WO2023021948A1

WO2023021948A1 - Control device and program

Info

Publication number: WO2023021948A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/028865
Authority: WO
Inventors: 昌志安沢; 広樹石塚; 圭祐中島; 真幸森下
Original assignee: 株式会社Ｎｔｔドコモ
Priority date: 2021-08-16
Filing date: 2022-07-27
Publication date: 2023-02-23

Abstract

In the present invention, after a drone 10 reaches the sky above a building designated as a destination of the drone 10, an inspection unit 12 inspects candidate landing positions at the destination on the basis of an image of the entire site including the building as captured by a sensor 1008 (image sensor) of the drone 10, and a list of candidate landing positions at the destination. An assessment unit 13 assesses whether the drone 10 can land at each of the candidate landing positions on the basis of a result obtained when the drone 10, which has reached the sky at the destination, inspects the destination on the basis of the candidate landing position list. A presentation unit 14 presents a user with the candidate landing positions at which the assessment unit 13 has assessed that the drone can land. A landing control unit 15 controls a flight driving mechanism 1009 to cause the drone 10 to land at any candidate landing position selected by the user from among the candidate landing positions at which the assessment unit 13 has assessed that the drone can land.

Description

Controller and program

The present invention relates to technology for landing an aircraft.

With the spread of unmanned flying objects called drones, various mechanisms for using drones to deliver packages have been proposed. For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a mechanism in which a landing pad is provided in a landing zone of a delivery destination of a drone, and the drone is guided to the landing pad by a visual assistance device, an optical assistance device or a wireless assistance device.

Japanese Patent No. 6622291

With the mechanism of Patent Document 1, a dedicated facility called a landing pad must be provided at the delivery destination of the drone. Destinations for drones include, for example, dwelling units of various sizes and shapes.

The purpose of the present invention is to land the flying object at an appropriate position at the destination of the flying object.

The present invention provides an acquisition unit that acquires information on a plurality of candidate landing positions at a destination of an aircraft, and an acquisition unit that acquires information about a plurality of candidate landing positions at a destination of the aircraft, and based on the results of inspection of the destination by the aircraft that has reached the destination based on the information. a judgment unit for judging whether or not the flying object can land at each of the candidate landing positions; and a landing controller for landing a body.

According to the present invention, it is possible to land the flying object at an appropriate position at the destination of the flying object.

It is a block diagram showing an example of composition of drone management system 1 concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram showing an example of hardware constitutions of drone 10 concerning the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the server apparatus 50 which concerns on the same embodiment. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of the drone 10; FIG. It is a figure which illustrates the landing candidate position list|wrist which concerns on the same embodiment. 4 is a bird's-eye view illustrating the structure of the destination of the drone 10 according to the same embodiment. FIG. It is a figure which illustrates the screen displayed on the user terminal 30 which concerns on the same embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of processing by the drone 10;

[composition]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example configuration of a drone management system 1 according to an embodiment of an information processing system of the present invention. The drone management system 1 includes a drone 10 that transports a package to a destination, a user terminal 30 that is used by a user living in a building that is the destination, a wireless communication network 40, and a server connected to the wireless communication network 40. a device 50; Although one drone 10, one user terminal 30, one wireless communication network 40, and one server device 50 are illustrated in FIG. 1, there may be a plurality of each.

The drone 10 is an unmanned flying object that flies in the air. The drone 10 transports the cargo by holding the cargo, flying to the destination, and landing at the destination.

The user terminal 30 is a communicable computer such as a smartphone, tablet, or personal computer. In this embodiment, the user terminal 30 is a smart phone and functions as a communication terminal for the user who receives the parcel to access the server device 50 via the wireless communication network 40 .

The server device 50 stores flight plan information such as the flight date and time, flight route and flight altitude of the drone 10, and remotely steers the drone according to the flight plan information. Remote control by the server device 50 is mainly a section between a drone departure/arrival point called a base and the drone's destination above ground. The section between the target airspace and the landing position of the drone is carried out under autonomous control by the drone itself. Specifically, the drone 10 detects a landing candidate position (for example, a door, a veranda, a gate, a parking lot, a warehouse, a garden, etc.) fixed to a building corresponding to the destination or a site containing the building, and detects the landing candidate. Landing is performed after judging whether or not it is possible to land at or near the position.

In this embodiment, as described above, the section between the drone's departure/arrival point and the destination airspace depends on remote control by the server device 50, and the section between the destination airspace and the drone's landing position is Although it is realized by autonomous flight by the drone itself, it is not limited to this example. For example, the drone 10 may autonomously fly all sections between the landing positions of the departure/arrival point and the destination without relying on remote control by the server device 50, or You may fly according to the remote control of the server apparatus 50 in all the sections between.

