WO2018000183A1

WO2018000183A1 - Aircraft

Info

Publication number: WO2018000183A1
Application number: PCT/CN2016/087420
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王军
Original assignee: 深圳曼塔智能科技有限公司
Priority date: 2016-06-28
Filing date: 2016-06-28
Publication date: 2018-01-04

Abstract

Disclosed is an aircraft, comprising an aircraft body (100), wherein the aircraft body (100) comprises: a control unit (101) used for controlling the aircraft and an external expansion module; an expansion interface unit (102) connecting the control unit (101) with the external expansion module; and a firmware upgrading interface unit (103) used for upgrading firmware of the aircraft, wherein the firmware upgrading interface unit (103) is connected to the control unit (101). When provided with the expansion interface unit (102), the aircraft can connect external expansion modules of different functions, so as to realize the flexible expansion and extension of the functions of the aircraft, and can be applied to various industries and situations. A combination of an entertainment aircraft and an industrially applicable aircraft is realized via the expansion interface unit (102).

Description

An aircraft

Technical field

The invention relates to the field of drones, and in particular to an aircraft.

Background technique

At present, there are many types of aircraft and aircraft models, such as: aerial drones for professional aerial photography, self-timer drones for amateur photography, competitive crossover machines, recreational toy airplanes, etc., with very different functions. Since most of the aircraft are powered by batteries and the load is limited, there is no way to integrate and carry too many functions on one aircraft. Only a trade-off can be made. This will inevitably lead to a relatively simple function of each type of drone, such as aerial photography. The main function of the drone is to take pictures and video. The advantage is that it is specialized and precise, and the shooting effect is good. The inadequacy is the lack of entertainment interaction. The main function of the passing machine is that the power is strong and the speed is fast. Fast, no camera and video function; the main functions of the toy aircraft are simple aerobatics and acoustic and optical display, its advantages are cheap, and easy to use.

These aircrafts on the market have a common shortcoming: lack of scalability, for the players of the aircraft, if you want to experience different functions, apply different scenes to purchase different types of aircraft, learn different aircraft play, this will inevitably result in Waste of resources.

It is now necessary to find an aircraft with functional expansion capabilities to meet the needs of different consumer groups.

Summary of the invention

The object of the present invention is to overcome the prior art that the aircraft has a single function and is not expandable, and provides a function expandable aircraft, which solves the problem that the aircraft has a single function in the prior art.

To achieve the above object, the present invention discloses an aircraft comprising an aircraft body, the aircraft body comprising:

a control unit, configured to control the aircraft and an external expansion module;

Expanding an interface unit, connecting the control unit and the external expansion module;

A firmware upgrade interface unit for upgrading the aircraft firmware, the firmware upgrade interface unit being connected to the control unit.

Further, the expansion interface unit is connected to the control unit through a bus, an interrupt port, and an I/O interface.

Further, it further includes a remote control device wirelessly communicating with the aircraft body, the remote control device comprising: a function setting unit that sends a command to the control unit for setting a function and an operation mode of the external expansion module.

Further, an accessory power supply unit is further included, and the accessory power supply unit pairs the control unit and/or the extension The port unit is powered.

Further, the firmware upgrade interface unit and the control unit are connected by USB or AIDO.

Further, the remote control device further includes a firmware upgrading unit for upgrading the firmware of the remote control device.

Further, the control unit is a main control circuit board disposed in the aircraft body.

Further, the expansion interface unit is an expansion interface circuit board mounted on the housing of the aircraft body.

Further, the expansion interface unit and the external expansion module are connected by a detachable connector.

Further, the expansion interface circuit board and the control unit are electrically connected by an FPC.

The aircraft of the invention can be connected with different functions of the external expansion module by providing an expansion interface unit, so that the aircraft function can be freely expanded and extended, and can be applied in different industries and scenarios. The unification of recreational aircraft and industrial application aircraft is realized by expanding the interface unit.

DRAWINGS

1 is a schematic structural view of an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic structural view of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the picture,

100. Aircraft body; 101. Control unit; 102. Expansion interface unit; 103. Firmware upgrade interface unit; 104. Accessories power supply unit; 200. Remote control device; 201. Function setting unit; 202. Firmware upgrade unit.

detailed description

The invention is further described below in conjunction with the drawings and embodiments.

The present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It is understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

It is to be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed" or "in" another element, it can be directly on the other element or the central element. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or the central element.

It should also be noted that the left, right, upper, lower, and the like orientations in the embodiments of the present invention are merely relative concepts or referenced to the normal use state of the product, and should not be considered as limiting. .

One of the core concepts of the embodiments of the present invention is that the aircraft can be subsequently modified to add or replace new functional accessories after delivery, to achieve different application requirements, and to realize that one aircraft has many different functions.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic structural view of an aircraft of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an aircraft includes an aircraft body, and the aircraft body includes:

a control unit 101, configured to control the aircraft and an external expansion module;

An expansion interface unit 102, connected to the control unit and the external expansion module;

The firmware upgrade interface unit 103 is configured to upgrade the aircraft firmware, and the firmware upgrade interface unit 102 is connected to the control unit 101.

