A wireless charging method for a drone cluster

Abstract

The application discloses a kind of wireless charging methods of unmanned aerial vehicle cluster, applied to unmanned aerial vehicle charging technical field.It includes the following steps: unmanned aerial vehicle in unmanned aerial vehicle cluster calculates the energy consumption of itself and judges whether it needs to be charged;If it needs to be charged, send its position information and power information to ground control base station;Ground control base station distributes idle charging station to all unmanned aerial vehicles that need to be charged;Ground control base station sends back transmission instruction to corresponding unmanned aerial vehicle;Unmanned aerial vehicle finds corresponding idle charging station for charging according to the position information in back transmission instruction.The present application allocates idle charging station through the position information and power information of unmanned aerial vehicle, reasonably uses idle charging station resources, and improves the charging efficiency of unmanned aerial vehicle cluster.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of unmanned aerial vehicle charging, in particular to a wireless charging method for unmanned aerial vehicle cluster. BACKGROUND

[0002] As an autonomous aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicle plays an irreplaceable role in modern applications. With the increasing requirements of autonomy, intelligence and multi-task of unmanned aerial vehicle operation, unmanned aerial vehicle has developed from single operation to cluster operation, and unmanned aerial vehicle cluster is becoming more and more common in modern applications. However, in the operation of unmanned aerial vehicle cluster, the battery power may be insufficient to support the entire cluster to complete the task. Unmanned aerial vehicle wireless charging technology can supplement the power of unmanned aerial vehicle during operation, but most of the existing unmanned aerial vehicle wireless charging stations are used for charging single unmanned aerial vehicle, and the charging station allocation is often unreasonable for unmanned aerial vehicle cluster operation. Therefore, how to provide a wireless charging method for unmanned aerial vehicle cluster to reasonably allocate charging stations for charging unmanned aerial vehicles is a problem to be solved by those skilled in the art. SUMMARY

[0003] Therefore, the present application provides a wireless charging method for unmanned aerial vehicle cluster, which allocates idle charging stations through the position information and power information of unmanned aerial vehicles, reasonably utilizes idle charging station resources, and improves the charging efficiency of unmanned aerial vehicle cluster.

[0004] In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application provides the following technical scheme:

[0005] A wireless charging method for unmanned aerial vehicle cluster, comprising the following steps:

[0006] S1, the unmanned aerial vehicles in the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster calculate their own energy consumption and determine whether they need to be charged;

[0007] S2, if the unmanned aerial vehicle needs to be charged, the position information and power information of the unmanned aerial vehicle are sent to the ground control base station;

[0008] S3, the ground control base station allocates idle charging stations for all unmanned aerial vehicles that need to be charged;

[0009] S4, the ground control base station sends a return instruction to the corresponding unmanned aerial vehicle;

[0010] S5, the unmanned aerial vehicle finds the corresponding idle charging station for charging according to the position information in the return instruction.

[0011] Optionally, in S1, the UAV calculates according to the remaining flight mileage, the charging array mileage, the flight power and the current remaining power, if the remaining power of the UAV after completing the charging array mileage is less than 15% or the current remaining power is insufficient to complete the remaining flight mileage, charging is needed, otherwise charging is not needed; wherein the remaining task flight mileage is the sum of the mileage required by the UAV to complete the remaining task and the mileage required to return to the nearest charging array.

[0012] Optionally, in S3, if the number of UAVs needing charging is less than or equal to the number of idle charging stations, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted; if the number of UAVs needing charging is greater than the number of idle charging stations and less than three times the number of idle charging stations, further judgment is made according to the charging time of the UAV, if the standard deviation of the charging time of the UAVs needing charging is less than a preset value, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted, otherwise the charging time priority mode is adopted; if the number of UAVs needing charging is greater than or equal to three times the number of idle charging stations, the weight priority mode is adopted.

[0013] Optionally, in the scheduling distance priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the UAVs according to the scheduling distance from the UAV to the nearest charging station from small to large, assigns the UAV with the smallest scheduling distance to the corresponding idle charging station, then assigns the next idle charging station according to the order, if the UAV closest to the next idle charging station has been assigned, the UAV second closest to the idle charging station is assigned, and after all idle charging stations are assigned, the remaining UAVs are assigned again until all UAVs needing charging are assigned.

