TWI778391B - Method and device for controlling drone - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a device for controlling a drone. The method includes: obtaining a geographic location and a number of floors of each of a plurality of target buildings, wherein each target building includes a to-be-read meter; estimating a building height of each target building based on the number of floors of each target building; planning a specific flight path for the drone to read the to-be-read meter of each target building and return to a specific location based on the geographic location and the building height of each target building; estimating a first amount of power consumed by the drone to complete the specific flight path; in response to determining that a current power of the drone is not less than the first amount of power, controlling the drone to read the to-be-read meter of each target building according to the specific flight path and return to the specific location.

Description

UAV control method and UAV control device

The present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and in particular, to an unmanned aerial vehicle control method and an unmanned aerial vehicle control device.

At present, for general water and electricity meter reading, staff are dispatched from house to house to read the meter on site, which not only costs a lot of manpower and time, but also occasionally encounters the absence of the homeowner, which makes it impossible to enter and copy, and must come back on another day.

In addition, when reading the gas meter, because the gas meter is generally installed in the house, and the meter reading needs to be filled out by the householder, occasionally the householder forgets or misses the meter reading date due to being away from home for a long time. There will also be related issues such as fines.

It can be seen that there are still many deficiencies in the above-mentioned traditional conventional methods and conventional techniques, which are not good designs and need to be improved urgently.

In view of this, the present invention provides a UAV control method and a UAV control device, which can be used to solve the above technical problems.

The present invention provides a UAV control method for controlling a UAV located at a specific location, comprising: obtaining a respective geographic location and a floor number of a plurality of target buildings, wherein each target building includes at least one meter to be read ; Estimating a building height of each target building based on the number of floors of each target building; Based on the geographic location and building height of each target building, plan the drone to read each meter to be read of each target building and return a specific location at a specific location. Flight path; estimate a first power consumption required for the drone to complete a specific flight path; in response to determining that the current current power of the drone is not less than the first power, control the drone to read the waiting list of each target building according to the specific flight path Read the meter and return to a specific location.

The invention provides an unmanned aerial vehicle control device for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle located at a specific position. The drone control device includes a storage circuit and a processor. The storage circuit stores a plurality of modules. The processor is coupled to the storage circuit, and accesses the aforementioned module to perform the following steps: obtaining a respective geographic location and a floor number of a plurality of target buildings, wherein each target building includes at least one meter to be read; Estimate the height of a building for each target building based on the number of floors; plan a specific flight path for the drone to read the meters to be read of each target building and return to a specific location based on the geographic location and building height of each target building; estimate the drone A first power consumption required to complete the specific flight path; in response to determining that the current current power of the drone is not less than the first power, the drone is controlled to read the to-be-read meters of each target building according to the specific flight path.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a UAV control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In different embodiments, the drone control device 100 is, for example, a smart phone, a tablet computer, or various computer devices and smart devices, but it is not limited thereto. As shown in FIG. 1 , the drone control device 100 may include a storage circuit 102 and a processor 104 . The storage circuit 102 is, for example, any type of fixed or removable random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), flash memory (Flash memory), hard drive A disc or other similar device or a combination of these devices may be used to record multiple code or modules.

The processor 104 is coupled to the storage circuit 102 and can be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more combined digital signal processors microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), any other kind of integrated circuit , state machines, Advanced RISC Machine (ARM)-based processors, and the like.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the processor 104 can access the modules and program codes recorded in the storage circuit 102 to implement the UAV control method proposed by the present invention, the details of which are described below.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , which is a flowchart of a method for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method of this embodiment can be executed by the drone control device 100 in FIG. 1 , and the details of each step in FIG. 2 will be described below in conjunction with the components shown in FIG. 1 . In addition, in order to make the concept of the present case easier to understand, the following description will be supplemented with the application scenario shown in FIG. 3 , but it is only used as an example, and is not used to limit possible implementations of the present invention.

First, in step S210, the processor 104 can obtain the respective geographic locations and floor numbers of the multiple target buildings B1-B3. In FIG. 3 , each of the target buildings B1 to B3 may be buildings with multiple floors, but not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the considered target building may also be other types of buildings, such as a towering house, etc., but not limited thereto.

