being on another element, it may be directly formed on another element, or a third element may be interposed therebetween. Also in the figures, the thickness of the components is exaggerated for an effective description of the technical content.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. As used herein, the words 'comprises' and / or 'comprising' do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the specific embodiments below, various specific details are set forth in order to explain the invention more specifically and to help understand. However, one of ordinary skill in the art can understand that the present invention can be used without these various specific details. In some cases, it is mentioned in advance that parts of the invention which are commonly known in the description of the invention and which are not highly related to the invention are not described in order to prevent confusion in explaining the invention without cause.

1 is a network diagram of an unmanned aerial vehicle management system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an unmanned aerial vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes at least one unmanned aerial vehicle 100 and at least one station terminal device 400. The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 and the station terminal device 400 may communicate with each other through the network 200. Here, the network 200 collectively refers to a wired or wireless communication network, regardless of the type of communication network.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is an aircraft flying without a person boarding and performs a task assigned according to its affiliation. The shape and structure of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is different depending on the mission that each unmanned aerial vehicle 100 should perform. For example, in the case of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 to which a task for parking enforcement is given, the camera may be mounted to photograph an image of a vehicle that has violated a parking. Therefore, the shape and structure of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is not limited to that shown in the drawings.

Since the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 operates using electricity as a driving source, a battery (not shown) having a rechargeable structure is mounted to supply electricity. The battery supplies power required for the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100, and should be charged when all of the charged electricity is used.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmits a landing request signal through the network 200 when a mission or a separate task such as battery charging is required. To this end, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 includes an interface module (not shown) for interfacing with the station terminal device 400 through the network 200. Here, the landing request signal transmitted by the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 includes an identification code uniquely assigned thereto. The identification code may be a normal ID.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 may be operated in plural numbers for each institution that operates the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. In addition, a plurality of units may be operated for each department within the engine operating the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. The unmanned aerial vehicles 100 belonging to one agency may be assigned the same mission or may be assigned different missions.

In this embodiment, three unmanned aerial vehicles 100 are illustrated. However, this is only for convenience of explanation and is not necessarily limited thereto. Each unmanned aerial vehicle 100a, 100b, 100c may belong to one organization or may belong to different agencies. In addition, each of the unmanned aerial vehicles 100a, 100b, and 100c may be assigned the same mission, or may be assigned different missions. However, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is preferably in the form that all can take off and landing vertically.

The station terminal device 400 is a terminal device of a station 300, 300 ′ which processes management tasks such as storage, charging, and firmware upgrade of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. Preferably, the station terminal device 400 may be a computer.

The station terminal device 400 may have an identification code uniquely assigned to each station. Since the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmits a landing request signal for which a reception target is not specified, it cannot know which station terminal device 400 receives the landing request signal transmitted by itself. Therefore, when the station terminal device 400 receiving the landing request signal informs the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 of its location, the station's identification code can be used.

Here, the station (300, 300 ') corresponds to a place installed by the unmanned aerial vehicle management agency that handles the management service for the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 from the agency to which the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 belongs. Stations 300 and 300 ′ are equipped with landing pads 310 and 310 ′ for storing a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles 100.

As shown, the landing pads 310 and 310 'may be provided on the roof of the building of the stations 300 and 300' or may be provided in separate outdoor places in the stations 300 and 300 '. The landing sites 310 and 310 'are partitioned into a plurality of landing points so that the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles 100 can land, and a location code is assigned to each landing point. Landing areas 310 and 310 'may be shaped similarly to conventional vehicle parking lots. However, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is not large in size as a vehicle because a person is not directly boarding. Therefore, the landing pads 310 and 310 'do not require a large space such as a normal car parking lot.

2 is a block diagram of a station terminal apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the station terminal device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a communication unit 410, authentication unit 420, landing point designation unit 430, the battery remaining amount determination unit 440, charging unit ( 450, a storage unit 460, a billing unit 470, an upgrade unit 480, and a control unit 490.

