KR102181081B1 - Apparatus and method for supplying power of drone - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a power supply apparatus and method for a drone.
A power supply device for a drone according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna that collects electric field energy generated from a transmission line, a conversion unit that converts the collected electric field energy into DC power, and controls a supply route of power. The route includes a controller including at least one of a first supply route for storing DC power in a battery and a second supply route for supplying DC power for driving a drone.

Description

Drone power supply and method {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SUPPLYING POWER OF DRONE}

The present invention relates to a power supply apparatus and method for a drone.

In general, a drone refers to a flying unit flying in the sky by rotating a propeller by a motor using power from a battery. Drones are very good compared to other aircraft in terms of flight safety and accessibility, and are recognized worldwide for their utility. In addition to military and aerospace, civilians, such as Amazon and DHL, are preparing to commercialize delivery services using drones, and the market is rapidly growing, and competition for preoccupying drone technology is heating up.

Drones vary according to size and weight, but they can fly for about 10 to 30 minutes while the battery is fully charged, and in order to fly such a drone, the battery must be replaced continuously depending on the consumption of the battery. There is this.

In addition, electromagnetic waves are waves that occur when vibration occurs while electricity flows, and an electric field and a magnetic field are simultaneously generated around it, which is periodically changed. An electric field (electric field) and a magnetic field (magnetic field) are combined in an interaction and propagated to a distant place as a wave radiated into space like the speed of light. Depending on the frequency (the number of oscillations per second), extremely low frequencies, radio waves, It is divided into TV wave, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength and the energy of the electromagnetic wave increases. Among various electromagnetic waves, those that occur in a very low range of electromagnetic waves with a frequency of 300 Hz or less are called ultra-low frequency electromagnetic fields, and those generated from home appliances or transmission lines that we use belong to this.

The above-described background technology is technical information possessed by the inventors for derivation of the present invention or acquired during the derivation process of the present invention, and is not necessarily known to be publicly known prior to filing the present invention.

Korean Patent Publication No. 2017-0143046

It was devised to solve the above problems and/or limitations, and even if the user does not directly connect the charger to the battery, it collects energy from the electric field around the transmission line and converts it to power to supply power to the drone and at the same time mounted battery It has a purpose to always charge.

A power supply device for a drone according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna for collecting electric field energy generated from a transmission line; A conversion unit converting the collected electric field energy into DC power; And a control unit including at least one of a first supply route for storing the DC power in a battery and a second supply route for supplying the DC power for driving a drone; Can include.

The antenna may include a conductive material made of one or two or more alloys selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, carbon, aluminum, zinc, and carbon.

The conversion unit may include a rectifying unit rectifying the electric field energy to a positive AC power source; A regulator converting and smoothing the AC power output from the rectifier into DC power; And a converter for converting the DC power to DC power of a predetermined ratio.

The control unit may control the drone to fly apart from the transmission line by a predetermined distance so as to avoid interference due to magnetic energy generated in the transmission line.

A method of supplying power to a drone according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: collecting electric field energy generated from a transmission line by an antenna; Converting the collected electric field energy into DC power by a conversion unit; And storing the DC power in a battery or supplying the DC power for driving a drone by a control unit.

The converting may include, by a rectifying unit, rectifying the electric field energy into a positive AC power source; Converting and smoothing the AC power source into a DC power source by a regulator; And converting the DC power into DC power having a predetermined ratio by a converter.

The method may further include controlling, by the control unit, to fly the drone by a predetermined distance from the transmission line so as to avoid interference by magnetic energy generated in the transmission line. have.

In addition to this, another method for implementing the present invention, another system, and a computer program for executing the method may be further provided.

Other aspects, features, and advantages other than those described above will become apparent from the following drawings, claims, and detailed description of the invention.

According to embodiments, it is possible to operate a drone without limitation of flight time and flight distance of the drone according to the capacity limitation.

You can also charge the drone's battery without a wired charging terminal.

