An unmanned ground effect vehicle for plant protection

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the technical field of aerial plant protection research, and specifically is an unmanned ground effect vehicle for plant protection. It includes a fuselage, wings, a spray system, a signal acquisition system, and a control system. The use of a cushion propeller, an airbag belt, and a dual-purpose propeller to assist in takeoff greatly shortens the takeoff distance and reaches the operating height more quickly; the use of an airbag belt instead of a tire can be applied to takeoff and landing on different terrains, which is more suitable for the operating requirements of the present invention; using the ground effect principle, the flight height of the present invention is only about 2 meters, and the flight height can be manually set, so that plant protection operations can be better performed, and there is a large amount of liquid carried, which improves the endurance; the spray rod angle is adjustable, and the nozzle angle can be changed according to different operating conditions to improve the droplet deposition effect.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of aerial plant protection research, and in particular is an unmanned ground effect vehicle for plant protection. Background Art

[0002] The use of aerial vehicles for crop protection operations is an increasingly hot research field recently. The aerial vehicles used are divided into two types: manned and unmanned. Manned aerial vehicles are mostly fixed-wing aircraft; unmanned aerial vehicles are single-rotor drones and multi-rotor drones.

[0003] Fixed-wing aircraft have the advantages of large liquid carrying capacity and long endurance, but the flying altitude of fixed-wing aircraft is too high, which can easily cause droplet drift and low pesticide utilization rate. Although drones fly at a low altitude and can effectively reduce droplet drift and increase pesticide utilization rate, drones have less liquid carrying capacity, short battery life, and weak endurance, and cannot effectively solve the problems existing in aerial plant preservation. Summary of the invention

[0004] In view of the above problems of aerial plant protection, the present invention proposes an unmanned ground effect vehicle for plant protection. The present invention can adapt to take-off and landing in different terrains, greatly reduces the take-off distance, and is suitable for plant protection operations.

[0005] A plant protection unmanned ground effect vehicle, characterized by comprising a fuselage, wings, a spray system, a signal collection system, and a control system.

[0006] The fuselage includes the upper fuselage and the lower fuselage, and the upper fuselage is further divided into three parts: the head, the middle, and the tail. In the lower fuselage, airbag belts are symmetrically arranged on both sides, and the space formed between the two airbag belts is a pressurized air cavity; a cushioning flow channel is arranged at the head of the upper fuselage to connect to the lower fuselage, and a cushioning propeller is arranged in the cushioning flow channel; a propulsion propeller is arranged at the tail of the upper fuselage, and a propeller direction change control box is installed on both sides of the tail, and two dual-purpose propellers are connected to the two propeller direction change control boxes respectively; a front engine is arranged at the front of the middle of the upper fuselage, and the power of the front engine is transmitted forward to the front gearbox, and then respectively transmitted to the two centrifugal fans arranged on both sides of the front gearbox and the cushioning propeller arranged at the head; a rear engine is arranged at the rear of the middle of the upper fuselage, and the power of the rear engine is transmitted backward to the rear gearbox, and then respectively transmitted to the propulsion propeller and the dual-purpose propeller arranged at the tail.

[0007] The wing includes a ground effect wing and a flying wing. The ground effect wing is directly installed on both sides of the fuselage, and the flying wing is installed on the outside of the ground effect wing.

[0008] The spray system includes a medicine box, a pump, an air duct, a spray rod and an electrostatic spray head. The medicine box is located in the middle of the upper part of the fuselage and is connected to the pump located on the left side of the rear engine. The pump is powered by the rear engine through the rear gearbox. The electrostatic spray head is installed on the spray rod and fixed on the air duct. The air duct is fixed on the center line of the lower surface of the ground effect wing and is provided with wind power by a centrifugal fan. The various parts of the spray system are connected by liquid pipes.

[0009] The information collection system includes an obstacle avoidance sensor and a speed sensor installed at the upper head of the fuselage, a height sensor and a target sensor installed at the front end of the lower fuselage, and an anemometer installed under the wing and in front of the air duct.

[0010] The control system is located in the front middle of the upper part of the fuselage, and includes the aircraft flight control system, spray control system and remote control system. The flight control system connects and controls the pad propeller, centrifugal fan, propulsion propeller, dual-purpose propeller and propeller direction control box; the spray control system connects and controls the pump and electrostatic nozzle; the remote control system includes a ground display and controller.