In one embodiment, the geographic locations of the target buildings B1-B3 are, for example, the latitude and longitude of the target buildings B1-B3, which can be input by the user of the drone control device 100, but not limited thereto. In addition, the number of floors of each of the target buildings B1 to B3 (for example, 4, 7, and 5 floors, respectively) can also be input into the drone control device 100 by the above-mentioned user, but it is not limited thereto.

In the embodiment of the present invention, each target building B1-B3 may be provided with at least one meter to be read MM (shown as a diagonal rectangle), for example, a gas meter, a water meter, an electricity meter or the like on each floor meter, but not limited to this. In addition, the to-be-read meters MM of each of the target buildings B1 to B3 may be assumed to be installed in the same position (for example, the rear balcony) on the corresponding floor, but not limited to this.

In addition, in FIG. 3 , the drone 310 can be parked at a specific position SL (eg, a drone base station), and can be controlled by the drone control device 100 to read the readings of each meter to be read MM .

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the distance between the drone 310 and a certain meter MM to be read is less than a transmission distance, the drone 310 can first connect with the meter MM to be read, and can After it is determined that the meter to be read MM is in normal operation, the relevant data values of the meter to be read MM are read and stored. In other words, the drone 310 only needs to fly to the vicinity of the meter to be read MM (for example, the airspace near the rear balcony) to read the value of the meter to be read MM.

In addition, the drone 310 can also provide the data and values obtained from each meter MM to be read to the drone control device 100 . In one embodiment, the drone control device 100 can analyze the received data/values to determine whether each meter MM to be read has abnormal operation status and/or abnormal value. If it is determined that the above-mentioned abnormal phenomenon occurs, the drone control device 100 may, for example, issue an alarm to remind the user to take corresponding measures to solve the above-mentioned abnormal phenomenon.

作為所述第i個目標建物的建物高度，其中

，

為所述第i個建物的樓層數量，而H為預設樓層高度（例如3公尺，但可不限於此）。另外，i為大於等於1且小於等於N的正整數，而N為目標建物B1~B3的總數（即，3）。Next, in step S220, the processor 104 may estimate the building height of each target building B1-B3 based on the number of floors of each target building B1-B3. In one embodiment, for the i-th target building among the target buildings B1-B3, the processor 104 may calculate

as the building height of the i-th target building, where

,

is the number of floors of the i-th building, and H is a preset floor height (eg, 3 meters, but not limited to this). In addition, i is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the total number of target buildings B1 to B3 (ie, 3).

；以目標建物B2為例，其樓層數量例如是7，故目標建物B2的建物高度例如是7

；以目標建物B3為例，其樓層數量例如是5，故目標建物B3的建物高度例如是5

，但可不限於此。Taking the target building B1 as an example, the number of floors is, for example, 4, so the building height of the target building B1 is, for example,

; Take the target building B2 as an example, the number of floors is for example 7, so the building height of the target building B2 is for example 7

; Take the target building B3 as an example, the number of floors is for example 5, so the building height of the target building B3 is for example 5

, but not limited to this.

Afterwards, in step S230, the processor 104 may plan the drone 310 to read the to-be-read meters MM of the target buildings B1-B3 based on the geographic locations and building heights of the target buildings B1-B3 and return to the specific position SL specific flight path PP.

In one embodiment, the processor 104 may determine a specific sequence for the UAV 310 to go to the target building and return to the specific position SL based on a relative distance between the geographic location of each target building and the specific position SL. For example, it is assumed that the user wants to control the drone 310 at a specific position SL to go to the target buildings B, C, D, and E to read the values of the meters to be read in the target buildings B, C, D, and E. The relative distances between the specific position SL and the target buildings B, C, D, and E are shown in Table 1 below. relative distance SL B C D E SL 0 meters 300 meters 500 meters 200 meters 600 meters B 300 meters 0 meters 400 meters 900 meters 1000 meters C 500 meters 400 meters 0 meters 100 meters 800 meters D 200 meters 900 meters 100 meters 0 meters 700 meters E 600 meters 1000 meters 800 meters 700 meters 0 meters Table 1

