843 results about "Flight controller" patented technology

A system and method for automatically varying the flight envelope of an aircraft based upon the material health of the aircraft and the flight environment is provided. The system includes a plurality of structural health monitoring and load sensors that determine the approximate size and the approximate location of the damage. The system performs residual strength calculations for individual aircraft components to determine the overall aircraft residual strength. The system uses these calculations to determine a maximum flight envelope based on the overall aircraft residual strength, and transmits this information to the flight controller and optionally to the pilot.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle obstacle avoidance controlling method. An unmanned aerial vehicle subsystem and a ground station subsystem are arranged, the unmanned aerial vehicle subsystem comprises an embedded flight controller and an airborne terminal of a wireless data chain, a satellite positioning receiver and a height sensor are arranged in the embedded flight controller, the ground subsystem comprises an embedded monitoring computer and a ground terminal of the wireless data chain, and an electronic map containing geographic information of obstacles is arranged in the embedded monitoring computer. On the electronic map in the embedded monitoring computer of the ground station subsystem, the geographic information of the obstacles in a flight area is determined, virtual obstacle polygonal cylinders are established, shape data of the virtual obstacle polygonal cylinders are downloaded in the embedded flight controller which obtains the current position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and calculates space correlation between the unmanned aerial vehicle and the obstacle polygonal cylinders, track-shifting instruction of the unmanned aerial vehicle is generated, and automatic obstacle avoidance of the unmanned aerial vehicle is realized.

A drive station includes two drives connected via drive transmissions to one or more flaps or slats of a flap / slat group. The drives may be mechanically coupled to a rotational shaft, with a shaft brake arranged thereon. Guide transmissions are connected to the shaft and to respective flaps or slats of the flap / slat group. Alternatively, the two drives are not mechanically coupled, but are merely electrically or electronically synchronized. Each flap / slat group can be actuated individually and independently of the other groups by actuation commands provided by a central control unit connected to the drives and to a flight controller. Position sensors provide actual position feedback. Each flap / slat is driven by two transmissions, namely two drive transmissions, or two guide transmissions, or one drive transmission and one guide transmission. A redundant drive path is ensured if a component fails.

The invention discloses a multiple obstacle-avoidance control method of an unmanned plane used for electric wire inspection. The multiple obstacle-avoidance control method of the unmanned plane used for the electric wire inspection comprises an unmanned plane subsystem and a ground station subsystem. The unmanned plane subsystem comprises an embedded flight control device, a position detection module, an information processing module and an airborne terminal of a wireless data chain. The position detection module comprises a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver, an electromagnetic field sensor and ultrasonic ranging sensors, wherein the ultrasonic ranging sensors are symmetrically arranged on the periphery of a machine body of the unmanned plane. The ground station subsystem comprises a ground terminal of the wireless data chain and an embedded supervisory control computer. The embedded supervisory control computer is loaded with a data base, wherein the data base contains an electric transmission line electromagnetic field distribution model and an electric transmission line space three-dimensional model. According to the multiple obstacle-avoidance control method of the unmanned plane used for the electric wire inspection, a security constraint area for the operation of the unmanned plane is built, the information processing module is adopted for integration of unmanned plane position information provided by an information detection module, relative distance between the unmanned plane and an electric transmission line is detected, and multiple obstacle-avoidance of the unmanned plane used for the electric wire inspection is achieved.

The invention discloses a nonlinear output feedback flight control method for a quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle. The nonlinear output feedback flight control method for the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle comprises the following steps of: (1) determining a kinematic model of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle under an inertial coordinate system and a kinematic model of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle under a body coordinate system; (2) designing an attitude control system of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle; defining tracking errors of the attitude angle and the angular speed of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle; designing a filter to perform online estimation on an angular speed signal and obtain an open loop dynamic equation of the tracking errors; and estimating unknown functions in the open loop dynamic equation by adopting neural network feedforward, and designing attitude system control output of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle; and (3) designing a height control subsystem of the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle; defining height tracking errors and defining auxiliary filtering tracking errors; and designing a height subsystem controller. According to the nonlinear output feedback flight control method for the quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle disclosed by the invention, the polarity problem is effectively avoided, a wide-range stable control effect is achieved, the robust performance of the system is greatly improved, and the dependence of a flight controller on an airborne sensor is greatly reduced.

