Cabin selection method for unmanned aerial vehicle on duty and unmanned aerial vehicle on duty system

Abstract

The invention relates to a cabin selection method for an unmanned aerial vehicle on duty and an unmanned aerial vehicle on duty system, and particularly provides a method for selecting an optimal on duty cabin for battery replacement when the unmanned aerial vehicle needs to be subjected to battery replacement during on duty operation, which specifically comprises the following steps of: establishing communication connection among a server, the unmanned aerial vehicle, the on duty cabin and a user terminal; the server acquires information of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the guarding cabins which are in communication connection with the server, determines whether the unmanned aerial vehicle needs battery replacement or not according to information analysis, and selects the optimal guarding cabin for battery replacement according to the received unmanned aerial vehicle information and guarding cabin information if it is determined that battery replacement is needed; the new battery electric quantity obtained by the unmanned aerial vehicle is the maximum battery electric quantity in the guarding cabin for the unmanned aerial vehicle to change the battery in the area.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of on-duty drone storage selection and charging and drone on-duty system, and in particular to an on-duty drone storage selection method and a drone on-duty system. Background Art

[0002] Drones are widely used in various fields. Drones can replace manual labor to patrol a certain area. For example, during the patrol process, if the drone runs out of power, it needs to enter the guard warehouse for battery replacement or charging. How to accurately select the guard warehouse for drone battery replacement or drone docking in the area, and how to accurately select the warehouse with more battery power in the warehouse if battery replacement is required, are key factors affecting the drone's continued duty range. At the same time, how to provide a guard warehouse with a simple structure and simple operation is also very important for the qualitative analysis of the guard system problem. Summary of the invention

[0003] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a

[0004] In order to solve the above technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0005] Construct a method for selecting a warehouse for a guarded drone, including the following steps:

[0006] S1. Establish a communication connection between the server and the on-duty drone, between the server and all on-duty warehouses in the area, and between the server and the user control terminal. The server has a preset battery replacement warning threshold;

[0007] S2. The server receives all drone guard warehouse information and guard drone information in a preset area;

[0008] The information of all drone guard stations in the preset area includes at least the location information of each guard station, the position information in the guard station, and the battery power information in the station;

[0009] The on-duty drone information includes at least drone location information, drone remaining battery information, and drone remaining endurance information;

[0010] S3. The server determines whether the on-duty drone needs to enter the warehouse for battery replacement based on the received on-duty drone information; the specific judgment method is as follows:

[0011] If the remaining flight time of the drone received by the server is greater than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server sends a normal flight command message to the user control terminal;

[0012] If the remaining endurance value of the drone received by the server is less than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server matches the drone endurance information with the drone guard warehouse to determine the guard warehouse set A that may be used for drone battery replacement within the drone endurance range, and executes step S4;

[0013] S4. Based on the received information about the positions in each guard warehouse in the preset area, the server selects a guard warehouse set B with vacant positions in the guard warehouse from the guard warehouse set A that may be used for UAV battery replacement, and selects the guard warehouse with the largest battery power from the guard warehouse set B as the final charging warehouse;

[0014] S5. Based on the received final charging compartment information, the user control terminal controls the compartment opening and sends instructions for the drone to enter the compartment and replace the battery.

[0015] Further, the drone guard warehouse includes a plurality of first guard warehouses arranged at a certain distance from the edge of the area and a second guard warehouse arranged in the middle of the area; the battery replacement warning threshold includes a battery power warning value and a battery life warning value, wherein the battery power warning value is set to a, and the battery life warning value is set to b;

[0016] Where a is the percentage of the remaining power of the drone to the battery capacity, and b is the remaining flight time of the drone when the battery power of the drone is a.

[0017] In this embodiment, the method for determining a set of guard warehouses that can be used for battery replacement of a drone includes the following steps:

[0018] S301. When the server receives a warning that the remaining power of the drone reaches the warning value a or is less than a, the server compares and analyzes the received drone location information with the drone guard warehouse location information to obtain the drone guard warehouse set A within the drone's endurance range;

[0019] S302. The server selects the drone guard warehouse with a battery power greater than the drone battery power within the endurance range as the first target warehouse according to the received drone remaining power information;

[0020] S303. The server selects the on-duty warehouse with the largest battery power in the first target warehouse and defines it as the second target warehouse. The second target warehouse is eventually used as the battery replacement for the drone.

[0021] Preferably, the method for determining the drone guard warehouse within the drone's flight range includes the following steps:

[0022] S3011. The server obtains the distance c between the drone and any guard warehouse based on the received drone location information and the drone guard warehouse location information;

[0023] S3012. The server compares and analyzes the endurance warning value b with the distance c between the drone and any duty warehouse;

[0024] If b > c, then add this duty warehouse to the set A of duty warehouses within the drone's endurance range;

[0025] If b < c, then exclude this duty warehouse from the set A of duty warehouses within the drone's endurance range.