In the context of Table 1, the processor 104 may arrange the specific order in which the drones 310 go to the target buildings B~E based on the shortest path principle. For example, since the target building D is closest to the specific position SL, among the target buildings B, C, and E, the target building C is the closest to D. Afterwards, since the target building B is the closest to C among the target buildings B and E, the processor 104 can specify the position SL, the target building D, C, B, and E as the order of going to the target buildings B to E, and since the completion of After reading the meter MM to be read in the target building E, it needs to return to the specific position SL, so the processor 104 can determine the above specific order as "the specific position SL, the target building D, C, B, E, the specific position SL" ”, but the present invention may not be limited to this.

Referring to FIG. 3 again, it is assumed that the processor 104 has determined the specific order as “specific location SL, target building B1, B2, B3, specific location SL” according to the above teachings (that is, after the drone 310 starts from the specific location SL) , go to the target buildings B1-B3 in sequence and then return to the specific position SL), then the processor 104 can determine a plurality of horizontal flight paths HP1-HP4 for the drone 310 to go to the target buildings B1-B3 and return to the specific position SL according to the specific sequence .

It can be seen from FIG. 3 that the horizontal flight path HP1 is the horizontal flight path of the drone 310 from the specific position SL to the target building B1, and the horizontal flight path HP2 is the horizontal flight path of the drone 310 from the target building B1 to the target building B2. The flight path HP3 is the horizontal flight path of the drone 310 from the target building B2 to the target building B3, and the horizontal flight path HP4 is the horizontal flight path of the drone 310 from the target building B3 to the specific position SL. It can be seen that the horizontal flight paths HP1 to HP4 are the horizontal flight paths of the UAV 310 after starting from the specific position SL, going to the target buildings B1 to B3 in the above specific order, and then returning to the specific position SL, but not limited to this.

Afterwards, the processor 104 may determine, according to the building heights of the target buildings B1 to B3 , the drone 310 to read a plurality of takeoff and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4 of the to-be-read meters MM of the target buildings B1 to B3 .

In one embodiment, the first take-off and landing flight path (for example, the take-off and landing flight path VP1 ) in the take-off and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4 includes the drone 310 moving vertically from the specific position SL to the first target of the target buildings B1 to B3 The path to the building height of a building (eg target building B1).

時，前述起降飛行路徑VP1~VP4中的第i個起降飛行路徑可包括無人機310自前述目標建物的第i-1個目標建物的頂端下降至所述第i-1個目標建物的特定樓層（例如1樓），再上升至前述目標建物的第i個目標建物的建物高度的路徑。Additionally, when

, the i-th take-off and landing flight path in the aforementioned take-off and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4 may include the drone 310 descending from the top of the i-1-th target building to the i-1-th target building. A specific floor (for example, the 1st floor), and then ascend to the building height of the i-th target building of the aforementioned target building.

Taking FIG. 3 as an example, the take-off and landing flight path VP2 may include a path for the drone 310 to descend from the top of the target building B1 to the first floor of the target building B1, and then ascend to the building height of the target building B2. In addition, the take-off and landing flight path VP3 may include a path in which the drone 310 descends from the top of the target building B2 to the first floor of the target building B2, and then ascends to the building height of the target building B3.

In addition, the N+1 th take-off and landing flight path (eg, the take-off and landing flight path VP4 ) among the aforementioned take-off and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4 may include the Nth target building (eg, target building B3 ) of the drone 310 from the aforementioned target building. The top of the target building descends to the specific floor (for example, the first floor) of the Nth target building, and then rises to the height of the specific position SL.

After obtaining the horizontal flight paths HP1 to HP4 and the takeoff and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4 based on the above teachings, the processor 104 can determine the specific flight path PP accordingly. It can be seen from FIG. 3 that the specific flight path PP may include horizontal flight paths HP1 to HP4 and take-off and landing flight paths VP1 to VP4. More specifically, the specific flight path PP can reasonably include the take-off and landing flight path VP1, the horizontal flight path HP1, the take-off and landing flight path VP2, the horizontal flight path HP2, the take-off and landing flight path VP3, the horizontal flight path HP3, the take-off and landing flight path The flight path VP4 and the horizontal flight path HP4, but the present invention may not be limited thereto.