A system and method are provided for controlling a plurality of aircraft to lift a common payload. The system comprises of multiple aircraft tethered to a common payload, where the group of said aircraft form a swarm that is controlled by a pilot station. Each said aircraft is autonomously stabilized and guided through a swarm avionics unit, which further comprises of sensor, communication, and processing hardware. At the said pilot station, a pilot remotely enters payload destinations, which is processed and communicated to each said aircraft. The method for controlling a multi-aircraft lifting system comprises of first inputting the desired location of the payload, and then determining a series of intermediary payload waypoints. Next, these payload waypoints are used by the swarm waypoint controller to generate individual waypoints for each aircraft; a flight controller for each aircraft moves the aircraft to these individual waypoints.

The invention relates to an intelligent pesticide applying system and a control method of a plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle. The system is provided with a meteorological station used for measuring environment parameters and sending collected data to a ground station. The ground station sends the environment parameters, pesticide applying control parameters and control commands to an onboard pesticide applying controller on the plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle through a wireless data transmission module. Meanwhile, a flight controller measures real-time geographic information parameters and flight parameters of the plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle and sends collected data to the onboard pesticide applying controller in real time. The onboard pesticide applying controller conducts autonomous programmed decisions by combining the flight parameters, the environment parameters, the pesticide applying control parameters and the control commands, a miniature diaphragm pump and two centrifugal atomization disc sprayers are independently controlled, and therefore the pesticide liquid flow, the mist drop diameters and spraying width parameters of the plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle are intelligently controlled. By means of the intelligent pesticide applying system and the control method, it is guaranteed that pesticide in an operation area is quantitative and evenly sprayed in a fully covering mode, the phenomena of repeated spraying and miss-spraying of the pesticide are avoided, the pesticide applying quality is improved, and effective prevention and treatment of farmland pest and disease damage are guaranteed.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle video tracking shooting system and method. The system comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle which comprises a vehicle body, a pan-tilt connected with the vehicle body and a camera device arranged on the pan-tilt; a flight controller which is arranged on the unmanned aerial vehicle and controls the motion of the pan-tilt and the flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and an image data processing module which is arranged on the unmanned aerial vehicle, is connected with the camera device and the flight controller, receives image videos shot by the camera device and carries out image data processing, and transmits the processing result to the flight controller, which then, controls the pan-tilt and the unmanned aerial vehicle to carry out tracking shooting according to the processing result. The scheme can carry out identification and tracking shooting on a target accurately and efficiently; and the structure and steps are simple.