The wireless communication network 40 may be, for example, equipment conforming to the 4th generation mobile communication system or may be equipment conforming to the 5th generation mobile communication system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the drone 10. FIG. The drone 10 physically includes a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a storage 1003, a communication device 1004, an input device 1005, an output device 1006, a positioning device 1007, a sensor 1008, a flight drive mechanism 1009, and a bus connecting these. It is configured as a computer device. Note that in the following description, the term "apparatus" can be read as a circuit, device, unit, or the like. The hardware configuration of the drone 10 may be configured to include one or more of each device shown in the figure, or may be configured without some of the devices.

Each function in the drone 10 is performed by the processor 1001 by loading predetermined software (program) on hardware such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002, the processor 1001 performs calculations, the communication by the communication device 1004 is controlled, the memory 1002 and It is realized by controlling at least one of data reading and writing in the storage 1003 and controlling the positioning device 1007 , the sensor 1008 and the flight driving mechanism 1009 .

The processor 1001, for example, operates an operating system and controls the entire computer. The processor 1001 may be configured by a central processing unit (CPU) including interfaces with peripheral devices, a control unit, an arithmetic unit, registers, and the like. Also, for example, a baseband signal processing unit, a call processing unit, and the like may be implemented by the processor 1001 .

The processor 1001 reads programs (program codes), software modules, data, etc. from at least one of the storage 1003 and the communication device 1004 to the memory 1002, and executes various processes according to them. As the program, a program that causes a computer to execute at least part of the operations described below is used. The functional blocks of drone 10 may be implemented by a control program stored in memory 1002 and running on processor 1001 . Various types of processing may be executed by one processor 1001, but may also be executed by two or more processors 1001 simultaneously or sequentially. Processor 1001 may be implemented by one or more chips. Note that the program may be transmitted to the drone 10 via the wireless communication network 40 .

The memory 1002 is a computer-readable recording medium, and may be composed of at least one of, for example, ROM, EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM), RAM, and the like. The memory 1002 may also be called a register, cache, main memory (main storage device), or the like. The memory 1002 can store executable programs (program code), software modules, etc. to perform the methods of the present invention.

The storage 1003 is a computer-readable recording medium, for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc ROM), a hard disk drive, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk (for example, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a Blu-ray disk), smart card, flash memory (eg, card, stick, key drive), floppy disk, magnetic strip, and/or the like. Storage 1003 may also be called an auxiliary storage device. The storage 1003 stores various programs and data groups.

The processor 1001, memory 1002, and storage 1003 described above function as an example of the control device of the present invention.

The communication device 1004 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for communicating between computers via the wireless communication network 40, and is also called a network device, a network controller, a network card, a communication module, or the like. The communication device 1004 includes a high-frequency switch, duplexer, filter, frequency synthesizer, etc. in order to implement frequency division duplexing and time division duplexing. A transmitting/receiving antenna, an amplifier section, a transmitting/receiving section, a transmission line interface, etc. may be implemented by the communication device 1004 . The transceiver may be physically or logically separate implementations for the transmitter and receiver.

The input device 1005 is an input device that receives input from the outside, and includes, for example, keys, switches, and microphones. The output device 1006 is an output device that outputs to the outside, and includes, for example, a display device such as a liquid crystal display and a speaker. Note that the input device 1005 and the output device 1006 may be integrated.

The positioning device 1007 is hardware that measures the position of the drone 10, such as a GPS (Global Positioning System) device. The drone 10 flies from the departure/arrival point to the sky above the destination based on the positioning by the positioning device 1007 .

The sensor 1008 includes a ranging sensor that functions as altitude measurement means and landing position status confirmation means for the drone 10, a gyro sensor and direction sensor that function as attitude measurement means for the drone 10, an image sensor that functions as imaging means, and the like.

The flight drive mechanism 1009 includes hardware such as motors and propellers for the drone 10 to fly.

Each device such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002 is connected by a bus for communicating information. The bus may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using different buses between devices. In addition, the drone 10 includes a microprocessor, a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), a digital signal processor (DSP: Digital Signal Processor), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), a PLD (Programmable Logic Device), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), etc. hardware, and part or all of each functional block may be realized by the hardware. For example, processor 1001 may be implemented using at least one of these pieces of hardware.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the server device 50. As shown in FIG. The hardware configuration of the server device 50 may be configured to include one or more of the devices shown in FIG. 3, or may be configured without some of the devices. Further, the server device 50 may be configured by connecting a plurality of devices having different housings for communication.

The server device 50 is physically configured as a computer device including a processor 5001, a memory 5002, a storage 5003, a communication device 5004, and a bus connecting them. Each function in the server device 50 is performed by causing the processor 5001 to perform calculations, controlling communication by the communication device 5004, and controlling the and by controlling at least one of reading and writing of data in the storage 5003 . Each of these devices operates with power supplied from a power source (not shown). Note that in the following description, the term "apparatus" can be read as a circuit, device, unit, or the like.