The effects of the present invention are not limited to those mentioned above, and other effects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

1 and 2 are views schematically illustrating a drone equipped with an electricity supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a detailed configuration of a conversion unit in FIG. 1.
4 is a diagram schematically illustrating a detailed configuration of a support member in FIG. 1.
5 is a diagram showing electric field energy and magnetic field energy around a transmission line.
6 is a diagram showing an average electromagnetic wave measurement value for each distance of magnetic field energy around a transmission line.
7 and 8 are diagrams showing a safe flight separation distance around a transmission line.
9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of supplying electricity to a drone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention, and a method of achieving them will become apparent with reference to embodiments described in detail together with the accompanying drawings. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments presented below, but may be implemented in a variety of different forms, and includes all transformations, equivalents, or substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. . The embodiments presented below are provided to complete the disclosure of the present invention, and to fully inform a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. In describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may obscure the subject matter of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The terms used in the present application are used only to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In the present application, terms such as "comprise" or "have" are intended to designate the presence of features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification, but one or more other features. It is to be understood that the presence or addition of elements or numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof, does not preclude in advance. Terms such as first and second may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another component.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, identical or corresponding components are assigned the same reference numbers, and redundant descriptions thereof are omitted. I will do it.

1 and 2 are views schematically illustrating a drone equipped with an electricity supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 and 2, the drone 100 may include a driving unit 110, a conversion unit 120, and a support member 130.

In this embodiment, the drone 100 provided with an electricity supply device supplies power to the drone 100 and uses a battery (125 in FIG. 3) provided therein even if the user does not directly connect the charging device to the drone 100. You can make it rechargeable.

The driving unit 110 can take off or land the drone 100 by generating lift and flight force by a propeller, and the content of the driving unit 110 is a well-known technology, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The conversion unit 120 is provided under the driving unit 110 and converts the electric field energy collected by the support member 130 to be described later into DC power to operate the driving unit 110 and the conversion unit 120, or You can charge the battery.

3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a detailed configuration of the conversion unit 120 in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3, the conversion unit 120 may include a rectifier 121, a regulator 122, a DC-DC converter 123, a switching unit 124, a battery 125, and a control unit 126. . In this embodiment, the control unit 126 may be provided on the drone 100 as an independent component, or may be included in the conversion unit 120 to operate together with the conversion unit 120.

In general, a drone is configured in a structure in which the battery 125 is charged when the charging terminal is connected by wire, whereas the drone 100 included in the present embodiment is a conversion unit so that charging can be performed without a separate wired charging terminal. 120 can be configured. When the drone 100 is configured to be charged in a wireless manner as described above, the drone 100 can charge the drone 100 around the transmission line (200 in FIG. 5) during flight, so the drone 100 in flight There is no need to return it to the point where the user is located to charge. Therefore, it is not possible to fly the drone 100 only around the user, but to a distant point exceeding the flight distance according to the capacity of the battery 125.

The rectifying unit 121 rectifies the electric field energy (AC state) around the transmission line 200 collected by the antenna 132 of the support member 130 into a positive AC power source (effective power). Here, the rectifier 121 may include a full bridge rectifier.

The regulator 122 may convert and smooth the AC power rectified by the rectifier 121 into a DC power, and may be implemented as a capacitor. Here, the configuration of the adjusting unit (not shown) for adjusting the AC power rectified by the rectifying unit 121 to an AC power having a predetermined size or less may be omitted. That is, in an embodiment of the present invention, power conversion efficiency can be maximized by directly converting the rectified AC power to a DC power source without cutting off more power than a required power source while passing through an adjustment unit composed of a Zener diode.

After converting and smoothing the AC power into DC power through the regulator 122, the DC-DC converter 123 may convert the DC power into DC power having a preset ratio. Here, a plurality of DC-DC converters 123 may be provided, and may be implemented as a boosting converter or a buck converter. In addition, the preset ratio may include a ratio of an output voltage to an input voltage. For example, when the preset ratio is 1/2, the input DC voltage of 10V may be converted to an output voltage of 5V. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above ratios are only examples and may be set to have various ratios in some cases.

The switching unit 124 is switched by a switching control signal of the control unit 126, and the DC power output from the DC-DC converter 123 is used to drive the drone 100 (for example, to operate the driving unit 110). Power), or may be supplied as power to charge the battery 125.