The invention relates to a sensor and unmanned aerial vehicle intelligent perception control technology, so as to realize the intelligent perception of an unmanned aerial vehicle to the surrounding environment. The system can verify other autonomous localization algorithms and target recognition algorithms to improve the research efficiency of the intelligent perception technology. According to the unmanned aerial vehicle intelligent perception system and method based on multiple sensors, the system comprises a laser radar, an RGB-D visual sensor, an IMU inertial measurement unit, an embedded airborne processor and a flight controller; the laser radar is used to measure the distance information of the surrounding environment; the RGB-D visual sensor collects the distance information and image information of the surrounding environment; the laser radar collects 2D point cloud data, while the RGB-D visual sensor collects 3D point cloud data; the IMU inertial measurement unit is a device which measures the three-axis attitude angle and the acceleration of the device; and the embedded airborne processor comprises two independent modules of autonomous positioning and target recognition. The unmanned aerial vehicle intelligent perception system and method based on multiple sensors are mainly used for unmanned aerial vehicle control.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle automatic obstacle avoidance flight system based on a panoramic stereo imaging device. The unmanned aerial vehicle automatic obstacle avoidance flight system comprises an image acquisition module, a navigation module, a central processing unit module and a flight controller module, wherein the image acquisition module is used for collecting omni-directional stereoscopic scenes through the refraction and reflection type panoramic stereo imaging device; the navigation module is used for providing geographical coordinate information; the central processing unit module is used for conducting obstacle point detection and judgment and extraction of effective flight path obstacle points on the omni-directional stereoscopic scenes obtained by the image acquisition module according to the geographical coordinate information provided by the navigation module and designing an optimal fight path; the flight controller module is used for controlling an execution mechanism module on an unmanned aerial vehicle to conduct corresponding flight actions in real time according to the optimal fight path designed by the central processing unit module. The unmanned aerial vehicle automatic obstacle avoidance flight system based on the panoramic stereo imaging device can effectively plan the optimal fight path for the unmanned aerial vehicle in a three-dimensional environment.

An autonomous guided parachute system for cargo drops that divides the requirements of guidance and soft landing into separate parachutes. Said invention includes a high wing-loaded ram air parachute for guidance, a larger round parachute for soft landing, a harness / container system, flight computer, position sensors and actuation system. The system is dropped from an airplane. A predetermined period of drogue fall ensures a stable position prior to deploying the guidance parachute. The flight controller determines a heading to intersect with an area substantially above the desired target and controls the guidance parachute via pneumatic actuators connected to the parachutes steering lines to fly on that heading. At a minimum altitude prior to the system's impact with the ground the flight computer transitions the system from the fast high performance guidance parachute to a larger landing parachute by releasing the guidance parachute to static line extract and deploy the landing parachute. If the system reaches a position substantially above target area prior to the parachute transition altitude the flight computer controls the system into a spiral dive or other rapid altitude dropping maneuver until the transition altitude is reached. Once transitioned to the landing parachute the system descends for a brief period unguided under the landing parachute until touchdown.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising a RGBD camera, a flight control unit and a processor, wherein the processor is in connection with the RGBD camera and the flight control unit; the RGBD camera is used for obtaining the RGBD image information of a target in real time in a flight process, the RGBD image information including R (red), G (green) and B (blue) pixel information and corresponding depth information; the processor is used for processing the R,G, B pixel information in real time so as to identify the target, and obtaining the real time distance with the target according to the depth information corresponding to the target; the flight control unit is used for adjusting the flight posture of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the real time distance, allowing the RGBD camera to perform tracking shooting on the target. According to the mode, the unmanned aerial vehicle can automatically realize target tracking shooting.

A six degree-of-freedom trajectory linearization controller (TLC) architecture (30) for a fixed-wing aircraft (46) is set forth. The TLC architecture (30) calculates nominal force and moment commands by dynamic inversion of the nonlinear equations of motion. A linear time-varying (LTV) tracking error regulator provides exponential stability of the tracking error dynamics and robustness to model uncertainty and error. The basic control loop includes a closed-loop, LTV stabilizing controller (12), a pseudo-inverse plant model (14), and a nonlinear plant model(16). Four of the basic control loops (34, 36, 40, 42) are nested to form the TLC architecture (30).

The invention discloses tracking flying control system and method of a six-rotor unmanned helicopter. The six-rotor unmanned helicopter of the six-rotor unmanned helicopter comprises an onboard part and a ground station control part; the onboard part comprises a six-rotor flying platform and a flying controller; the ground station control part comprises a measuring control terminal with the wireless transmission function. The system has an automatic control mode and a manual control mode and has the characteristics of being small in size and light in weight. The invention further discloses a control method of the six-rotor unmanned helicopter of the six-rotor unmanned helicopter. The method is that the control output is calculated by the closed-loop control algorithm to control an actuating mechanism to work. With the adoption of the method, the indoor tracking flying of the six-rotor unmanned helicopter is achieved, and the applicable scope of the multi-rotor unmanned helicopter is expanded; the social benefit and economic benefit are increased.