A processor 5001, for example, operates an operating system to control the entire computer. The processor 5001 may be configured by a central processing unit (CPU) including interfaces with peripheral devices, a control unit, an arithmetic unit, registers, and the like. Also, for example, a baseband signal processing unit, a call processing unit, and the like may be implemented by the processor 5001 .

The processor 5001 reads programs (program codes), software modules, data, etc. from at least one of the storage 5003 and the communication device 5004 to the memory 5002, and executes various processes according to them. As the program, a program that causes a computer to execute at least part of the operations described below is used. The functional blocks of drone 10 may be implemented by a control program stored in memory 5002 and running on processor 5001 . Various types of processing may be executed by one processor 5001, but may also be executed by two or more processors 5001 simultaneously or sequentially. Processor 5001 may be implemented by one or more chips.

The memory 5002 is a computer-readable recording medium, and may be composed of at least one of ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and RAM, for example. The memory 5002 may also be called a register, cache, main memory (main storage device), or the like. The memory 5002 can store executable programs (program code), software modules, etc. for performing methods according to the present invention.

The storage 5003 is a computer-readable recording medium, for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM, a hard disk drive, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk (for example, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a Blu-ray (registered trademark) disk ), smart card, flash memory (eg, card, stick, key drive), floppy disk, magnetic strip, and/or the like. Storage 5003 may be called an auxiliary storage device. The storage 5003 stores at least programs and data groups for executing various processes described later.

The communication device 5004 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for communicating between computers via the wireless communication network 40, and is also called a network device, a network controller, a network card, a communication module, or the like.

Each device such as the processor 5001 and memory 5002 is connected by a bus for communicating information. The bus may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using different buses between devices.

The server device 50 may be configured including hardware such as a microprocessor, digital signal processor, ASIC, PLD, and FPGA, and part or all of each functional block may be realized by the hardware. For example, processor 5001 may be implemented using at least one of these pieces of hardware.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the drone 10. As shown in FIG. Each function realized by the drone 10 is performed by causing the processor 1001 to perform calculations, controlling the communication device 1004, and controlling the memory 1002 by loading predetermined software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002. and by controlling at least one of reading and writing of data in the storage 1003 . Specifically, in the drone 10, functions of an acquisition unit 11, an inspection unit 12, a determination unit 13, a presentation unit 14, and a landing control unit 15 are realized.

The acquisition unit 11 acquires various data from external devices such as the server device 50 . For example, the acquisition unit 11 acquires from the server device 50 various instructions and commands from the server device 50 as well as landing candidate position information regarding a plurality of landing candidate positions at the destination of the drone 10 . A landing candidate position is a candidate position at which the drone 10 lands at the destination. Specifically, the candidate landing positions are various structures and facilities at the destination, such as entrances, doors, balconies, gates, parking lots, warehouses, gardens, rooftops, passages, and under the eaves. It is likely to be provided.

Here, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a landing candidate position list corresponding to the landing candidate position information. In the landing candidate position list, each landing candidate position is associated with the presence or absence of the landing permission designated by the user residing at the destination of the drone 10 and the priority as the landing position of the drone 10. ing. In the example of FIG. 5, for example, in the destination identified by the identifier "D00125", among the predetermined landing candidate positions such as the entrance, the garden, the veranda, the roof, the outside of the gate, the inside of the gate, and the parking lot, the roof is excluded. Landing clearance has been given to the landing candidate position. The user gives landing permission in advance to a landing candidate position considered suitable for the drone 10 to land in his/her own home corresponding to the destination of the drone 10, and gives landing permission to the candidate landing position suitable for the drone 10 to land. Do not give landing clearance to candidate landing positions that you think are not possible. The user can access the server device 50 in advance using the user terminal 30 and register any content regarding the presence or absence of such landing permission. The order of priority in the landing candidate position list may be registered in advance by the user in the same manner as the presence or absence of landing permission, or may be determined in advance by the system operator.

This list of candidate landing positions is designated by each user for each destination and registered in the server device 50 . Get from Note that the landing candidate positions in the landing candidate position list are not limited to examples represented by names such as the entrance, the garden, the veranda, the roof, the gate outside, the gate inside, and the parking lot. A photographic image of the candidate landing position (for example, taken from a distance of about 1.5 m from the candidate landing position) or the relative position of the candidate landing position at the destination (a photograph of the entire destination taken from the air above the destination) an image showing each landing candidate position, etc.). Note that the identifiers of the destinations illustrated in FIG. 5 may be represented by regularly assigned character strings, or may be represented by location information (such as latitude and longitude) of the destinations.

