A water-air amphibious drone with foldable fixed wings

Abstract

The present invention discloses a water-air amphibious UAV with foldable fixed wings, comprising a frame, a sealed cabin fixed below the frame, tilt-rotor multi-rotors arranged at the front and rear, a fixed wing and a driving mechanism for driving the fixed wing to fold and extend above the frame; the fixed wing comprises a fixed wing support rod, a plurality of fixed wing frames arranged side by side on the fixed wing support rod, and a soft wing membrane attached to the fixed wing frame, and a connecting rod connecting block with a slide groove is arranged on the movable fixed wing frame; the driving mechanism comprises a rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod, and the rotating pair of the rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod is slidably connected with the corresponding slide groove. The present invention takes into account the water-air operation efficiency and solves the problem of the difficulty of drainage of the fixed wing through the innovative combination of foldable fixed wings and tilt-rotor wings.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of unmanned aerial vehicles, and in particular to an amphibious water-air unmanned aerial vehicle with foldable fixed wings. Background Art

[0002] Amphibious drones are emerging technologies that combine air vehicles and underwater vehicles. Currently, amphibious drones mainly include three directions. One is a bionic structure, such as Booby and Dipper. Its wings are generally swept wing structures, the overall structure is small, and the carrying capacity is limited. One is an aircraft structure, such as COPOS, which is a small aircraft that is sealed to achieve underwater functions. This type of amphibious aircraft mainly considers flight characteristics. When sailing in water, the underwater resistance generated by the fixed wing is large. The last type is a quad-rotor structure. This structure can hover, take off vertically up and down, and can also sail underwater, and can carry heavier weights, but the overall structure is also heavier and has higher energy consumption.

[0003] The above structural layouts all consider single characteristics, such as the hovering of quadcopters or the flight characteristics of fixed-wing aircraft. These aerial flight characteristics are not combined with underwater characteristics, and the compatibility between water and air is insufficient.

[0004] The patent specification with publication number CN112278259A discloses a folding-wing assisted flight quad-rotor UAV, which includes a fuselage and four main rotors arranged on both sides of the fuselage, and also includes two folding-wing assisted flight mechanisms; the two folding-wing assisted flight mechanisms are respectively folded on both sides of the fuselage; when the two folding-wing assisted flight mechanisms are unfolded, auxiliary wings are formed on both sides of the fuselage.

[0005] The patent specification with publication number CN112278258A discloses a quad-rotor drone with a folding soft-wing auxiliary flight mechanism. It includes a fuselage and four main rotors arranged on both sides of the fuselage, and also includes two folding soft-wing mechanisms; the two folding soft-wing mechanisms are respectively arranged on both sides of the fuselage; when the two folding soft-wing mechanisms are unfolded, auxiliary wings are formed on both sides of the fuselage. There are retractable cavities on both sides of the fuselage; the two folding soft-wing mechanisms are respectively accommodated in the retractable cavities on both sides of the fuselage.

[0006] The above two mechanisms can be used as the direction of the water-air amphibious robot. However, in order to avoid the soft wing and the folding wing blocking the thrust of the quadrotor after unfolding, the size between the quadrotors needs to be larger. In addition, the soft wing mechanism is a cantilever connecting rod structure, which limits the lift that the soft wing can provide. Similarly, due to the size of the folding fixed wing, the lift that can be provided is small, and the role of assisting flight is limited. Summary of the invention

[0007] The purpose of the present invention is to provide an amphibious water-air UAV with foldable fixed wings. Through the innovative combination of foldable fixed wings and tilt-rotor wings, the water-air operation efficiency is taken into account while solving the problem of fixed-wing drainage difficulties.

[0008] An amphibious drone with foldable fixed wings comprises a frame, a sealed cabin is fixed below the frame, tilt-rotor wings are arranged at the front and rear, fixed wings and a driving mechanism for driving the fixed wings to fold and extend are arranged above the frame;

[0009] The fixed wing comprises a fixed wing support rod, a plurality of fixed wing frames sleeved side by side on the fixed wing support rod, and a soft wing membrane attached to the fixed wing frame, and a connecting rod connecting block with a slide groove is provided on the movable fixed wing frame;

[0010] The driving mechanism comprises a rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod, and the rotating pair of the rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod is slidably connected with the corresponding sliding groove.

