A method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight routes from a ground station

Abstract

The present invention proposes a method for a lightweight flight controller to receive multiple planned flight routes from a ground station. The principle is to upload a flight route containing all flight route information, and then in the flight controller, segment and read according to the set nodes. Thus, without modifying the ground station, by re-dividing the flight point storage area of the UAV flight controller, the upload and storage of multiple segments of flight routes, including the take-off flight route, the landing flight route, the hovering waypoints, and the way-to waypoints, are realized. The present invention does not modify the ground station end, has good universality, requires fewer steps to be modified, and has the characteristic of being lightweight.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a technology for uploading waypoints of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), belonging to the technical field of UAV communication; in particular, it relates to a method for a lightweight flight controller to receive multiple planned flight routes from a ground station. Background Art

[0002] With the development of technology, UAVs have been widely used in various fields such as surveying and mapping, aerial photography, agricultural irrigation, and rescue. In some specific situations, using a single UAV will limit the functions we want to achieve, so UAV formation clusters are needed. In UAV formation, UAV communication is a key technology, and how to achieve the desired functions under limited bandwidth is the focus of each formation operation.

[0003] Uploading UAV waypoints is an important process in UAV communication. When a UAV is flying, a very important process is to fly according to the pre-set waypoint information, and this process needs to process the waypoint information planned by the ground station before. At the same time, in some specific tasks, we need various types of flight routes. Therefore, a lightweight multi-route uploading method is very necessary. Summary of the Invention

[0004] To solve the above problems, the present invention discloses a method for a lightweight flight controller to receive multiple planned flight routes from a ground station, including the following steps:

[0005] Step 1: Based on the existing mavlink waypoint uploading mechanism, upload a flight route containing takeoff waypoints, land waypoints, and all waypoint waypoints. The waypoint waypoints in this route include all waypoints in all flight routes. Between each flight route, they are distinguished by a waypoint at an arbitrary position and a specific height. This specific height value should be customized according to the mission scenario to a height that will never appear in a mission, such as 999.

[0006] Step 2: For loiter waypoints, similar to the storage of the home point, set a preset value, which is defaulted to the home point. If a new value needs to be set, add a loiter waypoint after the specific height waypoint at the end of the waypoint flight route in Step 1 and before the land waypoint to overwrite it.

[0007] Step 3: After the flight controller receives this flight route, divide the area of the memory for storing waypoints to store each flight route respectively.

[0008] Step 4: For different waypoint routes, when the altitude of the current waypoint is recognized as 999 (or other set specific altitude values), discard the current waypoint, mark the completion of reading the current waypoint route, and start reading a new waypoint route or finish reading the route.

[0009] Step 5: After the UAV self-organization algorithm sets the aircraft to enter a specific mode, according to the predefined mapping set of modes and routes, read each route information from the memory and execute the waypoint content in sequence.

[0010] A further improvement of the present invention is that: the route described in Step 1 includes all route information of takeoff, land, loiter, and waypoint, and multiple waypoint routes are separated by a waypoint at a specific altitude and any position.

[0011] A further improvement of the present invention is that: the loiter waypoint described in Step 2 is set at the end of the whole route, after the separator, i.e., the waypoint at a specific altitude, which is convenient for distinguishing from the loiter waypoint in the normal route.

[0012] A further improvement of the present invention is that: in Step 3, the area for storing waypoints in the flight controller is re-divided to store different types of routes.

[0013] A further improvement of the present invention is that: in Step 5, through the newly added waypoint reading function, the waypoints included in the route are read from a specific position in the memory for the UAV to fly.

[0014] Advantages of the present invention:

[0015] 1. The present invention uploads a route containing all route information, and then in the flight controller, it is segmented and read according to the set nodes. Thus, without modifying the ground station, through re-dividing the waypoint storage area in the UAV flight controller, the upload and storage of multiple segments of routes, including takeoff route, landing route, loiter waypoint, and waypoint route, are realized.

[0016] 2. The present invention does not modify the ground station side, has good universality, requires fewer steps to be modified, and has the characteristic of being lightweight. Description of the Drawings

[0017] Figure 1 It is the overall flowchart of route upload;

[0018] Figure 2 It is the specific process of route upload and subsequent processing diagram;

[0019] Figure 3To upload a complete flight route in QGroundControl that includes a takeoff route, a land route, a loiter route, and two waypoint routes. Among them, waypoints 2, 6, 11, and 13 are distinguishing waypoints, that is, waypoint separators. Waypoint 1 is the takeoff waypoint, waypoints 3, 4, and 5 are waypoint route 1, waypoints 7, 8, 9, and 10 are waypoint route 2, waypoint L is the loiter waypoint, and waypoints 14 - 16 are the land route. Detailed implementation manners

[0020] The following further clarifies the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific implementation manners. It should be understood that the following specific implementation manners are only used to illustrate the present invention and not to limit the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that the terms "front", "rear", "left", "right", "upper" and "lower" used in the following description refer to the directions in the accompanying drawings, and the terms "inner" and "outer" respectively refer to the directions towards or away from the geometric center of a specific component.