[0011] The airbag belt reduces the impact of the ground on the ground effect vehicle during takeoff and landing. An airbag belt exhaust hole is provided under the airbag belt, and a pressure valve is provided inside the exhaust hole. The pressure valve controls the switch by the balance between spring force and gas pressure. When the airbag belt pressure is higher than the spring force, the exhaust hole opens to form a high-pressure impact airflow, shortening the takeoff distance of the aircraft and assisting the aircraft in flying.

[0012] The air duct is provided with an air jet hole at the position where the electrostatic nozzle is installed. Wind is ejected from the air duct air jet hole to form auxiliary wind to assist the droplets sprayed by the electrostatic nozzle to run to the target body, thereby increasing the droplet penetration, reducing drift, and performing secondary atomization of the droplets to improve the uniformity of droplet deposition.

[0013] There are two forms of dual-purpose propellers. During takeoff, the propellers point vertically downward, generating downward wind to help the ground effect vehicle leave the ground; during flight, the propellers point horizontally backward, generating backward wind to assist flight; the speeds of the two dual-purpose propellers can be controlled separately, and when their speeds are different, the aircraft steering function is implemented; the change of state of the dual-purpose propellers is controlled by the propeller direction change control box.

[0014] The propeller direction change control box includes a power input shaft, an intermediate shaft, a power output shaft and a hydraulic cylinder. The power input shaft is connected to the rear gearbox, the power output shaft is connected to the dual-purpose propeller, the intermediate shaft is located between the power input shaft and the power output shaft, the intermediate shaft, the power input shaft and the power output shaft are assembled through gear meshing, the two ends of the hydraulic cylinder are fixed on the power input shaft and the power output shaft respectively, and the shape of the dual-purpose propeller is changed by controlling the extension and contraction of the hydraulic cylinder.

[0015] The flight control system can not only control the centrifugal fan, propulsion propeller, lift propeller and dual-purpose propeller to automatically adjust the speed, altitude and avoid obstacles based on the information collected by the obstacle avoidance sensors, speed sensors and altitude sensors of the information collection system, but also manually set the flight conditions through the remote control system.

[0016] The spray control system can adjust the flow of the pump and thus the nozzle flow according to the information collected by the speed sensor and the target sensor to achieve precise target spraying. The spray conditions can also be manually set through the remote control system.

[0017] The spray control system also includes a nozzle angle self-adjustment system, which includes an anemometer, a rear engine, a rear gearbox, a processor installed in the rear half of the upper middle part of the fuselage, a clutch installed on one side of the processor and connected to it, an air duct, a spray rod and an electrostatic nozzle. The anemometer collects wind speed information under the wing, and after analysis and processing by the processor, controls the clutch to engage or disengage to control the rotation of the air duct, driving the nozzle to change its spray angle so that the droplets are better deposited on the crops. The power for the rotation of the air duct is generated by the rear engine and transmitted to the clutch through the rear gearbox.

[0018] Compared with the existing aerial plant protection technology, the present invention has the following advantages: 1. It adopts a cushion propeller, an airbag belt, and a dual-purpose propeller to assist in takeoff, which greatly shortens the take-off distance and reaches the operating altitude more quickly; 2. It adopts an airbag belt instead of a tire, which can be suitable for takeoff and landing on different terrains, and is more suitable for the operating requirements of the present invention; 3. By utilizing the ground effect principle, the flight altitude of the present invention is only about 2 meters, and the flight altitude can be set manually, which can better carry out plant protection operations, and has a larger liquid carrying capacity, thereby improving the endurance; 4. The spray boom angle is adjustable, and the nozzle angle can be changed according to different operating conditions to improve the droplet deposition effect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the upper surface of the overall structure of the ground effect vehicle.

[0020] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the lower surface of the overall structure of the ground effect vehicle.

[0021] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the nozzle angle self-adjustment system.

[0022] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the internal structure of the propeller direction change control box during takeoff.

[0023] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the internal structure of the propeller direction change control box during flight.

[0024] Figure 6 Ground effect vehicle taking off.

[0025] Figure 7 Ground effect vehicle flight status.

[0026] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the control system.