[0011] The present invention combines retractable fixed wings and tilt-rotor multi-rotors. The fixed wings are deployed for flight in the air, and the fixed wings are retracted to operate in multi-rotor mode when crossing the water-air interface. The tilt-rotor multi-rotor is used to provide thrust underwater, thereby realizing fixed-point hovering, vertical take-off and landing, fixed-wing flight and underwater vector propulsion functions, achieving the effect of taking into account both water-air movement efficiency.

[0012] Preferably, the driving mechanism further comprises a transmission assembly for driving the diamond-shaped driving connecting rod to move;

[0013] The transmission assembly includes a belt-driven bidirectional screw module and a first transmission rod and a second transmission rod respectively fixed on two slides of the belt-driven bidirectional screw module; the first transmission rod and the second transmission rod are respectively connected to two rotating pairs located in the middle position of the diamond-shaped drive connecting rod.

[0014] This solution uses a stepper motor, synchronous pulley, lead screw and connecting rod to form a drive chain, achieving precise control of the foldable fixed wing.

[0015] Further preferably, one of the first transmission rod and the second transmission rod is provided with a slot, and the other rod is slidably engaged with the slot.

[0016] Preferably, the frame includes a support frame fixed at intervals on the sealed cabin body, guide rods are respectively arranged on the support frame on both sides of the sealed cabin body, four sliders distributed in a rectangular shape are slidably matched on the two guide rods, adjacent sliders located on the two guide rods are fixed on the sliding seat on the same side, and a quadrotor mounting rod for setting a tilt quadrotor is fixed on the four sliders.

[0017] In this solution, since the rotor mounting rod can move together with the slider, the rotor mounting rod can also fold or extend with the wing during the folding or extension of the fixed wing. Therefore, this design can not only limit the larger size between the quadrotors, but also avoid the folded fixed wing from blocking the thrust of the quadrotor after it is unfolded.

[0018] Further preferably, the quadrotor mounting rod includes a longitudinal mounting rod fixed on each of the sliders and parallel to the length direction of the sealed cabin, and a transverse mounting rod installed on adjacent longitudinal mounting rods located on both sides of the sealed cabin, and the ends of the front and rear transverse mounting rods are used to set the tilt-quadrotor.

[0019] Preferably, the longitudinal mounting rod, the transverse mounting rod, the guide rod and the fixed-wing support rod are all made of carbon tubes.

[0020] Preferably, the tilt-rotor comprises a propeller tilt-servo gear arranged at the end of a transverse mounting rod, a propeller motor arranged on the propeller tilt-servo gear, and a propeller arranged on the propeller motor.

[0021] Preferably, two parallel fixed-wing support rods are provided, and a sleeve which is slidably matched with the fixed-wing support rod is integrally formed on the fixed-wing frame.

[0022] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0023] (1) The present invention designs a novel amphibious UAV structural layout, which is compatible with water-air movement efficiency. It flies in the air with fixed wings and sails underwater with tilt-rotating quad-rotor wings. The retractable fixed-wing structure solves the problem of fixed-wing drainage difficulties.

[0024] (2) The foldable fixed-wing design of the present invention reduces underwater resistance. In addition, the foldable fixed-wing adopts a fixed-wing frame combined with a soft wing membrane, which makes the fixed-wing structure light and reduces flight and navigation energy consumption.

[0025] (3) The present invention adopts a stepping motor, a synchronous pulley, a lead screw and a connecting rod to form a drive chain, thereby achieving precise control of the foldable fixed wing. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the fixed wing of the present invention in a folded state;

[0027] Figure 2 It is a structural schematic diagram of the fixed wing of the present invention in a state of being turned away;

[0028] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of the driving mechanism driving the fixed-wing frame to unfold;

[0029] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the structure of the driving mechanism driving the fixed-wing frame to fold;

[0030] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the diamond-shaped driving connecting rod and the connecting rod connecting block;

[0031] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the structure in which the transmission assembly is arranged on the frame;

[0032] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the transmission component;