A capture drone is an unmanned flying object that flies in the air. The capture drone includes a capture net that captures other object in the air, a weight capture determining unit that detects that the capture net has captured the object, and an autonomous flight controller that controls a flight state of the capture drone to be an autonomous flight state not dependent on an operation signal from the outside if the weight capture determining unit detects the capture of the object.

The invention relates to methods and devices for aircraft's safe operation and is embodied in the form of a method and system for informing a user, for example an aircraft crew and / or a flight controller, on the probable penetration of the aircraft into dangerous areas of the vortex shedding of vortex generators which are located near the aircraft at a forecast time when the aircraft passes through a simulated control plane situated at a preventive distance in the direction of motion of the aircraft, said distance being calculated on a basis of a sufficient forecast period so that the aircraft carries out a flight evasive manoeuvre. The preventive system defines the trajectory and intensity of the vortex shedding of the vortex generators, the co-ordinates of intersecting points of the vortex sheddings with a control plane, the geometric parameters of the dangerous areas thereof (26, 27) according to danger criteria specified by a user, forms a warning area (28) in said control plane, an area of the forecast positions of the aircraft (25) and dangerous vortex shedding areas (26, 27) at a forecast time, follows up the events of crossing the warning area (28) and / or the area of the aircraft forecast positions (25) associated with the dangerous vortex shedding areas (26, 27) and draws attention of the user to said event with the aid of display devices (16, 17) and a visualisation device (18).

A drive station includes two drives connected via drive transmissions to one or more flaps or slats of a flap / slat group. The drives may be mechanically coupled to a rotational shaft, with a shaft brake arranged thereon. Guide transmissions are connected to the shaft and to respective flaps or slats of the flap / slat group. Alternatively, the two drives are not mechanically coupled, but are merely electrically or electronically synchronized. Each flap / slat group can be actuated individually and independently of the other groups by actuation commands provided by a central control unit connected to the drives and to a flight controller. Position sensors provide actual position feedback. Each flap / slat is driven by two transmissions, namely two drive transmissions, or two guide transmissions, or one drive transmission and one guide transmission. A redundant drive path is ensured if a component fails.

In a time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) of the present invention, a flight controller makes ions fly a loop orbit a predetermined number of turns, and an ion detector detects the ions at each turn of the flight. A flight time measurer measures the length of flight time of ions of a same mass to charge ratio at every turn, and a data processor constructs a spectrum of flight time. The data processor further computes the Fourier transformation of the spectrum, and determines the mass to charge ratio of the ions based on a frequency peak appearing in the Fourier transformation.

The invention discloses an unmanned plane system and method with capabilities of continuous locking and target tracking. The system comprises an unmanned plane, a remote controller matched with the unmanned plane, and an upper PC. The unmanned plane is provided with a GPS positioning module, a barometer, a gyroscope, a flight controller, a supersonic detector, and a PTZ mechanism with a camera. When the system is used for automatic cruising and target searching, the flight position is automatically adjusted in the process of automatic cruising. After the unmanned plane finds a target, the automatic cruising is finished, and the continuous locking and flight tracking of the target are carried out. The system not only can reduce the manpower and material resources in a target tracking task, also can improve the tracking efficiency and completes the tracking task.

The invention discloses a vision based steady object tracking control system for a rotor UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). The system comprises an airborne part, wherein the airborne part comprises a flight control unit of the rotor UAV, an ultrasonic ranging module and a visual navigation module; the visual navigation module comprises an image processor, a camera module and a two-axis brushless pan-tilt unit which is fixed under the rotor UAV; the camera module and the ultrasonic ranging module are both fixed on the two-axis brushless pan-tilt unit, and a lens of the camera module and the ultrasonic ranging module are both parallel to the horizontal plane. The invention further discloses a vision based steady object tracking control method for the rotor UAV. The airborne visual navigation module is used for automatically detecting a target characteristic indication and solving the practical relative error distance between the rotor UAV and a target object, and the problem that the rotor UAV cannot steadily track a moving object under the condition that the target object is shielded is particularly solved.