Among them, the expansion interface unit 102 of the present invention is used on small and miniature belt aerial vehicles, and can also be used in industrial application drones, such as entertainment drones and aircraft models or toy airplanes. By connecting the different external expansion modules through the expansion interface unit 102, an aircraft can be used to meet the needs and applications of different scenarios, different industries and different fields, and has numerous new types of gameplays and uses, which greatly improves the use value of the aircraft. The external expansion module includes, but is not limited to, an emoticon module, a bubble gun module, a flashlight module, a loudspeaker module, a searchlight module, an obstacle avoidance function module, and the like, and external modules of different functions. An aircraft expands a number of different functions to meet different entertainment and machine work requirements, greatly reducing the cost of using drones, and avoiding the money and time wasted by repeatedly purchasing and learning to use different functions of drones. The firmware upgrade interface unit 103 upgrades the firmware corresponding to the external expansion module, and also selects the multi-function firmware, and is compatible with and operates multiple function modules after one upgrade.

The aircraft has basic flight functions, including but not limited to, one-button take-off, one-button landing, one-button automatic return, low-power automatic return, low-power automatic landing, heading lock function, flight speed adjustment, and point of interest surround function. Hotspot follow-up function, route planning, custom route flight. The expansion interface unit 102 connects the control unit and the external expansion module, including communication and power supply connections.

In some demonstrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the expansion interface unit 102 is coupled to the control unit 101 via a bus, an interrupt port, and an I/O interface.

On the basis of the original hardware, the general bus of the control unit 101, the individual interrupt signals, and the I/O interface are taken out, and these signals are connected to the extended interface unit 102. Among them, the bus includes but is not limited to USB, UART, IIC, CAN, SPI, R485, R232, IIS, SDIO.

In some illustrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, a remote control device 200 in wireless communication with the aircraft body 100 is also included, the remote control device 200 including:

The function setting unit 201 sends a command to the control unit 101 for setting the function and the operation mode of the external expansion module.

The function setting unit 201 sets functions such as functions and parameter settings provided by the external expansion module, and the user controls the external expansion module externally connected to the aircraft through the remote control device 200 to implement different functions, such as opening the search. Light function, open obstacle avoidance function and so on. Through the control of the remote control device 200, the aircraft can conveniently expand different functions to meet different entertainment and work requirements, greatly reducing the use cost of the drone, and avoiding the capital and time wasted by repeatedly purchasing and learning to use different functional aircraft. Further popularize the application of aircraft.

In some demonstrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, a kit power supply unit 104 is also included, which powers the control unit 101 and/or the expansion interface unit 102.

The accessory power supply unit 104 and the expansion interface unit 102 are connected by a twisted pair cable, so that the firmware of the aircraft body and the external expansion module have sufficient power supply to stably work.

In some demonstrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the firmware upgrade interface unit 103 and the control unit 101 are connected by USB or AIDO.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of a remote control device in an embodiment of the present invention.

In some illustrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2, the remote control device 200 further includes a firmware upgrade unit 202 for upgrading firmware of the remote control device 200.

The firmware upgrading unit 202 can upgrade the firmware corresponding to the external expansion module, and can also select the multi-function firmware, and compatible and operate multiple function modules after one upgrade. The remote control device 200 includes, but is not limited to, a conventional hand-held joystick type remote controller, and may be a tablet or smart phone remote controller, and is used to upgrade the APP control program if it is a tablet computer or a smart phone remote controller.

In some illustrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 101 is a main control circuit board disposed within the aircraft body 100.

In some illustrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the expansion interface unit 102 is an expansion interface circuit board mounted on a housing of the aircraft body 100.

In some illustrative embodiments, the expansion interface circuit board is electrically coupled to the control unit 101 via an FPC.

In some demonstrative embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the expansion interface unit 102 is coupled to the external expansion module by a detachable connector.

Among them, the detachable connector connection includes, but is not limited to, a thimble, a spring piece, and a blade socket.

The implementation process of the present invention is: the user selects an external expansion module, installs the external expansion module on the expansion interface unit 103 of the aircraft, and then upgrades the firmware of the corresponding function module of the aircraft and the remote control device 200. After the system is powered on, the external expansion module is externally connected. The power supply is obtained by the expansion interface unit 103, and the basic conditions for starting are provided. When the user sends the start and control commands through the remote control device 200, after the aircraft receives the command, the control unit 101 sends a high level through the I/O port to start the external expansion. The module starts to work, and the control unit 101 sends a control command through the extended interface unit 102. After the external expansion module receives the command, the corresponding action or command is executed.

The technical solutions provided by the present invention are described in detail above. The principles and implementations of the present invention are described in the specific examples. The description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method and core ideas of the present invention; In the meantime, the present invention is not limited by the scope of the present invention.

Claims

An aircraft comprising an aircraft body, wherein the aircraft body comprises:

a control unit, configured to control the aircraft and an external expansion module;

Expanding an interface unit, connecting the control unit and the external expansion module;

A firmware upgrade interface unit for upgrading the aircraft firmware, the firmware upgrade interface unit being connected to the control unit.
The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said expansion interface unit is coupled to the control unit via a bus, an interrupt port, and an I/O interface.
The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising a remote control device in wireless communication with the aircraft body, the remote control device comprising:

The function setting unit sends a command to the control unit for setting the function and working mode of the external expansion module.
The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising a accessory power supply unit, said accessory power supply unit powering said control unit and/or said expansion interface unit.
The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said firmware upgrade interface unit is coupled to said control unit using a USB or AIDO.
The aircraft of claim 3 wherein said remote control device further comprises a firmware upgrade unit for upgrading firmware of said remote control device.
The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said control unit is a main control circuit board disposed within said aircraft body.
The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said expansion interface unit is an expansion interface circuit board mounted to a housing of said aircraft body.
The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said expansion interface unit is coupled to said external expansion module by a detachable connector.
The aircraft of claim 8 wherein said expansion interface circuit board is electrically coupled to said control unit via an FPC.