[0033] In the figure, 1, frame; 11, support frame; 12, vertical pole; 13, guide rod; 14, slider; 15, connecting rod; 16, longitudinal mounting rod; 17, transverse mounting rod; 2, sealed cabin; 3, tilt-rotor quadrotor; 31, propeller tilt-rotor servo; 32, propeller motor; 33, propeller; 4, fixed wing; 41, fixed wing support rod; 42, fixed wing frame; 421, connecting rod connecting block; 422, sleeve; 43, soft wing membrane; 5, driving mechanism; 51, diamond-shaped driving connecting rod; 52, screw; 53, pulley; 54, slide; 55, first transmission rod; 551, slot; 56, second transmission rod. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0035] like Figure 1-4 As shown, an amphibious drone with foldable fixed wings includes a frame 1, a sealed cabin 2 is fixed at the bottom of the frame 1, tilt-rotating quad-rotors 3 are arranged at the front and rear, a fixed wing 4 and a driving mechanism 5 are arranged at the top, and the driving mechanism 5 is used to drive the fixed wing 4 to fold and extend.

[0036] The fixed wing 4 includes two fixed wing support rods 41 arranged in parallel, a fixed wing frame 42 sleeved on the fixed wing support rods 41, and a soft wing membrane 43 attached to the fixed wing frame 42; in this embodiment, eight fixed wing frames 42 are symmetrically arranged. The middle two are fixed and fixed on the frame 1, and the other six are movable and can slide along the fixed wing support rods 41. To ensure the sliding effect, a sleeve 422 that slides with the fixed wing support rod 41 is integrally formed on the fixed wing frame 42.

[0037] The driving mechanism 5 includes a diamond-shaped driving connecting rod 51, and a connecting rod connecting block 421 with a slide groove is provided on the movable fixed wing frame 42; the rotating pair of the diamond-shaped driving connecting rod 51 is slidably connected with the slide groove on the corresponding connecting rod connecting block 421 through a bearing, and the connecting rod provides a preload after the fixed wing is unfolded and maintains the fixed wing airfoil. The specific structure is as follows Figure 5 shown.

[0038] The driving mechanism 5 also includes a transmission assembly, which is used to drive the diamond-shaped driving connecting rod 51 to move; Figure 7 As shown, the transmission assembly specifically includes a belt-driven bidirectional lead screw module and a first transmission rod 55 and a second transmission rod 56 .

[0039] The belt-driven bidirectional lead screw module includes a lead screw 52 with a pulley 53 at one end, the lead screw 52 is provided with a bidirectional thread, and is matched with two bidirectional slides 54, and the pulley 53 is specifically driven by the motor in the sealed cabin 2; one end of the first transmission rod 55 is fixed on one of the slides 54, and one end of the second transmission rod 56 is fixed on the other slide 54; in this embodiment, a slot 551 is provided on the first transmission rod 55, and the second transmission rod 56 is slidably matched with the slot 551; the rotation of the lead screw 52 drives the two slides 54 to move toward and away from each other, thereby driving the first transmission rod 55 and the second transmission rod 56 to move toward and away from each other.

[0040] The other ends of the first transmission rod 55 and the second transmission rod 56 are respectively connected to the two rotating pairs located in the middle position of the diamond-shaped driving link 51; the first transmission rod 55 and the second transmission rod 56 move toward and away from each other, driving the diamond-shaped driving link 51 to extend and contract, and then driving the fixed-wing frame 42 to extend and contract, thereby realizing the foldable operation of the fixed wing.

[0041] like Figure 6 As shown, the frame 1 includes support frames 11 fixed at intervals on the sealed cabin 2. In this embodiment, three support frames 11 are provided, distributed at the head, tail and middle of the sealed cabin 2; the two fixed fixed-wing frames 42 in the middle are fixed on the three support frames 11 at intervals through the vertical rods 12; the two ends of the screw 52 are fixed on the head and tail support frames 11 through bearings.

[0042] Guide rods 13 are respectively arranged on both sides of the sealed cabin 2 on the support frame 11, and four sliders 14 distributed in a rectangular shape are slidably matched on the two guide rods 13. Adjacent sliders 14 located on the two guide rods 13 are fixed to the slide seat 54 on the same side through connecting rods 15, and a quad-rotor mounting rod for setting a tilt quad-rotor is fixed on the four sliders 14.

[0043] The quadrotor mounting rod includes a longitudinal mounting rod 16 fixed on each slider 14 and parallel to the length direction of the sealed cabin 2, and a transverse mounting rod 17 installed on adjacent longitudinal mounting rods 16 located on both sides of the sealed cabin 2. The ends of the front and rear transverse mounting rods 17 are used to set the tilt quadrotor 4.