The invention relates to a flying platform for an agricultural unmanned plane, a control system of an agricultural unmanned plane, and a control method of an agricultural unmanned plane. The control system of an agricultural unmanned plane includes a global positioning system base station, a ground control station and a flying platform for an agricultural unmanned plane, wherein the flying platform for an agricultural unmanned plane includes a plane body, a flight controller, a wind resistant rotor and multifunctional wings; the flight controller, the wind resistant rotor and the multifunctional wings are arranged on the plane body; the multifunctional wings are each provided with a fixed wing flight mode and a multi-rotors flight mode, relative to the plane body; each multifunctional wing includes a fixed wing and multi-rotors on the fixed wing; the axis of the fixed wing is perpendicular to the axis of the plane body, and is connected with a steering engine on the plane body; the flight controller controls the steering engine to drive the fixed wing to rotate so as to switch the fixed wing flight mode and the multi-rotors flight mode; and the flight attitude of the flying platform can be balanced and stabilized by means of adjustment of the rotation direction and the speed of the wind resistant rotor. The invention also discloses a control method of the flying platform.

A small, reusable interceptor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), an avionics control system for the UAV, a design method for the UAV and a method for controlling the UAV, for interdiction of small scale air, water and ground threats. The UAV includes a high performance airframe with integrated weapon and avionics platforms. Design of the UAV first involves the selection of a suitable weapon, then the design of the interceptor airframe to achieve weapon aiming via airframe maneuvering. The UAV utilizes an avionics control system that is vehicle-centric and, as such, provides for a high degree of autonomous control of the UAV. A situational awareness processor has access to a suite of disparate sensors that provide data for intelligently (autonomously) carrying out various mission scenarios. A flight control processor operationally integrated with the situational awareness processor includes a pilot controller and an autopilot controller for flying and maneuvering the UAV.

The invention discloses a miniaturized unmanned aerial vehicle crop information obtaining and fertilization irrigation guiding apparatus and belongs to the technical field of crop monitoring, for solving the problems high cost and poor reliability existing in conventional crop monitoring. The apparatus comprises an information acquisition module, a ground sensor, a database, a ground station and an unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein the ground station carries out course planning and information acquisition point setting on a crop area to be detected; a flight controller of the unmanned aerial vehicle, according to a planned course, controlling flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and when the unmanned aerial vehicle arrives at information acquisition points, the information acquisition module acquires air indexes of the information acquisition points, and at the same time, performs hyperspectal shooting on crops at the information acquisition points so as to obtain growth information of the crops; the database stores data corresponding to the year with previous optimal output; the ground sensor is arranged at the crop area to be detected for measuring soil indexes; and the ground station, according to the air indexes acquired at the corresponding information acquisition points, the crop growth information and the soil indexes, makes a comparison with corresponding data in the database so as to obtain fertilization and irrigation instructions.