Returning to the description of FIG. 4, after the drone 10 reaches the sky above the building designated as the destination of the drone 10, the inspection unit 12 uses the sensor 1008 (image sensor) of the drone 10 to image the entire site including the building. The candidate landing positions at the destination are examined based on the obtained image and the list of candidate landing positions at the destination. The inspection here means specifying where the candidate landing positions written in the candidate landing position list corresponding to the destination exist and what state they are in at the destination. Specifically, each landing candidate position is extracted from the image captured by the sensor 1008 based on the feature amount on the image of each landing candidate position. It is to detect by the sensor 1008 whether there is liquid or whether there is an obstacle.

Here, FIG. 6 is a bird's-eye view illustrating the structure of the building and its site, which is the destination of the drone 10. FIG. That is, the image is illustrated when the drone 10 captures the image below from the sky above the destination (for example, 20 m above) with the image sensor. There is a building B inside the site G corresponding to the destination. Building B and site G are adjacent to roads R1 and R2. In addition, another building B1 and its site G1 are also adjacent to the building B and site G. As shown in FIG. The site G includes, for example, a gate g, trees W, and a roof P of a parking lot. Note that the drone 10 (inspection unit 12) may inspect the landing candidate position by approaching the building by lowering the altitude to some extent from the sky above the destination. For example, when the drone 10 (inspection unit 12) attempts to inspect a landing candidate position called the entrance, the entrance (door) is lowered to a position where it can be recognized (a position approximately horizontal to the entrance door) before inspection. try.

Returning to the description of FIG. 4 , the determination unit 13 determines whether or not the drone 10 can land at each of the candidate landing positions based on the result of the inspection of the destination by the inspection unit 12 . Specifically, the determination unit 13 determines whether the drone 10 can land at each landing candidate position based on its levelness, flatness, whether there is liquid, or whether there is an obstacle. to judge whether The horizontality and flatness of the landing position are determined based on the outputs of the range sensor and image sensor of the sensor 1008 .
Also, whether or not there is liquid (typically water) or an obstacle at the landing position is determined based on the output of the image sensor of sensor 1008 . Note that the determination unit 13 may determine whether or not the drone 10 can land at a position determined with respect to the candidate landing positions. For example, the landing position for the candidate landing position of the garden is the center of the garden, the landing position for the candidate landing position of the parking lot is near the edge of the parking lot, and the landing position for the candidate landing position of the entrance is at the entrance. It may be predetermined such as before.

The presentation unit 14 presents the landing candidate positions determined by the determination unit 13 as possible to land to the user corresponding to the destination. At this time, the presentation unit 14 presents the landing candidate positions determined by the determination unit 13 as possible to land to the user in accordance with the order of priority. Specifically, the presentation unit 14 notifies the server device 50 of the landing candidate position determined by the determination unit 13 to be possible for landing, and presentation information about the landing candidate position is transmitted to the user terminal 30 via the server device 50. be. In the user terminal 30, this presentation information is presented to the user by means of display or the like.

Here, FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a screen displayed on the user terminal 30 based on the presentation information. In this presentation information, the landing candidate positions determined by the determination unit 13 to be landable are presented, for example, according to the priority assigned to each landing candidate position. Here, the screen is presented in the order of the entrance, the outside of the gate, the inside of the gate, the garden, the veranda, and the parking lot from the top of the screen in order of priority. The user operates the user terminal 30 and selects a desired landing position from the plurality of landing candidate positions thus presented. The candidate landing position selected as the landing position desired by the user is notified from the user terminal 30 to the drone 10 via the server device 50 . In the example of FIG. 7, all of the landing candidate positions determined by the determination unit 13 to be possible for landing are presented. You may do so. In addition, the candidate landing positions presented to the user are not limited to examples represented by names such as the entrance, the garden, the veranda, the roof, the gate outside, the gate inside, and the parking lot. A photographic image of the candidate landing position (for example, taken from a distance of about 1.5 m from the candidate landing position) or the relative position of the candidate landing position at the destination (a photograph of the entire destination taken from the air above the destination) an image showing each landing candidate position, etc.).

Returning to the description of FIG. 4, the landing control unit 15 controls the flight drive mechanism 1009 while checking the position and attitude of the drone 10 with the sensor 1008 to land the drone 10 at the candidate landing position selected by the user.

[motion]
Next, the processing during flight of the drone 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, the drone 10 starts flying from the departure/arrival point to the destination (step S01). After that, the drone 10 flies under the control of the server device 50 up to the destination address specified at the time of the package delivery request.

When the drone 10 reaches the sky above the destination (step S02; YES), the inspection unit 12 inspects the landing candidate position at the destination based on the image of the destination captured by the sensor 1008 (image sensor). (Step S03). At this time, as described above, the drone 10 (inspection unit 12) may inspect the landing candidate position in a state in which the drone 10 (inspection unit 12) has lowered its altitude to some extent from the sky above the destination and has approached the building.