[0026] In addition, the present invention also provides a drone duty system, which is used to execute the drone warehouse selection method in the foregoing solution. The system includes a server, several duty warehouses arranged in the area, a user control terminal, and a drone flying and on duty in the area; wherein the server is communicatively connected or electrically connected to the duty warehouses in the area, the server is communicatively connected to the drones on duty in the area, and the server is communicatively connected to the user control terminal; the duty warehouses are used for parking the drones in the area and for replacing the batteries of the drones in the area;

[0027] The duty warehouse includes a main body; wherein, a cube-shaped parking bay is provided in the middle of the main body, a lid that can be opened and closed is provided at the opening of the top of the parking bay, battery bays communicated with the parking bay are provided at both ends of the main body, a battery replacement component is provided in each battery bay, and the battery replacement component can be unfolded to a first position or retracted to a second position along the direction in which the battery bay communicates with the parking bay, and a liftable parking component is provided at the bottom of the parking bay; a pair of opposite clamping components are further provided in the parking bay, and the clamping components are used to clamp and hold the drone on the parking component entering the parking bay so as to facilitate the battery replacement component to take and place the battery.

[0028] It should be noted that the foregoing first position is the position where the drone battery is disassembled after the drone docks on the apron; the foregoing second position is the battery charging place in the battery bay, that is, the position where the battery is in a charging state in the battery bay. The method of disassembling the drone battery is the same as the method of disassembling the spare battery in the charging warehouse, and both use the horizontal plugging method for disassembly, and the battery position of the drone and the battery position in the battery bay are rotationally symmetric. At least one of the two battery bays inside the main body of the duty warehouse stores a slow or charging battery.

[0029] Preferably, the parking assembly includes a lifting structure, a helipad and a reflective photoelectric sensor, the lifting structure is fixedly arranged at the center of the bottom of the parking compartment, the helipad is rotatably arranged on the top of the lifting structure, and the lifting structure rises or contracts so that the helipad is in a state of leaving the compartment to pick up the aircraft or in a state of entering the compartment to change the battery; in the state of entering the compartment to change the battery, the battery of the UAV on the helipad is swapped with the spare battery in the battery compartment through the battery exchange assembly; the helipad is driven to rotate by a motor arranged at the bottom of the helipad, and the battery removal direction of the UAV changes with the rotation of the helipad; the transmitting device in the reflective photoelectric sensor is arranged at the rear end of the battery compartment, and the receiver in the reflective photoelectric sensor is at the same end of the two landing gears of the UAV, and the reflective photoelectric sensor is used to determine that the battery loading and unloading direction of the UAV is parallel to the battery changing direction of the battery exchange assembly.

[0030] Preferably, the battery exchange assembly has a telescopic arm arranged in the corresponding battery compartment, and the telescopic arm can be horizontally extended or retracted from the battery compartment where it is located toward the parking compartment, and a battery clamping part is fixedly arranged at the end of the telescopic arm; the battery clamping part includes a first U-shaped frame and a second U-shaped frame, and the two U-shaped frames each have two side walls and a bottom wall connecting the two side walls, and the bottom wall of the first U-shaped frame is fixed to the end of the telescopic arm; the second U-shaped frame is rotatably arranged between the two side walls of the first U-shaped frame through a rotating shaft, and a rotating motor C is arranged on the outer side of the side wall of the first U-shaped frame, rotating The output shaft of the rotating motor C is fixedly connected to one of the rotating shafts so as to drive the second U-shaped frame to rotate relative to the first U-shaped frame through the rotating motor C; a first clamping plate group and a second clamping plate group are provided on the inner side of each side wall of the second U-shaped frame through an electric cylinder, the upper end of the first clamping plate group is exposed on the upper side of the second U-shaped frame, and the lower end of the second clamping plate group is exposed on the lower side of the second U-shaped frame, so that the first clamping plate group and the second clamping plate group respectively form a first clamping end and a second clamping end, one of which is used to remove the low-power battery on the drone, and the other is used to clamp the spare battery in the charging compartment.

[0031] Preferably, the clamping assembly includes a telescopic electric cylinder arranged on the inner wall of the parking compartment, and the two telescopic electric cylinders are respectively located on the inner walls of the parking compartment on both sides of the charging compartment, and a cross bar is provided at the end of each telescopic electric cylinder; when in use, the two telescopic electric cylinders are synchronously extended toward the middle of the parking compartment to center the drone on the apron through the cross bar, and finally the landing gear of the drone is clamped by the cross bar to keep the drone relatively fixed until the battery is replaced.