[0014] Optionally, in the charging time priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the UAVs according to the charging time required by the UAVs from large to small, in the first round, the UAVs are respectively assigned to idle charging stations according to the order and the smallest required scheduling distance, then the current charging time of the charging stations is sorted from small to large, in the second round, the UAVs are assigned according to the order and the corresponding charging station order, after the assignment is completed, if a third round of assignment is needed, the current charging time of the charging stations is sorted again from small to large, and in the third round, the UAVs are assigned according to the order and the corresponding charging station second order.

[0015] Optionally, in the weight priority mode, the ground control base station divides the unmanned aerial vehicles that need to be charged into n regions according to the position information of the idle charging stations, n is the number of the idle charging stations, for all unmanned aerial vehicles that need to be charged in the region where an idle charging station is located, if the number of the unmanned aerial vehicles in the region is less than a preset value x, the idle charging station charges all unmanned aerial vehicles in the region, if the number of the unmanned aerial vehicles in the region is greater than the preset value x, the charging weight w of all unmanned aerial vehicles for the idle charging station is calculated, the x unmanned aerial vehicles with the largest charging weight w are allocated to the idle charging station, and the rest unmanned aerial vehicles are allocated to the idle charging stations in the region whose number of unmanned aerial vehicles is less than the preset value x.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme has the following beneficial effects: the idle charging stations are allocated according to the position information and the power information of the unmanned aerial vehicles, the idle charging stations are allocated according to the number of the unmanned aerial vehicles, the number of the idle charging stations, the charging time of the unmanned aerial vehicles and other information, three allocation modes of the distance priority mode, the charging time priority mode and the weight priority mode are designed, the idle charging station resources are reasonably utilized, the charging efficiency of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster is improved, and the problems of insufficient endurance of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster when performing a task and unreasonable allocation of the cluster charging are solved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0017] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art description. Obviously, the drawings in the following description only constitute a part of the embodiments of the present application, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained without creative labor based on the provided drawings.

[0018] Figure 1 The flow chart of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster charging method of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely in combination with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments only constitute a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor are within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0020] The embodiments of the present application disclose a wireless charging method for an unmanned aerial vehicle cluster, as shown in Figure 1 The method comprises the following steps:

[0021] S1, the unmanned aerial vehicles in the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster calculate their energy consumption and determine whether they need to be charged;

[0022] S2, if the need to charge the self-position information and power information is sent to the ground control base station;

[0023] S3, the ground control base station to all idle charging station allocation of the need to charge the unmanned aerial vehicle;

[0024] S4, the ground control base station sends back to the corresponding unmanned aerial vehicle instruction;

[0025] S5, the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the position information in the back to find the corresponding idle charging station charging.

[0026] Further, in S1, the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the remaining flight range, charging array mileage, flight power and the current remaining power to calculate, if the unmanned aerial vehicle to complete a charging array mileage after the remaining power is less than 15% or the current remaining power is not enough to complete the remaining flight range, need to charge, otherwise not to charge; wherein, the completion of the remaining task flight range is the sum of the remaining task required mileage and the mileage required to return to the nearest charging array.

[0027] Further, in S3, if the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is less than or equal to the number of idle charging stations, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted; if the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is greater than the number of idle charging stations and less than three times the number of idle charging stations, further judgment is made according to the charging time of the unmanned aerial vehicle, if the standard deviation of the charging time of the unmanned aerial vehicle that needs to charge is less than the preset value, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted, otherwise the charging time priority mode is adopted; if the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is greater than or equal to three times the number of idle charging stations, the weight priority mode is adopted.

[0028] Further, in one embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is 3, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted; in another embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is 8, and the standard deviation of the charging time of the 8 unmanned aerial vehicles is less than the preset value, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted, the standard deviation of the charging time is greater than the preset value, the charging time priority mode is adopted; in another embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that need to charge is 13, the weight priority mode is adopted.