The determination unit 13 determines whether the drone 10 can land at each landing candidate position based on the inspection result of the inspection unit 12 . Specifically, the determination unit 13 identifies the horizontality and flatness of the landing position, whether or not there is liquid, or whether or not there is an obstacle, based on the output of the ranging sensor and image sensor of the sensor 1008. Then, it is determined whether or not the drone 10 can land (step S04).

The presenting unit 14 presents the presenting information to the user by transmitting the presenting information regarding the candidate landing position determined by the determining unit 13 as possible to land to the user terminal 30 of the user corresponding to the destination (step S05).

When the user selects one of the candidate landing positions presented to the user (step S06; YES), the landing control unit 15 lands the drone 10 at the selected candidate landing position (step S07). Note that if a predetermined period of time elapses without the user selecting a landing candidate position presented to the user, the drone 10 performs predetermined error processing such as notifying the user terminal 30 of the fact via the server device 50. , may proceed to the next destination or return to the base.

According to the embodiment described above, the landing possibility is determined for each of the landing candidate positions prepared in advance, and the drone 10 is landed at the landing candidate position desired by the user among the possible landing candidate positions. be able to. That is, it becomes possible to land the drone 10 at an appropriate position with respect to the destination.

[Modifications] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. The embodiment described above may be modified as follows. Also, two or more of the following modified examples may be combined for implementation.
[Modification 1] In the above-described embodiment, if a predetermined period of time has passed without the user selecting a landing candidate position presented to the user, the drone 10 notifies the user terminal 30 of the fact via the server device 50. After performing predetermined error processing, such as, it headed for the next destination or returned to the base. In this manner, when the user does not select a candidate landing position, another user acting as a substitute for the user may select a candidate landing position. In this case, the drone 10 or the server device 50 associates the identifier of the destination with the first user (for example, the householder who lives at the destination) and the second user (for example, the family who lives at the same destination) The communication address of the user terminal 30 is stored. Then, if the landing candidate position is not selected by the first user corresponding to the destination, the presentation unit 14 causes the determination unit 13 to determine that landing is possible for the second user corresponding to the destination. It presents candidate landing positions. That is, the presentation unit 14 notifies the server device 50 of the landing candidate position determined by the determination unit 13 to be possible for landing, and the user terminal 30 of the second user receives the presentation information about the landing candidate position via the server device 50. sent. At the user terminal 30 of the second user, this presentation information is presented to the user by means of display or the like. The second user operates his or her own user terminal 30 and selects a desired landing position from among the plurality of presented candidate landing positions. The candidate landing position selected as the landing position desired by the second user is notified from the user terminal 30 to the drone 10 via the server device 50 . The landing control unit 15 of the drone 10 lands the drone 10 at the landing candidate position selected by the second user. In this way, the chances that the drone 10 can land at the destination are increased, and the packages transported by the drone 10 can be delivered more quickly.

[Modification 2] In the above embodiment, the presentation unit 14 presents the landing candidate positions determined by the determination unit 13 as possible to the user in order of priority, and the user selects the desired landing position. was Instead of such an operation, the landing control unit 15 selects one of the candidate landing positions determined by the determination unit 13 as possible to land according to the priority, and controls the drone at the selected candidate landing position. 10 may be landed. Here, selecting the landing candidate positions in accordance with the order of priority means selecting the landing candidate position with the first priority, or, for example, selecting the landing candidate position that is the widest among the landing candidate positions corresponding to a predetermined number of priorities from the top. It includes selecting landing candidate positions extracted according to the priority according to conditions other than the priority, such as selecting . In this way, the system can automatically land the drone 10 without user selection.

[Modification 3] The priority of the above embodiment and modification may dynamically change according to various conditions. For example, the priority varies depending on the weather before or after the drone 10 lands, the time zone when the drone 10 lands, the attributes of the cargo transported by the drone 10, or the environment of the destination of the drone 10. may be

An example of different priorities depending on the weather when the drone 10 lands or before and after landing is, for example, after a predetermined period of time (for example, one hour) based on weather forecast information acquired by the drone 10 from a predetermined weather forecast information providing device later), or if the humidity detected by the humidity sensor mounted on the drone 10 is equal to or higher than the threshold, the priority of the landing candidate position with a roof is raised, or the candidate landing position without a roof For example, lowering the priority of Also, for example, if the wind volume and wind direction above the threshold can be predicted based on the weather forecast information obtained by the drone 10 from a predetermined weather forecast information providing device, priority is given to landing candidate positions with obstacles such as walls on the windward side. An example of raising the order (however, if the weight of the parcel is equal to or greater than the threshold, the priority is not changed) can be considered.