[0032] Preferably, the steps of replacing the battery of the drone in the warehouse include:

[0033] The compartment cover is open;

[0034] The aircraft lands in the bay, and the lifting structure rises to lift the apron to the top of the bay. The drone to be replaced stops on the apron, and the lifting structure descends, and the drone enters the bay along with the apron;

[0035] The angle of the drone is adjusted, and the motor at the bottom of the apron drives the apron to rotate, so that the reflective photoelectric sensor detects that the distance from the two landing gears to the rear end of the battery compartment is equal. At this time, the direction of loading and unloading the drone battery is parallel to the direction of battery replacement;

[0036] The drone is centered and kept fixed. The two telescopic electric cylinders are extended synchronously, so that the crossbar gradually rests against the drone landing gear. The drone is centered under the push of the crossbar. Finally, the two crossbars exert a clamping force on the drone landing gear under the action of the telescopic electric cylinders, keeping the drone relatively fixed on the apron.

[0037] During the battery replacement operation, the telescopic arm extends or contracts so that the battery clamping part is in the spare battery picking and placing position in the battery compartment, and the electric cylinder controls any one of the first clamping plate group or the second clamping plate group to clamp the spare battery in the battery compartment, and then the telescopic arm extends, and at the same time, the spare battery is taken out of the battery compartment as the telescopic arm extends, until the other clamping plate group is at the disassembly position of the drone battery, and the electric cylinder controls the clamping plate group to clamp the low-power battery on the drone, and the telescopic arm contracts to remove the drone battery; at this time, the two clamping plate groups respectively clamp the spare battery and the low-power battery, and the telescopic arm contracts to the area between the drone and the battery compartment, and the rotating motor C rotates to swap the positions of the first clamping plate group and the second clamping plate group, so that the spare battery is on the drone battery installation side, and the low-power battery is on the charging side of the charging compartment; the telescopic arm extends to the bottom of the drone battery position again and inserts the spare battery into the drone battery position to complete the battery replacement; the telescopic arm contracts to insert the replaced low-power battery into the impulse position in the charging compartment.

[0038] The beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0039] The present invention presets a UAV battery replacement warning threshold. When the remaining battery life of the UAV on flight duty reaches the threshold, the server can establish a match with the UAV duty warehouse according to the remaining battery life of the UAV to determine a set of duty warehouses A that may be used for UAV battery replacement within the UAV battery life range, and select a set of duty warehouses B with vacant positions in the duty warehouse from the set of UAV duty warehouses A that may be used for battery replacement, and select the duty warehouse with the largest battery power from the set of duty warehouses B as the final charging warehouse to ensure that the available battery power within the battery life range of the battery position replaced by the UAV is the largest, thereby keeping the UAV on-duty battery life at the maximum.

[0040] The drone guard system involved in the present invention has relatively low requirements for the drone landing apron. After landing, the drone can be rotated through the guard apron, and the reflective photoelectric sensor can be used to determine that the direction of drone battery removal is consistent with the battery replacement direction of the battery replacement assembly; the clamping assemblies on both sides of the parking compartment can be synchronously extended and retracted toward the middle of the parking compartment. During the extension and retraction process, the cross bar changes from a separation state to a contact state with the drone landing gear. One of the cross bars on both sides that first contacts the landing gear pushes the drone toward the other cross bar until the two cross bars jointly clamp the landing gear, completing the centering adjustment and clamping and fixing the drone at the same time. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. The drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0042] Figure 1 The present invention is a flowchart of the steps of a method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone.

[0043] Figure 2 A flow chart of the method steps for determining a set of guard bays that can be used for battery replacement drones in the present invention.

[0044] Figure 3 This is a flow chart of the steps of the method for determining a drone guard warehouse within the drone's flight range according to the present invention.

[0045] Figure 4 The sectional view of the drone guard cabin involved in the present invention is Figure 1 .

[0046] Figure 5 The sectional view of the drone guard cabin involved in the present invention is Figure 2 .

[0047] Figure 6 The sectional view of the drone guard cabin involved in the present invention is Figure 3 .

[0048] Figure 7 A top view of the drone guard cabin involved in the present invention.

[0049] Figure 8 for Figure 7 Section view in the AA direction.

[0050] Fig. 9 for Figure 7 Section view along the BB direction.

[0051] Fig.10 The three-dimensional structure of the battery replacement component in the present invention Figure 1 .

[0052] Fig.11 The three-dimensional structure of the battery replacement component in the present invention Figure 2 .

