WO2016192249A1

WO2016192249A1 - Method and apparatus for manipulating aerial vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2016192249A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/090269
Authority: WO
Inventors: 胡华智
Original assignee: 广州亿航智能技术有限公司
Priority date: 2015-05-29
Filing date: 2015-09-22
Publication date: 2016-12-08
Also published as: CN104932527A

Abstract

A method and apparatus for manipulating an aerial vehicle. The method comprises the steps of: step I, perceiving a flight instruction input by a user via an input device of an intelligent terminal, wherein the flight instruction comprises any one of returning, fixed-point and hovering; and step II, sending the flight instruction to an on-board flight control system of the aerial vehicle. According to the method for manipulating an aerial vehicle, by acquiring an input of a user via an input device perceived by an intelligent terminal as a flight instruction, and sending the flight instruction to an on-board flight control system for the on-board flight control system to control the flight of the aerial vehicle, the technical level requirement for an aerial vehicle operator is reduced, while the flight environment requirement for the aerial vehicle is reduced, and a real-time operation can be performed.

Description

Method and device for controlling aircraft

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of aircraft control technology, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for operating an aircraft.

Background technique

A multi-rotor aircraft is a small aircraft powered by multiple (generally at least four) rotors. Because multi-rotor aircraft has the ability of vertical takeoff and landing and hovering, and the flight is stable and relatively low cost, it is widely used in personal entertainment, film and television aerial photography, land surveying, agricultural and forestry inspection, power line inspection and police monitoring. Many industries.

At present, there are two ways to control small aircraft: one way is to use the remote control, the control hand can directly control the throttle, attitude angle and flight speed of the aircraft through the remote control. This method can perform very precise control on the aircraft, but it requires a high level of skill for the operator and is not suitable for over-the-horizon flight. When the aircraft is far away from the operator, it is easy to cause misjudgment due to unclear observation. Another way is to equip the aircraft with a fully functional autopilot. This method relies on GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning, and sends instructions such as takeoff, landing, and flight according to the specified route to the aircraft through the ground station. Although it is easy to operate, However, it is impossible to fly indoors or in an open environment, and it is impossible to perform real-time control. It can be seen that the prior art cannot effectively control the aircraft.

Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of maneuvering an aircraft for effective control of the aircraft.

To this end, the present invention employs the following technical solutions:

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of controlling an aircraft, comprising the steps of:

Step 1: Detecting a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

Step 2: Send the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.

Further, the method further includes: receiving flight information sent by the onboard flight control system of the aircraft, and displaying the information through the display of the terminal device, where the flight information includes coordinate information, flight altitude, flight speed, and attitude information of the aircraft.

Further, the flight instruction further includes a micro control, which means that when the aircraft is in the hovering state, the user is perceived to control the flight of the aircraft through an input action of the smart terminal.

Further, the return flight refers to the return of the aircraft to the takeoff point coordinates;

The pointing refers to pointing the location on the electronic map of the smart terminal, allowing the aircraft to reach the selected destination;

The hovering means that the aircraft is hovering at the current position.

Further, before the step 1 is that the user inputs the flight instruction, the method further includes:

The unlocking operation is performed on the aircraft, and the unlocking operation includes the following steps:

Read the GPS signal and determine the number of GPS satellites;

When the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, the aircraft control function is unlocked.

Further, before the reading of the GPS signal, the method further includes the following steps:

The smart terminal is paired with the Bluetooth module in the Bluetooth communication box of the aircraft ground station through its own Bluetooth module;

The parameter setting and model setting of the aircraft input by the user through the input device of the smart terminal are received.

Further, the parameter setting includes the weight of the aircraft and its external device, the model setting including whether there is a retainer, whether there is a pan/tilt and a number of blade.

Further, if the model setting includes a model with a pan/tilt, the smart terminal is further configured to control the pan/tilt by sensing a sliding operation on a pan/tilt angle slider on the smart terminal. motion.

Further, when the GPS signal is read, the method further includes:

The longitude and latitude of the aircraft are acquired and stored. If the longitude and latitude of the aircraft are obtained for the first time, the latitude and longitude is used as the takeoff point coordinates of the aircraft.

Further, the unlocking aircraft control function comprises:

Automatically unlock when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, or when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, unlock by clicking the unlock interface on the smart terminal.