The battery 125 may drive the drone 100 with power stored therein, and may perform charging/discharging under the control of the controller 126. Such a battery 125 includes a nickel-cadmium battery, a lead storage capacitor, a nickel metal hydride battery (NiMH), a lithium ion battery, and a lithium polymer battery. battery) may be included, but is not limited thereto.

A charging switch (not shown) and a discharging switch (not shown) may be further provided for charging/discharging the battery 125, and the charging switch is turned on and the discharging switch is turned off when charging the battery 125. When the battery 125 is discharged, the charging switch may be turned off and the discharge switch may be turned on. Here, the controller 126 may control the operation of the charging switch and the discharging switch to charge/discharge the battery 125.

The controller 126 may output a switching control signal to the switching unit 124 to control a supply route of DC power. Here, the supply route of the DC power may include a first supply route and a second supply route. The first supply route includes a route for storing DC power output from the DC-DC converter 123 in the battery 125, and the second supply route uses the DC power output from the DC-DC converter 123 to a drone ( 100) It may include a route supplied for driving. The controller 126 may operate at least one of the first supply route and the second supply route. For example, the controller 126 may charge the battery 125 (a second supply route) while driving the drone 100 with the DC power output from the DC-DC converter 123 (a first supply route). .

The support member 130 is located under the conversion unit 120 and may collect electric field energy and output it to the conversion unit 120. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating a detailed configuration of the support member 130 in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 4, the support member 130 may include a support part 131 and an antenna 132.

In addition to the original function of supporting the drone 100 on the ground for take-off and landing, the support member 130 includes an antenna 132 made of a conductive material and capable of collecting electric field energy around the transmission line 200. Can be equipped.

The antenna 132 may function as a radio frequency (RF) receiving module that converts electromagnetic waves into electric signals. Here, the material constituting the antenna 132 may include a conductive material made of one or two or more alloys selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, carbon, aluminum, zinc, and carbon.

In addition, the antenna 132 may be located in the inner space of the support part 131 to prevent corrosion and damage and may be packaged with a covering formed of an insulator.

In order to supply power to the drone 100 by collecting electric field energy around the transmission line 200, the magnetic field (magnetic energy) around the transmission line 200 must not interfere with the operation of the drone 100. 5 and 6, the electric field energy (electric field) generated by the voltage does not affect the operation of the drone 100, but the interference of the magnetic field energy (magnetic field) generated by the current is caused by the drone 100. It affects the geomagnetic sensor (not shown) that measures the flight direction, causing a large error in the measured flight direction value, and causing the drone 100 to fly in the wrong direction during automatic flight, in the worst case, collision, aircraft crash. Can cause the back. Therefore, it is necessary to set a safe flight separation distance of the drone 100 capable of collecting electric field energy without being subjected to magnetic field energy interference.

Accordingly, the controller 126 may control the drone 100 to fly safely by being spaced apart from the transmission line 200 by a predetermined distance so as to avoid interference due to magnetic field energy generated from the transmission line 200. Here, the separation distance may be set differently for each voltage class of the transmission line 200 and stored in the controller 126. 7 and 8, for each voltage class, 154/345Kv requires a minimum distance of 15m outside the transmission line 200 as a separation distance, and voltage class 765Kv requires a minimum of 30m outside the transmission line 200 as a separation distance .

9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of supplying electricity to a drone according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, portions overlapping with the descriptions of FIGS. 1 to 8 will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 9, in step S910, the antenna 132 provided in the inner space of the support part 131 at the end of the support member 130 collects electric field energy generated in the transmission line 200. The antenna 132 may include a conductive material, is positioned in the inner space of the support part 131 to prevent corrosion and damage, and may be wrapped with a covering formed of an insulator.

In step S920, the conversion unit 120 converts the electric field energy collected by the antenna 132 into DC power. The conversion unit 120 rectifies the electric field energy into positive AC power (effective power), converts and smoothes the rectified AC power to DC power, and converts the smoothed DC power to DC power with a predetermined ratio. have.