The communication unit 410 supports communication with the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 through the network 200. More specifically, the communication unit 410 may receive a landing request signal transmitted from the unmanned aerial vehicle 100, and may transmit a landing guidance signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. In addition, the signal between the station terminal device 400 and the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is transmitted and received through the communication unit 410.

The authenticator 420 authenticates the unmanned aerial vehicle 100a to 100c which has transmitted the landing request signal. At this time, the authentication unit 420 performs the authentication using the identification code of the unmanned aircraft (one of 100a to 100c) included in the landing request signal, for this purpose, the station terminal device 400 is unmanned aerial vehicle (100a to) Any one of 100c) may be provided with an identification code database (not shown).

More specifically, when the authentication unit 420 receives a landing request signal from any one of the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (any one of 100a to 100c), the identification code database using the identification code included in the received landing request signal If there is a matching identification code compared to the corresponding unmanned aerial vehicle (any one of 100a to 100c) is authenticated. The authentication unit 420 provides an authentication result, that is, authentication success and authentication failure, to the control unit 490.

The landing point designation unit 430 designates one of the empty landing points as a landing point to be landed by the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 by using a plurality of landing point-specific location codes of the landing sites 310 and 310 '.

The battery remaining amount determining unit 440 determines the remaining amount of the battery installed in the unmanned aerial vehicle (any one of the 100a to 100c) after the unmanned aerial vehicle (any one of 100a to 100c) landing at the landing point, the predetermined reference residual amount Compare with

The charging unit 450 charges the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100a to 100c when it is determined that the battery remaining amount is less than or equal to the reference remaining amount, as determined by the battery remaining amount determining unit 440. The charging unit 450 may be operated after the manager connects the charging cable to the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100a to 100c offline.

The storage unit 460 may store all information necessary for the operation of the station terminal device 400. For example, the storage unit 460 may store the location code for each landing point used for the landing point determination in the landing point designation unit 430, and various firmware for use in the firmware upgrade in the upgrade unit 480. You can also save them. In addition, the storage unit 460 may be provided with an identification code database of the drone 100.

In addition, the storage unit 460 is all the work that is performed after the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 landed on the station (300, 300 '), that is, landing for efficient management of the management service on behalf of the station terminal device 400 Information, storage information, charging information, and upgrade information can be stored. In particular, the charging information should include the charging time, and the charging amount. The reason for this is that the charging fee charged to the engine to which the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 belongs depends on the charging amount.

The billing unit 470 uses the information on the work performed through the station terminal device 400 stored in the storage unit 460 to bill each institution to which the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 belongs. The charges charged by the billing unit 470 may be divided into storage charges, charge charges, and upgrade charges.

The upgrade unit 480 upgrades the firmware to maintain the latest version of the firmware embedded in the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 in order to control the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 to perform a task assigned to the upgrade unit 480. Since the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles 100 have built-in firmware corresponding to the tasks assigned to each of them, the upgrade unit 480 upgrades the corresponding firmware to the latest version according to the type of firmware stored in each of the unmanned aerial vehicles 100. do.

The controller 490 controls the overall functions of the station terminal device 400. That is, the control unit 490 is a communication unit 410, authentication unit 420, landing point designation unit 430, battery remaining amount determination unit 440, charging unit 450, storage unit 460, billing unit 470 And control signal input / output between the upgrade units 480.

When the landing request signal is received through the communication unit 410, the controller 490 extracts an identification code from the received landing request signal and provides the identification code to the authentication unit 420, thereby transmitting the landing request signal from the authentication unit 420. Authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100a to 100c is performed.

After the drone 100 lands at the landings 310 and 310 ', the controller 490 may include landing information on the landing time, storage information on the time from landing to takeoff, and the battery after landing. When charging is performed, the charging information about the charging time and the charging amount may be managed, and when the firmware is upgraded, the upgrade information may be managed. In addition, the controller 490 may store and manage each piece of information in the storage 460.