As an example of different priorities depending on the time zone when the drone 10 lands, for example, in the case of a time zone close to sunset (for example, after 18:00), from the viewpoint of safety, the road adjacent to the destination can be seen. For example, lowering the priority of a candidate landing position such as a parking lot or entrance that is easy to reach, or in the early morning hours (for example, 5 to 6 o'clock), the priority of a candidate landing position such as an entrance that is easily noticed by a user going out. An example is to raise

Examples of priorities that differ depending on the attributes of the cargo to be transported by the drone 10 include, for example, when the price or importance of the cargo is high, from the viewpoint of safety, parking lots or For example, lowering the priority of the landing candidate position such as the entrance, or when the appearance color of the luggage and the color of the landing candidate position are in a similar range, the priority of the landing candidate position from the viewpoint of inconspicuousness of the luggage One example is lowering the

Examples of different priorities depending on the environment of the destination of the drone 10 include, for example, referring to a crime map in the vicinity of the destination where the crime risk is above a certain level, or where there is a large-scale facility such as a school in the vicinity of the destination. In such a case, from the viewpoint of safety, it is conceivable to lower the priority of a candidate landing position such as a parking lot or an entrance that can be easily seen from the road adjacent to the destination. In addition, when animals such as dogs and cats are at the destination, it is conceivable to give priority to high candidate landing positions (such as verandas) that animals cannot reach and candidate landing positions that are far from areas where animals are present. In addition, an example of lowering the priority of a candidate landing position where there is a car stop is also conceivable.

As described above, when the drone 10 lands, the weather before and after that, the time zone when the drone 10 lands, the attribute of the package to be transported by the drone 10, or the environment of the destination of the drone 10. The possibility of landing the drone 10 at the landing candidate position increases. In the present invention, the expression lowering the priority includes the meaning of excluding from the candidate landing positions.

[Modification 4] In addition, the priority in the above embodiment and modification may vary depending on whether or not the user is at home at the destination. In this case, the drone 10 includes a first determination unit that determines whether or not the user corresponding to the destination is located at the destination. This is the order of priority according to whether or not When the user corresponding to the destination is located at the destination, the priority of the landing candidate position that is easy for the user to access, such as in front of the entrance or the window, is raised, and the user is not located at the destination. In this case, from the viewpoint of safety, it is conceivable to raise the priority of landing candidate positions such as a garden that is hard to see from the road adjacent to the destination or a veranda that is difficult for others to access.

For example, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the drone 10 notifies the user terminal 30 via the server device 50 of whether or not the user corresponding to the destination is located at the destination. An example may be considered in which the user selects whether or not the user is at home in response to the notification, and notifies the drone 10 of the selection result from the user terminal 30 via the server device 50 . Also, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the drone 10 or via the server device 50 calls the fixed telephone of the destination, and if there is a response from the fixed telephone, it is determined that the person is at home. Alternatively, a method may be considered in which a reply is made by operating the fixed telephone as to whether or not it is possible to receive the parcel. In the latter method of having the user reply, a smart phone such as the user terminal 30 or a mobile phone may be used instead of using a fixed telephone. In addition, when the user permits the application of the user terminal 30 to acquire position information, and the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the drone 10 notifies the user terminal 30 via the server device 50 to that effect. However, if the location information of the user terminal 30 is included in a range that is substantially the same as the location of the destination, a method of determining that the user is located at the destination is also conceivable. In addition, each time the user enters or exits a building corresponding to the destination, the entry/exit state is manually input to the application of the user terminal 30, and when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the user terminal 30 may be acquired via the server device 50 from the Also, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, it monitors the power usage status at the destination using smart meter technology or the like, and estimates whether the user is at the destination. For example, if the amount of power usage within a certain period of time is equal to or greater than a threshold value, or if the amount of power usage fluctuates significantly beyond the threshold value within a certain period of time, it is determined that the user is located at the target location. Also, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the drone 10 captures an image of the interior of the building from the balcony or window of the building corresponding to the destination with an image sensor, and detects whether the lights are on or there are people. A method of determining such as by image recognition is also conceivable. In addition, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, the drone 10 makes a sound in front of the entrance, etc., and then the image is captured by the image sensor. A method of determining that the user is at the destination is also conceivable. Also, when the drone 10 approaches the vicinity of the destination, it flies around the building of the destination and takes an image with the image sensor. It is also possible to consider a method of determining that Also, a light is mounted on the drone 10, light is emitted toward the window of the building corresponding to the destination, and an image is captured by the image sensor. A method of determining that the In addition, the drone 10 communicates with the intercom of the building corresponding to the destination (or presses the button of the intercom), sounds the intercom, performs imaging with the image sensor, and if there is a reaction action from the user, the user reaches the destination. A method of judging that the object exists is also conceivable. As described above, the drone 10 can be landed at an appropriate landing candidate position depending on whether or not the user is at the destination.