Further, receiving the landing mode selected by the user during the flight of the aircraft will indicate that the aircraft will land to the current ground according to the landing mode selected by the user.

Further, the smart terminal is further configured to control the aircraft to fly by sensing a sliding operation on the aircraft lifting and rotating slider on the smart terminal.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides an operating device for an aircraft, comprising:

a sensing module, configured to sense a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

And a sending module, configured to send the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.

The invention provides an operating method and device for an aircraft, which acquires an intelligent terminal to sense a user input through an input device as a flight instruction, and transmits the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system, and the aircraft flight control system controls the aircraft. The flight greatly reduces the technical requirements of the aircraft operator, while reducing the flight environment requirements of the aircraft and enabling real-time operation.

DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, a brief description of the drawings used in the embodiments or the prior art description will be briefly described below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description It is a certain embodiment of the present invention, and other drawings can be obtained from those skilled in the art without any creative work.

1 is a flow chart of a method for controlling an aircraft according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart of a method for controlling an aircraft according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

3 is a block diagram of an operating device for an aircraft according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of a control interface of an intelligent terminal according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

detailed description

The present invention will be clearly and completely described by way of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the invention. Some embodiments, but not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts are within the scope of the present invention.

Embodiment 1

1 is a flowchart of a method for controlling an aircraft according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method may be performed by an operating device of an aircraft in an embodiment of the present invention, where the device may be implemented by software and/or hardware, and generally It can be integrated into smart terminals such as smartphones and tablets.

The invention provides a method for controlling an aircraft, comprising the following steps:

Step S10: Perceiving a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

Step S20: transmitting the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.

A method for controlling an aircraft according to the first embodiment provides a flight terminal by sensing an input of a user through an input device as a flight instruction, and transmitting the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system, and controlling the aircraft by the airborne flight control system. The flight greatly reduces the technical requirements of the aircraft operator, while reducing the flight environment requirements of the aircraft and enabling real-time operation.

Exemplarily, the method further includes: receiving flight information sent by an airborne flight control system of the aircraft, And displaying through the display of the terminal device, the flight information includes coordinate information, flight altitude, flight speed, and attitude information of the aircraft.

Exemplarily, the flight instruction may further include a micro control, which means that when the aircraft is in the hovering state, the user is perceived to control the flight of the aircraft through an input action of the smart terminal. Specifically, the micro control can cooperate with GPS positioning to better control the flight of the aircraft. For example, when an aircraft needs to hover in the air for continuous shooting or mapping, it may be necessary to fine-tune the orientation or specific position of the aircraft in order to change the angle of the shooting device or mapping device on the aircraft; The aircraft flies at a very low speed in the horizontal direction to ensure the sharpness of the picture or the accuracy of the survey results. In these cases, it can be realized by micro-control, and the user can input corresponding actions on the intelligent terminal to finely control the flight of the aircraft.

Exemplarily, the above return flight refers to the return of the aircraft to the takeoff point coordinates;

The pointing refers to pointing the location on the electronic map of the smart terminal, allowing the aircraft to reach the selected destination; or creating a list of commonly used places, adding a destination that the aircraft often needs to fly in the list, by pointing the list One of the common locations to control the aircraft to the common location.

The hovering means that the aircraft is hovering at the current position.

The returning, pointing and hovering can be repeatedly switched during the flight of the aircraft, that is, multiple executions are performed.

In addition, flight instructions may also include takeoff and landing. The takeoff refers to controlling the takeoff of the aircraft; the landing refers to controlling the aircraft to land at a destination or at any designated location. The takeoff and landing commands are typically only executed once during a flight, but when a special condition occurs during takeoff or landing that results in a takeoff or landing failure, the execution of the takeoff or landing command may be interrupted and the takeoff or landing command may be re-executed.

Exemplarily, before the user inputs the flight instruction in step 1 above, the method may further include:

Read the GPS signal and determine the number of GPS satellites;

Exemplarily, before reading the GPS signal, the method may further include the following steps:

Illustratively, the above parameter settings may include the weight of the aircraft and its external devices, including whether or not there is a retainer, whether there is a pan/tilt and a number of blade paddles.