In step S930, the control unit 126 stores the DC power output from the conversion unit 120 in the battery 125 or supplies it to the drone 100 for driving. Here, the control unit 126 may control the drone 100 to fly safely by being spaced apart from the transmission line 200 by a predetermined distance so as to avoid interference by magnetic field energy generated in the transmission line 200.

The embodiment according to the present invention described above may be implemented in the form of a computer program that can be executed through various components on a computer, and such a computer program may be recorded in a computer-readable medium. In this case, the medium is a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, and a magnetic tape, an optical recording medium such as a CD-ROM and a DVD, a magneto-optical medium such as a floptical disk, and a ROM. A hardware device specially configured to store and execute program instructions, such as, RAM, flash memory, and the like.

Meanwhile, the computer program may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and usable to those skilled in the computer software field. Examples of computer programs may include not only machine language codes such as those produced by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

In the specification of the present invention (especially in the claims), the use of the term "above" and a similar reference term may correspond to both the singular and the plural. In addition, when a range is described in the present invention, the invention to which an individual value falling within the range is applied (unless otherwise stated), and each individual value constituting the range is described in the detailed description of the invention. Same as

If there is no explicit order or contradictory description of the steps constituting the method according to the present invention, the steps may be performed in an appropriate order. The present invention is not necessarily limited according to the order of description of the steps. The use of all examples or illustrative terms (for example, etc.) in the present invention is merely for describing the present invention in detail, and the scope of the present invention is limited by the above examples or illustrative terms unless limited by the claims. It does not become. In addition, those skilled in the art can recognize that various modifications, combinations, and changes may be configured according to design conditions and factors within the scope of the appended claims or their equivalents.

Therefore, the spirit of the present invention is limited to the above-described embodiments and should not be determined, and all ranges equivalent to or equivalently changed from the claims to be described later as well as the claims to be described later are the scope of the spirit of the present invention. It will be said to belong to.

100: drone
110: drive unit
120: conversion unit
130: support member
200: transmission line

Claims (7)

An antenna that collects electric field energy generated from a transmission line;
A conversion unit converting the collected electric field energy into DC power; And
And a control unit including at least one of a first supply route for storing the DC power in a battery and a second supply route for supplying the DC power for driving a drone; But,
The antenna is located in the inner space of the support part of the support member supporting the drone on the ground, and is packaged with a covering formed of an insulator,
The support member is located under the conversion part,
The conversion unit,
A rectifying unit rectifying the electric field energy into a positive AC power source;
A regulator converting and smoothing the AC power output from the rectifier into DC power;
A converter for converting the DC power to DC power of a predetermined ratio; And
A power supply device for a drone that is switched by a switching control signal of the control unit and includes a switching unit that supplies DC power output from the converter as power for driving a drone or as power to charge the battery. The method of claim 1, wherein the antenna,
A power supply device for a drone comprising a conductive material made of one or two or more alloys selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, carbon, aluminum, zinc, and carbon. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit,
The drone power supply device for controlling the drone to fly apart from the transmission line by a predetermined distance so as to avoid interference due to magnetic energy generated in the transmission line. Collecting electric field energy generated in a transmission line by an antenna;
Converting the collected electric field energy into DC power by a conversion unit; And
Including, by a control unit, storing the DC power in a battery or supplying for driving a drone
The antenna is located in the inner space of the support part of the support member supporting the drone on the ground, and is packaged with a covering formed of an insulator,
The support member is located under the conversion part,
The converting step,
Rectifying the electric field energy into a positive AC power source by a rectifying unit;
Converting and smoothing the AC power source into a DC power source by a regulator;
Converting the DC power to DC power of a predetermined ratio by a converter; And
Power supply of a drone, which is switched according to a switching control signal of the controller by a switching unit, and supplies DC power output from the converter as a power for driving a drone or as a power for charging the battery. Way. delete The method of claim 5,
Controlling, by the control unit, to fly the drone by a predetermined distance from the transmission line so as to avoid interference by magnetic energy generated in the transmission line; further comprising, power supply of the drone Way.

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