[0021] A method for a lightweight flight controller to receive multiple planned flight routes from a ground station in this embodiment is as Figure 1 shown and includes the following steps:

[0022] Step 1: Upload a flight route containing a takeoff waypoint, a land waypoint, and all waypoint waypoints based on the existing mavlink waypoint upload mechanism. The waypoint waypoints in this route include all waypoints in all routes. Between each route, a waypoint at an arbitrary position and with a specific height value is used for distinction. This specific height value should be customized to a height that will never appear in a task according to the task scenario.

[0023] In this embodiment, a height of 300 is used as the specific height value of the waypoint for distinguishing each waypoint route. The following 5 routes are merged into one and uploaded from QGC to ardupilot.

[0024] It includes a takeoff waypoint, a land waypoint, a loiter waypoint, a cruising waypoint route, and a mission execution waypoint route. The heights of all normal waypoints are within the range of 80 to 200 meters.

[0025] Step 2: For the loiter waypoint, similar to the storage of the home point, set a preset value, which is defaulted to the home point. If a new value needs to be set, add a loiter waypoint after the waypoint at the specific height at the end of the waypoint route in Step 1 and before the land waypoint for overwriting.

[0026] In this embodiment, the loiter waypoint in the very end is adopted to overwrite the loiter waypoint.

[0027] Step 3: After the flight controller receives this flight route, it divides the area in the memory for storing waypoints to store each flight route respectively.

[0028] In this embodiment, the flight controller firmware uses ardupilot to customize a new function for writing waypoint information into the EEPROM, so as to realize writing each waypoint into different memory areas.

[0029] Step 4: For different waypoint flight routes, when it is recognized that the altitude of the current waypoint is the set specific altitude value, the current waypoint is discarded, marking the completion of reading the current waypoint flight route, and starting to read a new waypoint flight route or completing the reading of the flight route.

[0030] In this embodiment, different memory areas written in Step 3 adopt different flag bits to distinguish each flight route, so as to realize reading the desired flight route information from the EEPROM.

[0031] Step 5: After the self-organizing algorithm of the unmanned aerial vehicle sets the aircraft to enter a specific mode, according to the predefined mapping set of the mode and the flight route, read each flight route information from the memory and execute the waypoint content in sequence.

[0032] In this embodiment, Step 4 realizes the interface for reading flight route information from the memory. In each step of the application layer, just call the corresponding interface function to obtain the corresponding flight route information.

[0033] The technical means disclosed in the solution of the present invention are not limited to the technical means disclosed in the above embodiments, but also include the technical solutions composed of any combination of the above technical features.

Claims

1. A method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight paths from a ground station, characterized in that, It includes the following steps: Step 1: Upload a flight route containing takeoff waypoints, land waypoints, and all waypoint waypoints based on the existing mavlink waypoint upload mechanism. The waypoint waypoints in this route include all waypoints in all flight routes. Between each flight route, they are distinguished by a waypoint at an arbitrary position other than altitude and with a specific altitude value; this specific altitude value should be customized according to the mission scenario to be an altitude that will never appear in a mission. Step 2: For loiter waypoints, similar to the storage of the home point, set a preset value, defaulting to the home point. If a new value needs to be set, add a loiter waypoint after the specific altitude waypoint at the end of the waypoint flight route in Step 1 and before the land waypoint to overwrite it. Step 3: After the flight controller receives this flight route, divide the area in the memory for storing waypoints to store each flight route respectively. Step 4: For different waypoint flight routes, when it is recognized that the altitude of the current waypoint is the set specific altitude value, discard the current waypoint, mark the completion of reading the current waypoint flight route, and start reading a new waypoint flight route or complete the reading of the flight route. Step 5: After the self-organizing algorithm of the unmanned aerial vehicle sets the aircraft to enter a specific mode, read the information of each flight route from the memory according to the predefined mapping set between the mode and the flight route, and execute the waypoint content in sequence.

2. The method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight paths from a ground station according to claim 1, characterized in that: The flight route described in Step 1 includes all flight route information of takeoff, land, loiter, and waypoint, and multiple waypoint flight routes are separated by a waypoint at a specific altitude and an arbitrary position other than altitude.

3. The method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight paths from a ground station as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The loiter waypoint described in Step 2 is set at the very end of the entire flight route, after the separator, that is, the specific altitude waypoint, to facilitate distinction from the loiter waypoints in the normal flight route.

4. The method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight paths from a ground station as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: In Step 3, the area in the flight controller for storing waypoints is further divided to store different types of flight routes.

5. The method for a lightweight flight control to receive multiple planned flight paths from a ground station as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: In Step 5, through the added new waypoint reading function, the waypoints included in the flight route are read from a specific position in the memory for the flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

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