After determining the specific flight path PP, the processor 104 may perform step S240 to estimate the first power consumption required by the drone 310 to complete the specific flight path PP. In one embodiment, the processor 104 can estimate the total path length of the specific flight path PP, and calculate how much power the UAV 310 needs to consume to fly the total path length, so as to obtain the above-mentioned first power, but it is not limited thereto.

Afterwards, in step S250, the processor 104 may determine whether the current power level of the drone 310 is not less than the first power level. In one embodiment, if the current power level of the drone 310 is not less than the first power level, it means that the current power level of the drone 310 is sufficient for the drone 310 to complete the specific flight path PP, so the processor 104 can continue to perform step S260 to The drone 310 is controlled to read each meter to be read MM of each target building B1-B3 according to the specific flight path PP, and returns to the specific position SL.

In one embodiment, when the UAV 310 flies according to the take-off and landing flight path VP2, it can sequentially read 4 points located in the target building B1 during the process of descending from the top of the target building B1 to the first floor of the target building B1. The value of the meter MM to be read from the floor to the first floor. Similarly, when the drone 310 flies according to the take-off and landing flight path VP3, it can sequentially read the information located on the 7th floor to the 1st floor of the target building B2 in the process of descending from the top of the target building B2 to the 1st floor of the target building B2. The value of the meter MM to be read on the floor. In addition, when the UAV 310 flies according to the take-off and landing flight path VP4, it can sequentially read the information located on the 5th floor to the 1st floor of the target building B3 during the process of descending from the top of the target building B3 to the first floor of the target building B3 The value of the meter to be read MM, but the present invention may not be limited to this.

In addition, during the process of reading the meters MM to be read by the drone 310 according to the specific flight path PP, or after the drone 310 completes the specific flight path PP and returns to the specific position SL, the processor 104 may also receive the drone. 310 For the reading results (eg, various values/data) of each meter MM to be read of each target building B1-B3, the aforementioned analysis can be performed accordingly, but it is not limited to this.

On the other hand, if the processor 104 determines in step S250 that the current power of the drone 310 is less than the first power, it means that the current power of the drone 310 is not enough for the drone 310 to complete the specific flight path PP, so the processor 104 The step S270 may be subsequently executed to control the drone 310 to stay at the specific position SL.

In one embodiment, after step S270, the processor 104 may additionally provide an insufficient power prompt to remind the user of the drone control device 100 to reset the target building to which the drone 310 is to go (for example, to reduce the power consumption of the target building). number and/or pick target buildings that are closer to a specific location SL).

In another embodiment, after step S270 , the processor 104 may further determine whether the rated power of the drone 310 (ie, the power after the battery is fully charged) is not less than the above-mentioned first power. If so, it means that the UAV 310 can complete the specific flight path PP after being charged to the rated power, so the processor 104 can accordingly provide a charging prompt to remind the user to charge the UAV 310 first.

On the other hand, if the rated power of the drone 310 is still less than the first power level, it means that even if the drone 310 is fully charged, it is still insufficient to complete the specific flight path PP. In this case, the processor 104 can provide the low-power prompt to remind the user of the drone control device 100 to reset the target building to which the drone 310 is to go (for example, reduce the number of target buildings and/or select the distance A target building with a specific location SL closer), but the present invention may not be limited to this.

To sum up, the method and device of the present invention at least have the following characteristics: (1) It can save a lot of manpower and time cost when reading the meter, and can also avoid the occurrence of the homeowner forgetting to read the meter or being unable to enter the building to read the meter. ; (2) Since the meter reading operation is automatically read by the drone, it can avoid the trouble of the homeowner's copying error, and the status of each meter to be read can be reported at the same time when reading the meter, so that the use of the drone control device can be realized. The user understands whether the meters to be read are currently operating normally; (3) Using the path planning optimization method, each drone can be used to the maximum effect, saving the flight mileage and electricity cost of the drone.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above by the embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, The protection scope of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the appended patent application.