[0027] Description of reference numerals:

[0028] 1 Airbag belt

[0029] 2 pad propeller

[0030] 3. Pad lift channel

[0031] 4 Propulsion propeller

[0032] 5 Dual-purpose propeller

[0033] 6 Propeller direction control box

[0034] 7 Front engine

[0035] 8 Front gearbox

[0036] 9 Centrifugal fan

[0037] 10 Rear engine

[0038] 11 Rear gearbox

[0039] 12 Wing in Ground Effect

[0040] 13 Flying Wing

[0041] 14. Medicine Box

[0042] 15 Pump

[0043] 16 Obstacle Avoidance Sensor

[0044] 17 Speed ​​sensor

[0045] 18 Pressurized air chamber

[0046] 19 Air duct

[0047] 20 Spray boom

[0048] 21 Electrostatic Printhead

[0049] 22 Height sensor

[0050] 23 Target Sensor

[0051] 24 Anemometer

[0052] 25 Airbag with exhaust hole

[0053] 26 Air duct jet hole

[0054] 27 Processor

[0055] 28 Clutch

[0056] 29 Power input shaft

[0057] 30 Intermediate shaft

[0058] 31 Power output shaft

[0059] 32 Hydraulic Cylinder

[0060] 33 Control System DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0061] The technical solution of the present invention is further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments;

[0062] like Figure 1 , Figure 2 As shown, an unmanned ground effect vehicle for plant protection includes a fuselage, wings, a spray system, a signal acquisition system, and a control system.

[0063] When the aircraft takes off, the front engine 7 provides power to the centrifugal fan 9 and the cushion propeller 2 through the front gearbox 8. The centrifugal fan 9 works to inflate the airbag belt 1. When the internal pressure of the airbag belt 1 reaches a critical value, the airbag belt exhaust hole 25 opens to form a downward impact airflow; the impact airflow formed by the cushion propeller 2 goes along the cushion flow channel 3 to the pressurized air cavity 18 at the lower part of the fuselage; the rear engine 10 provides power to the dual-purpose propeller 5 and the propulsion propeller 4 through the rear gearbox 11. At this time, the internal state of the propeller change control box 6 is as follows. Figure 4 As shown, the dual-purpose propeller status is as follows Figure 6 As shown, a downward impact airflow is formed. At this time, the power input shaft 29 is respectively engaged with the power output shaft 31 and the intermediate shaft 30 through gears. At this time, the intermediate shaft 30 is not in contact with the power output shaft 31; the three assist the aircraft to leave the ground, and the propeller 4 forms a backward impact airflow to provide forward power for the aircraft.

[0064] When the aircraft takes off, the hydraulic cylinder 32 inside the propeller change control box 6 extends, and the power output shaft 31 changes from a vertical state to a horizontal state, such as Figure 5 As shown, the dual-purpose propeller 5 is in the state as Figure 7 As shown, a backward impact airflow is generated to propel the aircraft to fly. At this time, the power input shaft 29 and the intermediate shaft 30 transmit power through gear meshing, and the intermediate shaft 30 and the power output shaft 31 transmit power through gear meshing, and the power input shaft 29 and the power output shaft 31 do not contact each other.

[0065] When the aircraft encounters an obstacle during flight, Figure 8As shown, the information is obtained by the altitude sensor 22 and the obstacle avoidance sensor 16, and after being analyzed and processed by the aircraft onboard processor, the speed of the two dual-purpose propellers 5 is controlled to be different so as to change the direction; or the power of the centrifugal fan 9 and the cushion propeller 2 is increased to realize the aircraft leaping, thereby avoiding obstacles. At the same time, the flight direction and altitude of the aircraft can also be controlled by the ground control system.

[0066] During the plant protection operation, the pump 15 is powered by the rear engine 10 through the rear gearbox 11 to transport the liquid medicine in the medicine box 14 to the electrostatic nozzle 21; the wind force in the air duct 19 is provided by the centrifugal fan 9 and discharged through the air duct exhaust hole 26, which assists the droplets sprayed by the electrostatic nozzle to run to the target body, increase the penetration of the droplets, reduce drift, and secondary atomize the droplets to improve the uniformity of droplet deposition.