The controller 490 which performs such a role will be briefly described in detail. The controller 490 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a memory (MEMORY), and a support circuit (SUPPORT CIRCUIT). The CPU may be one of various computer processors that can be industrially applied to control the station terminal device of the present embodiment. The memory is connected to the CPU in operation. The memory may be installed locally or remotely as a computer readable recording medium, and may include at least one or more readily available types such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, or any digital storage form. Memory. SUPPORT CIRCUIT is operatively coupled to the CPU to support the typical operation of the processor. Such support circuits may include cache, power supplies, clock circuits, input / output circuits, subsystems, and the like.

For example, a process for controlling the operations of the station terminal device (eg, the operations shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) may be stored in the memory. Typically software routines may be stored in memory. The software routine may also be stored or executed by another CPU (not shown), which may be located remotely from the station terminal device.

Although the process according to the invention has been described as being executed by software routines, at least some of the processes of the invention may be performed by hardware. As such, the processes of the present invention may be implemented in software executed on a computer system, or in hardware such as an integrated circuit, or in combination of software and hardware.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a station terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Here, an operation method of the station terminal device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 shown in FIG. 3 is any one of the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles 100 shown in FIG. 1, and the station terminal device 400 is an unmanned aerial vehicle 100 of the plurality of station terminal devices shown in FIG. 1. ) Is one of the nearest.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmits a landing request signal through the network 200 when the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 has completed the task assigned to itself or the battery is not sufficient (S501). In this case, the landing request signal is a signal for which a specific station terminal device 400 that receives the signal is not designated, and the landing request signal is received by the station terminal device 400 which is closest to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 that transmits the landing request signal. Will be received.

The landing request signal transmitted from the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is received through the communication unit 410, and the controller 490 extracts an identification code of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 from the landing request signal and provides it to the authentication unit 420. The authentication unit 420 determines whether the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is authenticated by comparing the previously stored identification codes using the identification code of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 (S503).

According to the authentication result of the authentication unit 420, if the authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 fails (S507-N), the controller 490 notifies the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 through the communication unit 410 authentication failure. Notify and end the process (S505).

If the authentication of the authentication unit 420 determines that the authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 succeeds normally (S507-Y), the landing point designation unit 430 may land on the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 (310, 310 '). One of the empty landing points so as to land on the designated as a landing point for the drone (S509).

When the landing point of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is designated by the landing point designation unit 430, the controller 490 generates a landing guide signal for inducing the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 to land to the designated landing point, and the communication unit In operation 511, the landing guidance signal is transmitted. Here, the landing guidance signal may include an identification code of the station, and a location code of the landing point.

When the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 receives the landing guidance signal from the station terminal device 400, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 lands at the designated landing point of the landing sites 310 and 310 'in the corresponding station according to the landing guidance signal (S513). The station terminal device 400 may determine whether the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 has landed at the landings 310 and 310 'or has landed accurately at the designated landing point. Determining whether the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 has landed at the landings 310 and 310 'and the designated landing point may be performed by a sensor (not shown) installed at the landings 310 and 310'. Since this technique corresponds to a known matter, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The station terminal device 400 determines whether the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 has landed at the landings 310 and 310 '(S515). Here, when the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 does not land at the landings 310 and 310 '(S515-N), the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 reinduces landing to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 or terminates the process (S517). If the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 lands at the landing sites 310 and 310 '(S515-Y), the controller 490 stores the landing information including the landing time in the storage unit 460 (S519). .

The battery remaining amount determining unit 440 determines the remaining amount of the battery mounted in the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 landing on the landing fields 310 and 310 ', and determines whether the remaining battery level is equal to or less than the predetermined reference level (S521). ).

When the battery remaining amount determining unit 440 compares the battery remaining amount of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 with the reference remaining amount, the battery remaining amount is less than the standard remaining amount (S521-Y), the charging unit 450 of the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 Charge is performed (S523).

The battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is charged by the operation of the charging unit 450, and when the charging is completed, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 may transmit a charging completion signal to the station terminal device 400 (S527). It is not necessary to transmit the charging completion signal in the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. That is, as the charging operation is performed in the charging unit 450 due to the design change, the charging completion may be determined by itself.

When charging of the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is completed, the controller 490 stores the charging information including the charging time and the charging amount in the storage unit 460 (S529). The charging information may be used later when the billing unit 470 charges the agency for the management service of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100.

The upgrade unit 480 checks the version of the firmware mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 to determine whether the firmware is an old version or the latest version. Accordingly, if it is determined that the firmware is an old version (S531-Y), the upgrade unit 480 transmits a firmware upgrade instruction to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 (S527). In this case, the firmware upgrade file of the latest version may be transmitted together with the firmware upgrade instruction.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 performs an upgrade by the upgrade file received from the station terminal device 400 (S535), and transmits an upgrade completion signal to the station terminal device 400 (S537).

When the station terminal device 400 completes the battery charging task and the firmware upgrade task for the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 landing at the landings 310 and 310 ', the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 has time to perform its mission again and takes off. In the standby state until the, and when the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 takes off, the controller 490 stores the storage information including the storage time at the time of takeoff in the storage unit 460 (S539). Here, the storage information is used when the billing unit 470 charges a fee for the management agency to the agency to which the drone 100 belongs later.

If the remaining battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is greater than or equal to the reference remaining amount in step S521 (S521-N), steps S523 through S527 are omitted. In addition, when the firmware mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is the latest version in step S531 (S531-N), steps S533 to S537 are omitted.

In the above procedure, the steps related to the charging of the battery of steps S521 and S523, and the step of upgrading the firmware of the steps S531 and S533 may be determined whether or not to perform each step by the selection of the authority that delegates the management agency of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. Can be.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a station terminal device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, the case where the landing request signal is received by one station terminal device 400 located in the closest position to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmitting the landing request signal has been described. However, this case will be described in the present embodiment in which the two station terminal devices 400a and 400b receive the landing request signal from the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. For example, although there may be only one station terminal 400 located in a place where the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 is adjacent, two station terminal devices 400a and 400b or more may be adjacent to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. This may be the case.

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmits a landing request signal to the station terminal apparatuses 400a and 400b (S601). In this case, as described above, the landing request signal includes an identification code of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100.

The station terminal devices 400a and 400b receiving the landing request signal from the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 extract the identification code of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 included in the landing request signal, respectively, to perform authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. (S602, S603).

The station terminal devices 400a and 400b respectively select landing points to be provided to the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 when the authentication succeeds (S604-Y and S605-Y) according to the authentication performance result of the unmanned aerial vehicle 100. Designate (S606, S607). The station terminal devices 400a and 400b transmit landing guidance signals for informing the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 of the landing point designated for the unmanned aerial vehicle 100, respectively (S609 and S610).

The unmanned aerial vehicle 100 receives the landing guidance signals from the station terminal devices 400a and 400b, respectively, and is one of the station terminal devices 400a and 400b corresponding to the landing fields 310 and 310 'to which the unmanned aerial vehicle is to land. (S611).

In operation S611, if the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 selects the station terminal device 400b, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 transmits a signal not to land on the station terminal device 400a (S613).

Thereafter, the unmanned aerial vehicle 100 lands at a corresponding landing point of the landing site 310 'according to the landing guidance signal received from the station terminal device 400b (S615). Thereafter, the process from step S515 of FIG. 3 is performed.

Hereinafter, an operation in which the unmanned aerial vehicle selects one of the two station terminals 300 and 300 'will be described.

In one embodiment, the unmanned aerial vehicle is close to its current location using the IDs of the station terminals 300 and 300 'included in the landing guidance transmission signals sent from the two station terminals 300 and 300'. May land at the landing point guided by the station terminal device.