100: Drone Controls 102: Storage circuit 104: Processor 310: Drone B1~B3: target building SL: specific location PP: specific flight path MM: Meter to be read HP1~HP4: Horizontal flight path VP1~VP4: Take-off and landing flight path S210~S270: Steps

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a UAV control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S210~S270: Steps

Claims (8)

A UAV control method for controlling a UAV located at a specific location, comprising: obtaining a respective geographic location and a floor number of a plurality of target buildings, wherein each target building is provided with at least one meter to be read; Estimate a building height of each target building based on the number of floors of each target building; determine the UAV based on a relative distance between the geographic location of each target building and the specific location based on a shortest path principle A specific sequence of going to the target buildings and returning to the specific position; determining a plurality of horizontal flight paths for the drone to go to the target buildings and returning to the specific position according to the specific sequence; determining according to the building height of each target building The drone reads a plurality of take-off and landing flight paths of the meters to be read of each of the target buildings; determines a specific flight path based on the horizontal flight paths and the take-off and landing flight paths; estimates that the drone completes the a first power consumption required for a specific flight path; and in response to determining that the current current power of the drone is not less than the first power, controlling the drone to read each of the waiting points of the target buildings according to the specific flight path Read the meter, and return to that specific location. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of estimating the building height of each of the target buildings based on the number of floors of each of the target buildings comprises: for the ith target building among the target buildings, calculating h _i As the building height of the i-th target building, wherein hi = F _i × H , F _i is the number of floors of the _i -th building, and H is a predetermined floor height. The method of claim 1, wherein the first take-off and landing flight path of the take-off and landing flight paths includes the building height of the drone vertically moving from the specific position to the first target building of the target buildings path; where when 1 < i

When N , the i-th take-off and landing flight path of the take-off and landing flight paths includes the drone descending from the top of the i-1-th target building of the target buildings to a point where the drone is descended from the i-1-th target building. A specific floor, and then ascending to the building height of the i-th target building of the target buildings, where N is the total number of the target buildings; wherein the N+1th take-off and landing flight in the take-off and landing flight paths The path includes a path in which the drone descends from the top of the Nth target building of the target buildings to the specific floor of the Nth target building, and then rises to the height of the specific position. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to determining that the current power level of the drone is less than the first power level, a power shortage prompt is provided, and the drone is controlled to stay at the specific position. The method according to claim 1, wherein in response to determining that the current power level of the drone is less than the first power level, the method further comprises: controlling the drone to stay at the specific position, and judging a rating of the drone Whether the power is not less than the first power; In response to determining that the rated power of the drone is not less than the first power, a charging prompt is provided, otherwise, a power shortage prompt is provided. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific location is a UAV base station. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a reading result of each meter to be read for each target building by the drone. An unmanned aerial vehicle control device for controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle at a specific position, comprising: a storage circuit, storing a plurality of modules; a processor, coupled to the storage circuit, accessing the modules to execute the following steps : obtain a respective geographic location and a floor number of a plurality of target buildings, wherein each of the target buildings is provided with at least one meter to be read; estimate a building height of each of the target buildings based on the number of the floors of each of the target buildings; According to a relative distance between the geographic location of each of the target buildings and the specific position, a specific sequence of the drone to go to the target buildings and return to the specific position is determined based on a shortest path principle; according to the specific sequence determining multiple horizontal flight paths for the drone to travel to the target buildings and back to the specific location; Determine a plurality of take-off and landing flight paths for the drone to read each of the to-be-read meters of each of the target buildings according to the building height of each of the target buildings; determine a flight path based on the horizontal flight paths and the take-off and landing flight paths. a specific flight path; estimating a first power consumption required by the drone to complete the specific flight path; and in response to determining that a current power level of the drone is not less than the first power level, controlling the drone to travel according to the specific flight path Each of the to-be-read meters of each of the target buildings is read.

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