[Modification 5] The priority may change according to the level of traffic around the destination. In this case, the drone 10 has a second determination unit that determines the number or density of people in a predetermined area including the destination, and the priority is determined according to the determination result determined by the second determination unit. becomes. The determination of the number or density of people in a predetermined area including the destination is, for example, a method in which the drone 10 performs image recognition of the state of pedestrian traffic in the vicinity of the destination from the sky, and determines whether or not the pedestrian traffic is equal to or greater than a threshold. Alternatively, a determination method using statistical information such as mobile space statistics (registered trademark) provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc., and a determination method using traffic congestion information provided by a congestion information providing device are conceivable. For example, if the number or density of people in a given area including the destination is above a threshold, the priority of landing candidate positions such as parking lots or entrances, which are easily visible from the road adjacent to the destination, is lowered from the viewpoint of safety. can be considered.

It should be noted that at least two or more of the conditions for changing the priority in Modifications 3 to 5 described above may be used in combination. For example, when the time of landing is after 18:00 and the user is not at the destination, when the time of landing is before 18:00 and the user is not at the destination, and when the time of landing is is after 18:00 and the user is at the destination, and the landing time is before 18:00 and the user is at the destination. Of course, this is only an example, and various combinations of two or more conditions are conceivable.

[Modification 6] Landing control of the drone 10 is performed by the so-called edge computing (control by the drone), cloud computing (control by the server device), or cooperation of both (by the drone and the server device), as described in the embodiment. control). Therefore, the control device of the present invention may be provided in the server device 50. FIG.

[Modification 7] The unmanned flying object is not limited to what is called a drone, and may be of any structure and form as long as it can transport cargo. In addition, the present invention can be applied to a manned flying object that has a human on board but that operates automatically.

[Modification 8] In the above-described embodiment, the flying object (drone 10) that transports the cargo lands at the destination. However, the present invention can also be applied to the landing of an aircraft in a scene in which the cargo is received and held at the landing position and taken off to the next destination. Further, the purpose or application of the flying object is not limited to the transport of luggage as exemplified in the embodiment, but may be any purpose such as measuring or photographing some object. That is, the present invention can be applied when the vehicle lands regardless of the flight purpose or application of the vehicle.

[Modification 9] In the above-described embodiment, an image sensor is used as an imaging means provided in the sensor 1008 of the drone 10 in the inspection of the destination. The destination inspection method is not limited to the example of the embodiment, for example, a technology called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), a technology called SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), etc. A technique capable of sensing the shape, size, or the like can be used. That is, the sensor 1008 has a sensor capable of inspecting the candidate landing positions at the destination, and the determination unit 13 determines whether or not the drone 10 can land at each candidate landing position based on the inspection result. good.

[Modification 10] In the above embodiment, the determination unit 13 determines whether the flying object can land based on the levelness, flatness, presence of liquid, or presence of obstacles at the landing position. However, the determination may be made based on conditions other than these. Specifically, for example, the material and temperature of the landing position, or whether or not there is snow cover, etc. can be considered. The material of the landing position and the presence or absence of snow coverage are determined based on the output of the image sensor of the sensor 1008, for example. Also, the temperature of the landing position is determined based on the output of the non-contact temperature sensor included in sensor 1008 . In this way, the determination unit 13 determines based on at least one of a plurality of types of landing position conditions, such as levelness, flatness, material, temperature, or whether or not there is liquid or snow at the landing position. can be used to determine whether the aircraft can land.

[Other Modifications] The block diagrams used in the description of the above embodiments show blocks in functional units. These functional blocks (components) are implemented by any combination of hardware and/or software. Further, means for realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be implemented by one device physically and/or logically coupled, or may be implemented by two or more physically and/or logically separated devices directly and/or indirectly. These multiple devices may be physically connected (eg, wired and/or wirelessly).
For example, one computer may have the functions of the user terminals 30 to 32 exemplified in the embodiments. In short, each function exemplified in FIG. 5 may be provided in any of the devices constituting the drone management system 1 as an information processing system. For example, if the server device 50 can directly control the drone 10 , the server device 50 may have a function corresponding to the processing unit 313 and directly restrict the flight of the drone 10 .

Each aspect/embodiment described herein includes LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-A (LTE-Advanced), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4G, 5G, FRA (Future Radio Access), W-CDMA (registered trademark), GSM (registered trademark), CDMA2000, UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, UWB (Ultra-WideBand), It may be applied to systems utilizing Bluetooth®, other suitable systems, and/or advanced next generation systems based thereon.

The order of the processing procedures, sequences, flowcharts, etc. of each aspect/embodiment described in this specification may be changed as long as there is no contradiction. For example, the methods described herein present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not limited to the specific order presented. Each aspect/embodiment described herein may be used alone, in combination, or switched between implementations. In addition, the notification of predetermined information (for example, notification of “being X”) is not limited to being performed explicitly, but may be performed implicitly (for example, not notifying the predetermined information). good too.