Exemplarily, if the model setting includes a model with a pan/tilt, the smart terminal is further configured to control the sliding operation by sensing a panning angle slider on the smart terminal. Yuntai movement.

Exemplarily, when reading the GPS signal, the method may further include:

Exemplarily, the above unlocked aircraft control functions include:

Illustratively, the above-mentioned landing mode selected by the receiving user during flight of the aircraft will indicate that the aircraft will land to the current ground according to the landing mode selected by the user.

Exemplarily, the smart terminal is further configured to control the aircraft to fly by sensing a sliding operation on the aircraft lifting and rotating slider on the smart terminal.

Embodiment 2

2 is a flowchart of a method for controlling an aircraft according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

Read the GPS signal and determine the number of GPS satellites;

Unlock: When the number of GPS satellites reaches 6, unlock the aircraft control function.

Take-off: after receiving the take-off command, the aircraft senses the flight command input by the user through the input device of the smart terminal, and sends the flight command to the airborne flight control system of the aircraft, and the airborne flight control system controls the flight of the aircraft. The flight instructions include any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

Landing: After receiving the landing command, the aircraft receives the landing mode selected by the user during the flight of the aircraft, and will indicate that the aircraft will land to the current ground according to the landing mode selected by the user.

Locking: When the aircraft has landed a certain distance from the bottom surface, the locking operation is performed, the rotor of the aircraft stops rotating, and the aircraft ends the flight.

Exemplarily, before reading the GPS signal, the method further includes the following steps:

In this embodiment, the intelligent terminal and the aircraft are connected by the aircraft ground station, which reduces the flight environment requirements of the aircraft and enables real-time operation.

Illustratively, the above parameter settings include the weight of the aircraft and its external equipment, including whether or not there is a retainer, whether there is a pan/tilt and a number of blade.

In this embodiment, the aircraft has different shapes and different weights, and the weight of the aircraft affects the stability of the aircraft's flight attitude. Selecting a real model will result in an ideal flight effect.

Exemplarily, the flight information sent by the onboard flight control system of the receiving aircraft is displayed and displayed through a display of the terminal device, the flight information including coordinate information, flight altitude, flight speed, and attitude information of the aircraft.

In this embodiment, the flight information of the aircraft is fed back to the display or the display screen of the smart terminal in real time, and the flight state of the aircraft and the flight position on the map can be visually displayed.

Exemplarily, the flight instruction further includes a micro control, which means that when the aircraft is in the hovering state, the user is perceived to control the flight of the aircraft through an input action of the smart terminal.

The return flight refers to the coordinates of the aircraft returning to the takeoff point;

The hovering means that the aircraft is hovering at the current position.

Exemplarily, when reading the GPS signal, the method further includes: acquiring the longitude and latitude of the aircraft, and storing, if the longitude and latitude of the aircraft are obtained for the first time, the latitude and longitude is used as the takeoff point coordinates of the aircraft.

Exemplarily, the unlocking aircraft control function includes: automatically unlocking when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, or unlocking by clicking an unlocking interface on the smart terminal when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number.

Exemplarily, the smart terminal is further configured to sense the lifting and rotating of the aircraft on the smart terminal. A sliding operation on the rotating slider controls the flight of the aircraft.

Embodiment 3

The operating device of the aircraft provided by this embodiment can perform the method provided by any embodiment of the present invention, and has the corresponding functional modules and beneficial effects of the executing method.

3 is a block diagram of an operating device for an aircraft according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

The invention provides an operating device for an aircraft, comprising:

The sensing module 100 is configured to sense a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

The sending module 200 is configured to send the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.

In this embodiment, the smart terminal may be a terminal device such as a smart phone or a tablet computer, and the sensing module may be a touch screen of the smart phone, and generate a flight instruction by clicking and sliding the touch screen to control the aircraft. Flight destination.

Embodiment 4

The control interface of the smart terminal provided by this embodiment is applicable to the method and apparatus provided by any embodiment of the present invention.

The invention provides an operating device for an aircraft, comprising:

Control interface description:

Flight information display 1, the display area is located at the top and bottom right, the top shows the number of GPS satellites, power, coordinate information, flight altitude, flight speed, flight time, and the lower right shows the attitude information of the aircraft.