[0029] Further, in the scheduling distance priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the unmanned aerial vehicles according to the scheduling distances between the unmanned aerial vehicles and the nearest charging stations, and assigns the unmanned aerial vehicle with the smallest scheduling distance to the corresponding idle charging station, and then assigns the next idle charging station according to the order, if the unmanned aerial vehicle nearest to the next idle charging station has been assigned, the unmanned aerial vehicle second nearest to the idle charging station is assigned, and after all the idle charging stations are assigned, the remaining unmanned aerial vehicles are assigned again until all the unmanned aerial vehicles needing charging are assigned.

[0030] Further, in an embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, and the number of unmanned aerial vehicles needing charging is 3, and the ground control base station assigns the charging stations according to the scheduling distances; in another embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, and the number of unmanned aerial vehicles needing charging is 8, and the standard deviation of the charging durations of the 8 unmanned aerial vehicles is less than a preset value, and the ground control base station sorts the scheduling distances between the unmanned aerial vehicles and the nearest charging stations, and first assigns the 4 unmanned aerial vehicles nearest to the 4 idle charging stations respectively, and then assigns the remaining 4 unmanned aerial vehicles.

[0031] Further, in the charging duration priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the unmanned aerial vehicles according to the charging durations from large to small, and in the first round, the unmanned aerial vehicles are assigned to the idle charging stations according to the order, and then the charging durations of the charging stations are sorted from small to large, and in the second round, the unmanned aerial vehicles are assigned according to the order and the order of the charging stations, and if a third round of assignment is needed, the charging durations of the charging stations are sorted again from small to large, and in the third round, the unmanned aerial vehicles are assigned according to the order and the second order of the charging stations.

[0032] Further, in an embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, and the number of unmanned aerial vehicles needing charging is 8, and the standard deviation of the charging durations is greater than a preset value, and the charging durations of the unmanned aerial vehicles A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H are 35, 45, 41, 47, 38, 36, 31, 43 respectively, and the order of the unmanned aerial vehicles is G, A, F, E, C, H, B, D, and in the first round, G, A, F, E are assigned to the idle charging stations 1, 4, 2, 3 according to the scheduling distances, and after the assignment is completed, the charging durations of the charging stations are sorted as 3, 2, 4, 1, and in the second round, C, H, B, D are assigned to the charging stations 3, 2, 4, 1 respectively, and the assignment is completed.

[0033] Further, in the weight priority mode, the ground control base station divides the unmanned aerial vehicles requiring charging into n regions according to the position information of the idle charging stations, n is the number of idle charging stations, for all unmanned aerial vehicles requiring charging in the region where the idle charging station is located, if the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the region is less than a preset value x, the idle charging station charges all unmanned aerial vehicles in the region, if the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the region is greater than the preset value x, the charging weight w of all unmanned aerial vehicles to the idle charging station is calculated, the x unmanned aerial vehicles with the largest charging weight w are distributed to the idle charging station, and the remaining unmanned aerial vehicles are distributed to the idle charging stations with the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the region less than the preset value x.

[0034] Further, in an embodiment of the present application, the number of idle charging stations is 4, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles requiring charging is 13, and according to the idle charging stations, the region is divided into 1, 2, 3, and 4 regions, wherein the unmanned aerial vehicles A, B, and C are in the 1st region, the unmanned aerial vehicles D, E, and F are in the 2nd region, the unmanned aerial vehicles G and H are in the 3rd region, and the unmanned aerial vehicles I, J, K, L, and M are in the 4th region, the preset value x is 4, and the value of c is 0.5. m is the number of unmanned aerial vehicles, c is a supplement parameter, the value range of c is [0, 1], and the function of c is to make x a positive integer, in this embodiment, the value of x is 4, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regions is less than 4, all unmanned aerial vehicles in the region are charged, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the 4th region is greater than 4, the charging weight w of the unmanned aerial vehicles I, J, K, L, and M is calculated, and in this embodiment, the weight of the unmanned aerial vehicle I is the smallest, which is distributed to the 3rd region with the smallest number of unmanned aerial vehicles.