[0067] like Figure 8 As shown, the speed sensor 17 and the target sensor 23 transmit the collected speed, target density and other information to the sprayer onboard processor. After analysis and processing, the flow of the pump 15 is adjusted to adjust the flow of the electrostatic nozzle 21 to achieve precise target spraying. The spraying conditions can also be manually set through the remote control system. Figure 3 As shown, the anemometer 24 collects wind speed information under the wing, and after being analyzed and processed by the processor 27, controls the clutch 28 to engage or disengage to control the rotation of the air duct, driving the nozzle to change its spray angle so that the droplets are better deposited on the crops. The power for the rotation of the air duct is generated by the rear engine 10 and transmitted to the clutch 28 through the rear gearbox 11.

[0068] Furthermore, in the process of farmland operation and plant protection, the plant protection unmanned ground effect vehicle can take off on the lawn or hard land within 100 meters of the farmland, and the airbag belt 1, the pad propeller 2, and the dual-purpose propeller 5 assist the ground effect vehicle to enter the flight state from the take-off state as soon as possible. When above the farmland, the plant protection unmanned ground effect vehicle operates according to the manually set height, speed and spraying amount. When the target sensor 23 detects that the vegetation in the farmland is sparse or even without vegetation, the spray control system controls the flow of the pump 15 to be less or stops the pump to supply liquid to adjust the spray amount of the electrostatic nozzle 21 to achieve precise spraying of the target; the anemometer 24 collects the wind speed under the fan wing and feeds it back to the processor 27, and the processor 27 controls the engagement and disconnection of the clutch 28 to control the direction of the air duct 19 and the electrostatic nozzle 21 to ensure that the droplets can be efficiently deposited on the plants; when the obstacle avoidance sensor 16 of the plant protection unmanned ground effect vehicle detects that there are obstacles such as electric poles in front, the flight control system will control it to increase the flight altitude or turn to avoid the obstacles in front. After the plant protection operation is completed, the plant protection unmanned ground effect vehicle can land on any ground, and the airbag belt 1 can effectively cushion the impact of the ground on the aircraft during the landing process, allowing it to land smoothly.

[0069] The present invention uses an airbag belt 1 instead of a tire to reduce the impact of the ground on the ground effect vehicle during takeoff and landing; the present invention follows the ground effect principle during flight, and the flight altitude is about 2 meters, which is more suitable for plant protection operations; the present invention uses fuel power and carries a large medicine box, which greatly improves the endurance of aerial plant protection.