Slider control area:

Left vertical slider: PTZ upper and lower control slider 2, left horizontal slider: PTZ left and right control slider 3,

Right vertical slider: aircraft lift slider 4, right slider: aircraft rotation slider 5.

Bottom button area:

The unlocking, the lock button 6, the take-off button 7, the return button 8, the landing button 9, and the hover button 10.

Carrying GPS equipment on the aircraft, when the number of GPS satellites reaches 6,

Click the unlock and lock button 6 to unlock the aircraft control function;

After the unlock is successful, click the takeoff button 7,

After the aircraft takes off, the aircraft can be controlled by clicking the return button 8, the landing button 9 and the hover button 10, or pointing the position on the electronic map of the smart terminal to allow the aircraft to reach the selected destination;

The hovering refers to the aircraft hovering at the current position. When the hovering button 10 is clicked, the flight of the aircraft is controlled by sensing the input action of the user through the smart terminal, such as lifting and rotating the

slider

4, 5 by sliding the aircraft. To operate the aircraft,

The landing refers to landing the aircraft to the current ground;

After landing, when the height is less than the predetermined value (such as four meters), click the unlock, lock button 6, the aircraft propeller stops rotating, and the mission ends.

Note that the above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles applied thereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described herein, and that various modifications, changes and substitutions may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the present invention has been described in detail by the above embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and other equivalent embodiments may be included without departing from the inventive concept. The scope is determined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

A method for controlling an aircraft, comprising the steps of:

Step 1: Detecting a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

Step 2: Send the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.
The method of claim 1 further comprising:

Receiving flight information transmitted by the aircraft's onboard flight control system and displaying it through a display of the terminal device, the flight information including coordinate information, flight altitude, flight speed, and attitude information of the aircraft.
The method of claim 1 wherein said flight instructions further comprise a micro control,

The micro-control means that when the aircraft is in the hovering state, the user is perceived to control the flight of the aircraft through the input action of the intelligent terminal.
Method according to claim 1 or 3, characterized in that

The return flight refers to the coordinates of the aircraft returning to the takeoff point;

The pointing refers to pointing the location on the electronic map of the smart terminal, allowing the aircraft to reach the selected destination;

The hovering means that the aircraft is hovering at the current position.
The method according to claim 1, wherein before the step of sensing the user inputting the flight instruction, the method further comprises:

The unlocking operation is performed on the aircraft, and the unlocking operation includes the following steps:

Read the GPS signal and determine the number of GPS satellites;

When the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, the aircraft control function is unlocked.
The method of claim 5 wherein said reading said GPS signal Including the following steps:

Pairing with the Bluetooth module in the Bluetooth communication box of the aircraft ground station through the Bluetooth module of the smart terminal itself;

The parameter setting and model setting of the aircraft input by the user through the input device of the smart terminal are received.
The manipulation method according to claim 6, wherein the parameter setting includes the weight of the aircraft and its external device, and the model setting includes whether there is a retainer, whether there is a pan/tilt and a number of blade.
The control method according to claim 7, wherein if the model setting comprises a model with a pan/tilt, the method further comprises:

The pan/tilt movement is controlled by sensing a sliding operation on the pan/tilt angle slider on the smart terminal.
The method according to claim 5, wherein when the GPS signal is read, the method further comprises:

The longitude and latitude of the aircraft are acquired and stored. If the longitude and latitude of the aircraft are obtained for the first time, the longitude and the latitude are taken as the takeoff point coordinates of the aircraft.
The method of claim 5 wherein said unlocking aircraft control function comprises:

Automatically unlock when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, or when the number of GPS satellites reaches a preset number, unlock by clicking the unlock interface on the smart terminal.
The manipulation method according to claim 1, further comprising:

Receiving the landing mode selected by the user during the flight of the aircraft, the aircraft is instructed to land on the current ground according to the landing mode selected by the user.
The manipulation method according to claim 1, further comprising:

The aircraft flight is controlled by sensing the sliding operation on the aircraft's lifting and rotating sliders on the smart terminal.
An operating device for an aircraft, comprising:

a sensing module, configured to sense a flight instruction input by the user through an input device of the smart terminal, where the flight instruction includes any one of returning, pointing, and hovering;

And a sending module, configured to send the flight instruction to an airborne flight control system of the aircraft.