In another embodiment, the unmanned aerial vehicle uses the IDs of the station terminal devices 300 and 300 'included in the landing guidance transmission signals from the two station terminal devices 300 and 300' to determine the destinations to which they currently wish to go. A landing terminal guided by a station terminal device located near the route may be landed.

Thus, it is assumed that the position of the station terminal device must be known in order to determine the distance between the two station terminal devices which the unmanned aircraft competes with and the station terminal device in the destination route. For example, the location information of the station terminal devices may be previously stored in the storage unit 460, or may be requested by the servers (not shown) providing the location information of the station terminal devices.

In the above embodiment, the contention of two station terminal apparatuses has been described. However, the same principle may be determined even when three or more station terminal apparatuses compete.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the station terminal devices designate landing points, the other station terminal devices should operate so as not to overlap the same landing point.

For example, if the station terminal device A manages landing points P1, P2, P3, .... PN, and the station terminal device B manages landing points S1, S2, S3, .... SN The terminal device A and the station terminal device B may not designate landing points overlapping with each other. However, when the terminal terminal device A and the station terminal device B manage the same landing point together, the terminal terminal device A and the station terminal device B may not be designated. Device B must ensure that no duplicate assignments to the same landing point occur between each other.

One way to do this is to have the station terminal devices exchange the latest landing point designation information with each other. In this case, the station terminal device does not designate a point designated by another station terminal device when designating a landing point.

As another method, a system for controlling station terminal devices may be constructed, and each station terminal device may transmit information about a landing point designated by the station device to the system whenever the station terminal device designates a landing point. Receive real-time information on the designated landing point for maintenance. Therefore, when the landing points designated by the respective station terminal devices overlap, the landing point is later notified to the designated station terminal device.

In the above-described embodiment, the charging unit is to be charged only when the battery remaining amount is less than the reference residual amount, it is also possible to implement in a different way.

In one method, when determining whether to charge any unmanned aerial vehicle, it is determined not only by the remaining battery level, but by considering the moving distance to the future destination of the unmanned aerial vehicle. If the distance is far, even if more than the remaining capacity to charge. To this end, the controller 490 determines whether the charging unit is charged in consideration of the determination result of the battery remaining amount determination unit and the moving distance to the future destination of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Thereafter, the controller 490 controls the charging operation of the charger based on the determination result.

In the above-described embodiment of FIG. 2, the communication unit 410, the authentication unit 420, the landing point designation unit 430, the battery remaining amount determination unit 440, the control unit 490, the charging unit 450, and the storage unit 460. ), The billing unit 470, and the upgrade unit 480 is shown as being included in one functional block, but this is for convenience of description and does not necessarily mean that it is implemented in one device. Therefore, the present invention is not limited only to such a configuration, and for example, at least one or more of these components may be implemented as separate functional blocks. Here, the term "separate" means to include logically divided, positionally divided, or different software or hardware.

Although the present invention as described above has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications and variations from this description. This is possible. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims below but also by the equivalents of the claims.

100: drone 200: network
300, 300 ': station 310, 310': landing yard
400: station terminal device

Claims (26)