[0044] The screw 52 rotates to drive the two slide seats 54 to move toward and away from each other, thereby driving the front and rear transverse mounting rods 17 to move toward and away from each other.

[0045] The tilt rotor 3 includes a propeller tilt servo 31 disposed at an end of the lateral mounting rod 17 , a propeller motor 32 disposed on the propeller tilt servo 31 , and a propeller 33 disposed on the propeller motor 32 .

[0046] In this embodiment, the longitudinal mounting rod 16, the transverse mounting rod 17, the guide rod 13 and the fixed-wing support rod 41 are all made of carbon tubes, which have a light structure and reduce the weight of the drone.

[0047] When the fixed wings of the unmanned aerial vehicle of the present invention are in a four-rotor flight state, the unmanned aerial vehicle can take off and land, as well as perform hovering operations, thereby realizing vertical take-off and landing across the water-to-air interface.

[0048] When the drone of the present invention moves underwater, the fixed wings are folded, and the tilting quad-rotor is used to provide thrust to perform underwater minimum resistance motion control. Since the fixed wings are folded, the underwater resistance and underwater additional mass are small, thereby improving the underwater navigation efficiency.

[0049] When the drone of the present invention is out of water, the fixed wing is in a folded state, which is conducive to rapid drainage. When the drone takes off vertically, the fixed wing is unfolded, and the tilt propeller provides forward flight power. The drone flies in a fixed wing combined with a tilt quad-rotor. In this flight process, the fixed wing and the quad-rotor jointly provide lift, and the flight efficiency is higher than that of an ordinary quad-rotor.

[0050] Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, it is still possible for those skilled in the art to modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or to make equivalent substitutions for some of the technical features therein. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An amphibious drone with foldable fixed wings, comprising a frame, a sealed cabin fixed below the frame, and tilt-rotating multi-rotors arranged at the front and rear, characterized in that: A fixed wing and a driving mechanism for driving the fixed wing to fold and extend are arranged above the frame; The fixed wing comprises a fixed wing support rod, a plurality of fixed wing frames sleeved side by side on the fixed wing support rod, and a soft wing membrane attached to the fixed wing frame, and a connecting rod connecting block with a slide groove is provided on the movable fixed wing frame; The driving mechanism comprises a rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod, and the rotating pair of the rhombus-shaped driving connecting rod is slidably connected with the corresponding sliding groove; The frame includes a support frame fixed at intervals on the sealed cabin body, and guide rods are respectively arranged on the support frame on both sides of the sealed cabin body. Four sliding blocks distributed in a rectangular shape are slidably matched on the two guide rods, and the adjacent sliding blocks located on the two guide rods are fixed on the sliding seat on the same side, and the four sliding blocks are fixed with a quad-rotor mounting rod for setting a tilt quad-rotor.

2. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 1, characterized in that: The driving mechanism also includes a transmission assembly for driving the diamond-shaped driving connecting rod to move; The transmission assembly includes a belt-driven bidirectional screw module and a first transmission rod and a second transmission rod respectively fixed on two slides of the belt-driven bidirectional screw module; the first transmission rod and the second transmission rod are respectively connected to two rotating pairs located in the middle position of the diamond-shaped drive connecting rod.

3. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 2, characterized in that: One of the first transmission rod and the second transmission rod is provided with a slot, and the other rod is slidably matched with the slot.

4. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 1, characterized in that: The quadrotor mounting rod includes a longitudinal mounting rod fixed on each of the sliders and parallel to the length direction of the sealed cabin, and a transverse mounting rod installed on adjacent longitudinal mounting rods located on both sides of the sealed cabin. The ends of the front and rear transverse mounting rods are used to set the tilt quadrotor.

5. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 4, characterized in that: The longitudinal mounting rod, the transverse mounting rod, the guide rod and the fixed-wing support rod are all made of carbon tubes.

6. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 4, characterized in that: The tilt rotor includes a propeller tilt servo arranged at the end of a lateral mounting rod, a propeller motor arranged on the propeller tilt servo, and a propeller arranged on the propeller motor.

7. The water-air amphibious UAV according to claim 1, characterized in that: The fixed-wing support rods are provided with two parallel ones, and the fixed-wing frame is integrally formed with a sleeve which is slidably matched with the fixed-wing support rods.

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