The information or parameters described in this specification may be represented by absolute values, relative values from a predetermined value, or other corresponding information.

The terms "determining" and "determining" used herein may encompass a wide variety of actions. "Determining", "determining" means, for example, judging, calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., table , searching in a database or other data structure), ascertaining as "determining" or "determining". In addition, "judgment" and "decision" are used for receiving (e.g., receiving information), transmitting (e.g., transmitting information), input, output, access, and so on. (accessing) (for example, accessing data in memory) may include deeming that something has been "determined" or "determined". In addition, "judgement" and "decision" are considered to be "judgment" and "decision" by resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, comparing, etc. can contain. In other words, "judgment" and "decision" may include considering that some action is "judgment" and "decision".

The present invention may be provided as an information processing method or as a program. Such a program may be provided in a form recorded on a recording medium such as an optical disc, or may be provided in a form in which the program is downloaded to a computer via a network such as the Internet, installed, and made available. It is possible.

Software, instructions, etc. may be transmitted and received via a transmission medium. For example, the software can be used to access websites, servers, or other When transmitted from a remote source, these wired and/or wireless technologies are included within the definition of transmission media.

The information, signals, etc. described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description may refer to voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, light fields or photons, or any of these. may be represented by a combination of

Any reference to elements using the "first", "second", etc. designations used herein does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. These designations may be used herein as a convenient method of distinguishing between two or more elements. Thus, references to first and second elements do not imply that only two elements may be employed therein, or that the first element must precede the second element in any way.

"Means" in the configuration of each device described above may be replaced with "unit", "circuit", "device", or the like.

To the extent that "including," "comprising," and variations thereof are used herein or in the claims, these terms, as well as the term "comprising," are inclusive. intended to be Furthermore, the term "or" as used in this specification or the claims is not intended to be an exclusive OR.

Throughout this disclosure, where articles have been added by translation, e.g., a, an, and the in English, these articles are used unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It shall include plural things.

Although the present invention has been described in detail above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein. The present invention can be implemented with modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention defined by the claims. Accordingly, the descriptions herein are for the purpose of illustration and description, and are not intended to have any limiting meaning with respect to the present invention.

1: drone management system, 10: drone, 11: acquisition unit, 12: inspection unit, 13: determination unit, 14: presentation unit, 15: landing control unit, 30: user terminal, 40: wireless communication network, 50: server Device, 1001: Processor, 1002: Memory, 1003: Storage, 1004: Communication device, 1005: Input device, 1006: Output device, 1007: Positioning device, 1008: Sensor, 1009: Flight drive mechanism, 50: Server device, 5001 : processor, 5002: memory, 5003: storage, 5004: communication device.

Claims

an acquisition unit that acquires information about a plurality of candidate landing positions at the destination of the aircraft;
a judgment unit for judging whether or not the flying object can land at each of the landing candidate positions based on the results of inspection of the destination by the flying object that has reached the destination based on the information; ,
a landing control unit that lands the flying object at one of the candidate landing positions selected from the candidate landing positions determined to be landable.
a presenting unit that presents the landing candidate position determined by the determining unit to be landable to a user corresponding to the destination;
2. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the landing control unit lands the flying object at a landing candidate position selected by the user from among the presented landing candidate positions.
3. The control device according to claim 2, wherein the presenting unit presents the landing candidate positions determined by the determining unit as possible to land to the user in accordance with the order of priority.
The presentation unit determines that the second user corresponding to the destination can land by the determination unit when the landing candidate position is not selected by the first user corresponding to the destination. Presenting the landing candidate position obtained,
The control device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the landing control section causes the aircraft to land at the landing candidate position selected by the second user.
The landing control section selects one of the landing candidate positions determined by the determining section to be possible for landing according to priority, and lands the flying object at the selected landing candidate position. 2. A control device according to claim 1.
The priorities differ depending on the weather before or after the landing of the flying object, the time period when the flying object lands, the attributes of the cargo to be transported by the flying object, or the environment of the destination. The control device according to claim 3 or 5, characterized in that:
7. The priority according to any one of claims 3, 5, and 6, wherein the priority is a priority according to whether or not a user corresponding to the destination is located at the destination. controller.
8. The priority according to any one of claims 3, 5, 6, or 7, wherein the priority is a priority according to a determination result regarding the number or density of people within a predetermined area including the destination. Control device as described.
The determination unit determines whether or not the aircraft can land based on levelness, flatness, material, temperature, or presence of liquid or snow at the candidate landing position. A control device according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
to the computer,
obtaining information about a plurality of candidate landing positions at the vehicle's destination;
determining whether or not the flying object can land at each of the landing candidate positions based on the results of inspection of the destination by the flying object that has reached the destination based on the information;
A program for executing a step of landing the flying object at any point selected from the landing candidate positions determined to be landable.