Claims

1. An unmanned ground-effect vehicle for plant protection, characterized in that: The aircraft includes a fuselage, wings, a spray system, a signal acquisition system and a control system; The fuselage includes an upper fuselage and a lower fuselage, and the upper fuselage is further divided into three parts: a head part, a middle part, and a tail part; at the lower fuselage, airbag belts are symmetrically arranged on both sides, and the space formed between the two airbag belts is a pressurized air cavity; a cushion lift flow channel is arranged at the head of the upper fuselage to connect with the lower fuselage, and a cushion lift propeller is arranged in the cushion lift flow channel; a propulsion propeller is arranged at the tail of the upper fuselage, and a propeller direction change control box is installed on both sides of the tail, and two dual-purpose propellers are respectively connected to the two propeller direction change control boxes; a front engine is arranged at the front of the middle of the upper fuselage, and the power of the front engine is transmitted forward to the front gearbox, and then respectively transmitted to the two centrifugal fans arranged on both sides of the front gearbox and the cushion lift propeller arranged at the head; a rear engine is arranged at the rear of the middle of the upper fuselage, and the power of the rear engine is transmitted backward to the rear gearbox, and then respectively transmitted to the propulsion propeller and the dual-purpose propeller arranged at the tail; Wings, including ground effect wings and flying wings. The ground effect wings are directly installed on both sides of the fuselage, and the flying wings are installed on the outside of the ground effect wings; The spray system includes a medicine box, a pump, an air duct, a spray rod and an electrostatic spray head; the medicine box is arranged in the middle of the upper part of the fuselage and is connected to a pump arranged on the left side of the rear engine, and the pump is powered by the rear engine through the rear gearbox; the electrostatic spray head is installed on the spray rod and fixed on the air duct; the air duct is fixed on the center line of the lower surface of the ground effect wing and is provided with wind power by a centrifugal fan; various parts of the spray system are connected by liquid pipes; The information collection system includes an obstacle avoidance sensor and a speed sensor installed at the head of the upper part of the fuselage, an altitude sensor and a target sensor installed at the front end of the lower part of the fuselage, and an anemometer installed under the wing and in front of the air duct; The control system is arranged at the front position of the middle part of the upper part of the fuselage, and includes the aircraft flight control system, the spray control system and the remote control system; the flight control system connects and controls the pad lift propeller, the centrifugal fan, the propulsion propeller, the dual-purpose propeller and the propeller direction change control box; the spray control system connects and controls the pump and the electrostatic spray nozzle; the remote control system includes a ground display and a controller; The airbag belt reduces the impact of the ground on the ground effect vehicle when the ground effect vehicle takes off and lands. An airbag belt exhaust hole is arranged under the airbag belt, and a pressure valve is arranged inside the exhaust hole. The pressure valve controls the switch by the balance between the spring force and the gas pressure. When the airbag belt pressure is higher than the spring force, the exhaust hole opens to form a high-pressure impact airflow, shortening the take-off flight distance of the aircraft and assisting the aircraft in flying. The propeller direction-changing control box includes a power input shaft, an intermediate shaft, a power output shaft and a hydraulic cylinder; the power input shaft is connected to the rear gearbox, the power output shaft is connected to the dual-purpose propeller, the intermediate shaft is located between the power input shaft and the power output shaft, the intermediate shaft, the power input shaft and the power output shaft are assembled through gear meshing, the two ends of the hydraulic cylinder are respectively fixed on the power input shaft and the power output shaft, and the shape of the dual-purpose propeller is changed by controlling the extension and contraction of the hydraulic cylinder; The flight control system can not only control the centrifugal fan, propulsion propeller, lift propeller and dual-purpose propeller to automatically adjust the speed, altitude and avoid obstacles based on the information collected by the obstacle avoidance sensor, speed sensor and altitude sensor of the information collection system, but also manually set the flight conditions through the remote control system; The spray control system also includes a nozzle angle self-adjusting system, which includes an anemometer, a rear engine, a rear gearbox, a processor installed in the rear half of the upper middle part of the fuselage, a clutch installed on one side of the processor and connected to it, an air duct, a spray rod and an electrostatic nozzle. The anemometer collects wind speed information under the wing, and after analysis and processing by the processor, controls the clutch to engage or disengage to control the rotation of the air duct, driving the nozzle to change its spray angle so that the droplets are better deposited on the crops; the power for the rotation of the air duct is generated by the rear engine and transmitted to the clutch through the rear gearbox; When the aircraft takes off, the front engine provides power to the centrifugal fan and the cushion propeller through the front gearbox. The centrifugal fan works to inflate the airbag belt. When the internal pressure of the airbag belt reaches a critical value, the exhaust hole of the airbag belt opens to form a downward impact airflow; the impact airflow formed by the cushion propeller follows the cushion flow channel to the pressurized air cavity at the bottom of the fuselage; the rear engine provides power to the dual-purpose propeller and the propulsion propeller through the rear gearbox.

2. The unmanned ground-effect vehicle for crop protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The air duct is provided with an air jet hole at the position where the electrostatic nozzle is installed. Wind is ejected from the air duct air jet hole to form auxiliary wind to assist the droplets sprayed by the electrostatic nozzle to run to the target body, thereby increasing the droplet penetration, reducing drift, and performing secondary atomization of the droplets to improve the uniformity of droplet deposition; the speed sensor and the target sensor transmit the collected information such as the speed and target body density to the on-board processor of the sprayer. After analysis and processing, the flow rate of the pump is adjusted to adjust the flow rate of the electrostatic nozzle to achieve precise target spraying. The spray working conditions can also be manually set through the remote control system.

3. The unmanned ground-effect vehicle for crop protection according to claim 1, characterized in that: There are two forms of dual-purpose propellers. During takeoff, the propellers point vertically downward to generate downward wind to assist the ground effect vehicle to leave the ground; during flight, the propellers point horizontally backward to generate backward wind to assist flight; the speeds of the two dual-purpose propellers can be controlled separately, and when their speeds are different, the aircraft steering function is implemented; the change of the dual-purpose propeller state is controlled by the propeller direction change control box; When the aircraft takes off, the hydraulic cylinder inside the propeller change control box extends, and the power output shaft changes from a vertical state to a horizontal state, generating a backward impact airflow to propel the aircraft into flight. At this time, the power input shaft and the intermediate shaft transmit power through gear meshing, and the intermediate shaft and the power output shaft transmit power through gear meshing, and the power input shaft and the power output shaft do not contact each other.

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