The invention provides an intelligent pesticide delivery unmanned helicopter, and belongs to the technical field of agriculture plant protection. The unmanned helicopter comprises a helicopter body frame, a rotor wing flight system and an undercarriage assembly, wherein the helicopter body frame is provided with an onboard electric system which comprises a flight control unit, a GPS (Global Position System), a course meter, a miniature inertia measurement assembly, a measurement and control link, a steering engine controller and a power supply system, wherein the communication end of the flight control unit is connected with the magnetic course meter, the miniature inertia measurement assembly, the steering engine controller and the GPS in a communication way; the communication end of the flight control unit communicates with a measurement and control ground station by an onboard radio station; the control output end of the flight control unit is connected with the steering engine controller which controls the rotor wing flight system; a pesticide delivery device composed of a pesticide box, a liquid pump, a spray boom and a sprayer is mounted in the middle of the helicopter body frame. The unmanned helicopter is capable of realizing automatic navigation flight and automatic control on pesticide delivery operation.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control method comprising the steps of making a UAV enter a fixed-height flight mode, acquiring the current flight height of the UAV, and controlling flight of the UAV according to the current flight height and the flight height set for the fixed-height flight mode. The invention further discloses a UAV control device. Automatic fixed-height flight is realized only by setting the fixed-height flight mode. The requirement on the control technology of flight controllers is lowered, and precise control is realized.

The invention discloses a fixed-wing automatic navigation flight control system and a using method thereof. The fixed-wing automatic navigation flight control system comprises an automatic navigation flight controller and ground station telemetry data monitoring software which are arranged on an aerocraft, wherein the automatic navigation flight controller comprises a central processing unit, a triaxial gyroscope, a triaxial acceleration sensor, a triaxial magnetic field sensor, a GPS (Global Positioning System) module, an air pressure sensor and a communication interface, the triaxial gyroscope, the triaxial acceleration sensor, the triaxial magnetic field sensor, the GPS (Global Positioning System) module, the air pressure sensor and the communication interface are respectively connected with the central processing unit, and a wireless receiving-transmitting device is mutually communicated with the central processing unit through the communicated interface; the ground station telemetry data monitoring software comprises a signal transfer plate, a data wireless transmission receiving-transmitting device, a remote controller receiver device and a USB transfer serial-port communication device, the data wireless transmission receiving-transmitting device, the remote controller receiver device and the USB transfer serial-port communication device are respectively connected with the signal transfer plate; the ground station telemetry data monitoring software is connected with the signal transfer plate through the USB transfer serial-port communication device; and the automatic navigation flight controller is communicated with the ground station telemetry data monitoring software through a wireless data transmission broadcasting station. The fixed-wing automatic navigation flight control system can accurately complete the preset flight mission and lengthen the control distance and range of a plane through a remote-control transfer control device, thereby ensuring high reliability and high stability of flight.

An aircraft has wings configured to twist during flight. Inboard and outboard propulsion devices, such as turbofans or other propulsors, are connected to each wing, and are spaced along the wing span. A flight controller independently controls thrust of the inboard and outboard propulsion devices to significantly change flight dynamics, including changing thrust of outboard propulsion devices to twist the wing, and to differentially apply thrust on each wing to change yaw and other aspects of the aircraft during various stages of a flight mission. One or more generators can be positioned upon the wing to provide power for propulsion devices on the same wing, and on an opposite wing.

The invention provides a quadrotor aircraft and a control method thereof. The quadrotor aircraft includes a body and an aircraft control module, and a navigation and inertial measurement module, a power module, a communication module and a motor drive module separately connected with the aircraft control module. The main controller module performs synthesis calculation of real-time flight attitude information and control information of the communication module fed back by the navigation and inertia measurement module to output motor control signals to control the motor drive module. The quadrotor aircraft of the invention can automatically adapt to changes of the external environment to modulate flight parameters to reach a predetermined control effect. In the control method, the flight controller module adopts a nerve-based fuzzy self-tuning PID control scheme to calculate a practical output variable to improve robustness of flight of the aircraft.

The invention relates to a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) man-machine interaction method based on binocular vision and deep learning. An embedded image processing platform and a binocular camera are carried on a UAV. The embedded image processing platform is connected to a flight controller through an interface. The UAV communicates with a ground station through the platform. The platform is provided with a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a convolutional neural network deep learning algorithm is run and parallel computing for an image is carried out during video capture of the camera. According to the invention, a convolutional neutral network is transplanted to the embedded platform with a dedicated GPU and the run speed becomes faster through parallel computing for speeding up the computation.