At least one drone transmitting a landing request signal; And
When the landing request signal is received from the unmanned aerial vehicle, the unmanned aerial vehicle is authenticated using an identification code included in the landing request signal, and when the authentication is successful, inducing the unmanned aerial vehicle to land at the landing point. And at least one station terminal device which transmits a landing guidance signal and manages landing information of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point. The method of claim 1,
The unmanned aerial vehicle management system, characterized in that the vertical take-off and landing form. The method of claim 1,
The unmanned aerial vehicle and the station terminal apparatus are each plural,
If any one of the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles transmits the landing request signal, an unmanned aerial vehicle which responds to one of the plurality of station terminal apparatuses in close proximity to the unmanned aerial vehicle that has transmitted the landing request signal Management system. The method of claim 1,
The station terminal device is a plurality,
When the unmanned aerial vehicle transmits the landing request signal, the plurality of station terminal apparatuses transmits the landing guidance signal in response to the landing request signal, and transmits the landing guidance signal from the unmanned aerial vehicle. Unmanned aircraft management system, characterized in that to select one of the landing point to land. The method of claim 1,
And the station terminal device determines the remaining battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle and charges the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the determined remaining battery level is less than or equal to a reference remaining amount. The method of claim 5, wherein
The station terminal device, the unmanned aerial vehicle management system characterized in that it further manages the storage information for the storage from the time of landing to the time of takeoff of the unmanned drone and the charging information for the battery charging of the drone. A landing point designation unit for designating a landing point of the unmanned aerial vehicle, in response to a landing request signal transmitted from at least one unmanned aerial vehicle;
A communication unit transmitting a landing guidance signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle for inducing landing to the designated landing point;
A controller configured to manage landing information of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point; And
And an authentication unit for authenticating the unmanned aerial vehicle using the identification code included in the landing request signal when the landing request signal is received from the unmanned aerial vehicle.
And the control unit, if the authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle is successful by the authentication unit, the landing point designation unit to designate the landing point. The method of claim 7, wherein
Further comprising a storage unit,
The communication unit receives the operation data from the landing drone,
And the storage unit stores the received job data through the communication unit. delete The method of claim 7, wherein
The landing point designation unit, the station terminal device, characterized in that for designating one of the landing points vacant using the position code for each landing point to the landing point. The method of claim 7, wherein
Battery remaining amount determining unit for determining the remaining battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle; And
And a charging unit for charging the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the battery remaining amount is less than or equal to a predetermined reference remaining amount by the battery remaining amount determining unit. The method of claim 11,
There are a plurality of drones,
And a storage unit for storing at least one of the landing information and the charging information for the battery charging of the unmanned aerial vehicle for each unmanned aerial vehicle. The method of claim 12,
And a billing unit configured to charge a charging fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle using the stored charging information. The method of claim 7, wherein
And an upgrade unit for determining a version of the firmware of the landed unmanned aerial vehicle and upgrading the firmware when the determined version of the firmware is less than or equal to the latest version. The method of claim 7, wherein
The control unit, the station terminal device, characterized in that for further managing the storage information from the time of landing to the time of take-off of the landing drone. The method of claim 15,
A storage unit for storing the storage information; And
And a billing unit for charging a storage fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle by using the stored storage information. Receiving a landing request signal from at least one drone;
When the landing request signal is received, authenticating the unmanned aerial vehicle using an identification code included in the landing request signal;
Designating a landing point of an unmanned aerial vehicle that has transmitted the landing request signal when authentication of the unmanned aerial vehicle is successful;
Transmitting a landing guidance signal to the unmanned aerial vehicle for inducing landing at the designated landing point; And
And managing the landing information of the landed unmanned aerial vehicle when the unmanned aerial vehicle lands at the landing point. The method of claim 17,
Receiving operation data from the landed unmanned aerial vehicle; And
And storing the received work data. delete The method of claim 17,
The designating of the landing point may include designating one of the empty landing points as the landing point using a plurality of landing code for each landing point. The method of claim 17,
Determining a battery level of the unmanned aerial vehicle; And
And charging the battery of the unmanned aerial vehicle when the battery remaining amount is less than or equal to a preset reference remaining amount. The method of claim 21,
There are a plurality of drones,
Storing at least one of the landing information and the charging information for the battery charging of the unmanned aerial vehicle for each unmanned aerial vehicle. The method of claim 22,
And charging a charge fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle by using the stored charging information. The method of claim 17,
Determining a version of firmware of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
And upgrading the firmware when the version of the firmware is less than or equal to the latest version, as a result of the determination. The method of claim 17,
And managing the storage information from the time when the landed unmanned aerial vehicle lands to the time of takeoff. The method of claim 25,
Storing the archive information; And
And claiming a storage fee of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the belonging of the unmanned aerial vehicle by using the stored storage information.

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