[0035] The calculation method of the charging weight w is as follows:

[0036] w = w l × a l + w e × a e

[0037] In the formula, w l is the scheduling distance weight, a l is the scheduling distance, w e is the charging time weight, and a e is the charging time required by the remaining current of the unmanned aerial vehicle after being scheduled to the target charging station.

[0038] Further, if the unmanned aerial vehicle A and B are in the 1st region, the unmanned aerial vehicles C, D, E, and F are in the 2nd region, the unmanned aerial vehicles G and H are in the 3rd region, and the unmanned aerial vehicles I, J, K, L, and M are in the 4th region, the unmanned aerial vehicle I with the smallest weight is distributed to the idle charging station with the shortest scheduling distance in the 1st region or the 2nd region.

[0039] The various embodiments described in this specification are intended to be illustrative only and in no way limit the scope of the application. Changes and modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, which employ the principles of the application, without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, the application is not limited to the embodiments described herein, but instead has scope to encompass any changes and modifications that serve the same, equivalent, or similar purposes.

[0040] The foregoing description of the disclosed embodiments enables a person skilled in the art to make or use the application. Modifications of these embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the scope of the following claims. The description is presented in the best mode for making and using the application. What is claimed is:

Claims

1. A wireless charging method for a drone swarm, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1. The drones in the drone swarm calculate their own energy consumption and determine whether they need to be charged. S2. If charging is required, the user's location and power information will be sent to the ground control base station. S3. The ground control base station allocates available charging stations to all drones that need charging. S4. The ground control base station sends a feedback command to the corresponding UAV. S5. The drone finds an available charging station to charge based on the location information in the transmitted command. In S3, if the number of drones needing charging is less than or equal to the number of available charging stations, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted; if the number of drones needing charging is greater than the number of available charging stations but less than three times the number of available charging stations, further judgment is made based on the drone charging time. If the standard deviation of the charging time of the drones needing charging is less than a preset value, the scheduling distance priority mode is adopted; otherwise, the charging time priority mode is adopted; if the number of drones needing charging is greater than or equal to three times the number of available charging stations, the weight priority mode is adopted. In the scheduling distance priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the drones from smallest to largest according to the scheduling distance between them and the nearest charging station. The drone with the smallest scheduling distance is assigned to the corresponding idle charging station. Then, the next idle charging station is assigned according to the order. If the drone closest to the next idle charging station has already been assigned, the next drone closest to the next idle charging station is assigned. After all idle charging stations are assigned, the remaining drones are reassigned until all drones that need charging are assigned. In the charging time priority mode, the ground control base station sorts the drones according to their required charging time from largest to smallest. In the first round, the drones are allocated to the available charging stations according to the minimum required scheduling distance. Then, the current charging time of the charging stations is sorted from smallest to largest. In the second round, the drones are allocated according to their sorting order and the corresponding charging station sorting order. If a third round of allocation is needed after the allocation is completed, the current charging time of the charging stations is re-sorted from smallest to largest. In the third round, the drones are allocated according to their sorting order and the corresponding charging station re-sorting order. In the weighted priority mode, the ground control base station divides the drones that need to be charged into n areas based on the location information of the available charging stations, where n is the number of available charging stations. For all drones that need to be charged in the area where an available charging station is located, if the number of drones in the area is less than a preset value x, the available charging station will charge all drones in the area. If the number of drones in the area is greater than the preset value x, the charging weight w of all drones for this available charging station will be calculated, and the x drones with the largest charging weight w will be assigned to this available charging station. The remaining drones will be assigned to the available charging stations in the area where the number of drones is less than the preset value x.

2. The wireless charging method for a drone swarm according to claim 1, characterized in that, In S1, the drone calculates based on the remaining flight mileage, charging array mileage, flight power, and current remaining battery power. If the drone's remaining battery power is less than 15% after completing a charging array mileage or if the current remaining battery power is insufficient to complete the remaining flight mileage, it needs to be charged; otherwise, it does not need to be charged. The remaining flight mileage to complete the mission is the sum of the mileage required for the drone to complete the remaining mission and the mileage required to return to the nearest charging array.

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