[0053] Fig.12 It is a top view of the battery replacement assembly in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0054] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the following will be described clearly and completely in combination with the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are partial embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

[0055] like Figure 1-Figure 3 As shown, a preferred embodiment of the present invention; a method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone comprises the following steps:

[0056] S1. Establish a communication connection between the server and the on-duty drone, between the server and all on-duty warehouses in the area, and between the server and the user control terminal. The server has a preset battery replacement warning threshold;

[0057] It should be noted that the above communication connection uses wireless communication to achieve communication and data transmission between various devices; the warning threshold is used as the critical value for the on-duty drone to replace the battery or enter the warehouse for charging;

[0058] S2. The server receives all drone guard warehouse information and guard drone information in a preset area;

[0059] The information of all drone guard stations in the preset area includes at least the location information of each guard station, the position information in the guard station, and the battery power information in the station;

[0060] It should be noted that the location information of all drone guard warehouses in the preset area is used to determine the specific location information of each drone guard warehouse, the guard warehouse polarity information is used to determine whether the position in the drone guard warehouse is empty, and the battery power information in the warehouse is used to determine the backup battery power information in the drone guard warehouse for replacing the battery of the drone;

[0061] The information of all on-duty drones in the preset area includes at least drone location information, drone remaining power information, and drone remaining endurance information;

[0062] It should be noted that the drone location information is used to drive the specific location of the drone in the area, the drone remaining power information is the remaining power of the battery currently used by the drone, and the drone remaining endurance information is the endurance mileage of the drone under the current power condition;

[0063] S3. The server determines whether the on-duty drone needs to enter the warehouse for battery replacement based on the received on-duty drone information; the specific judgment method is as follows:

[0064] If the remaining flight time of the drone received by the server is greater than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server sends a normal flight command message to the user control terminal;

[0065] If the remaining endurance value of the drone received by the server is less than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server matches the drone endurance information with the drone guard warehouse to determine the guard warehouse set A that may be used for drone battery replacement within the drone endurance range, and executes step S4;

[0066] S4. Based on the received information about the positions in each guard warehouse in the preset area, the server selects a guard warehouse set B with vacant positions in the guard warehouse from the guard warehouse set A that may be used for UAV battery replacement, and selects the guard warehouse with the largest battery power from the guard warehouse set B as the final charging warehouse;

[0067] S5. Based on the received final charging compartment information, the user control terminal controls the compartment opening and sends instructions for the drone to enter the compartment and replace the battery.

[0068] Further, the drone guard warehouse includes a plurality of first guard warehouses arranged at a certain distance from the edge of the area (i.e., the edge of the drone guard area) and a second guard warehouse arranged in the middle of the area; the battery replacement warning threshold includes a battery power warning value and a battery life warning value, wherein the battery power warning value is set to a, and the battery life warning value is set to b;

[0069] Where a is the percentage of the remaining power of the drone to the battery capacity, and b is the remaining flight time of the drone when the battery power of the drone is a.

[0070] In this embodiment, the method for determining a set of guard warehouses that can be used for battery replacement of a drone includes the following steps:

[0071] S301. When the server receives a warning that the remaining power of the drone reaches the warning value a or is less than a, the server compares and analyzes the received drone location information with the drone guard warehouse location information to obtain the drone guard warehouse set A within the drone's endurance range;

[0072] S302. The server selects the drone guard warehouse with a battery power greater than the drone battery power within the endurance range as the first target warehouse according to the received drone remaining power information;

[0073] S303. The server screens out the duty warehouse with the largest battery power in the first target warehouse and defines it as the second target warehouse, and the second target warehouse is finally used for the UAV to swap batteries.

[0074] The method for determining the UAV duty warehouse within the UAV's endurance range includes the following steps:

[0075] S3011. The server obtains the distance c between the UAV and any duty warehouse according to the received UAV position information and the position information of the UAV duty warehouse.

[0076] S3012. The server compares and analyzes the endurance warning value b with the distance c between the UAV and any duty warehouse.

[0077] If b > c, then add this duty warehouse to the set A of duty warehouses within the UAV's endurance range.

[0078] If b < c, then exclude this duty warehouse from the set A of duty warehouses within the UAV's endurance range.

[0079] In addition, as Figure 4-12 shown, the present invention also provides a UAV duty system, which is used to execute the UAV warehouse selection method in the foregoing solution. The system includes a server, several duty warehouses arranged in the area, a user control terminal, and a UAV on duty in the area; wherein the server is communicatively connected or electrically connected to the duty warehouses in the area, the server is communicatively connected to the UAV flying and on duty in the area, and the server is communicatively connected to the user control terminal; the duty warehouse is used to park the UAV in the area and to swap batteries for the UAV in the area; the user control terminal facilitates the user to obtain specific information in the duty system through the user control terminal.

[0080] The duty warehouse includes a main body 1; wherein, a cube-shaped parking warehouse 2 is provided in the middle of the main body 1, a lid 3 that can be opened and closed is provided at the warehouse opening on the top of the parking warehouse 2, a lid slide rail (since the slide rail technical term is prior art, the lid slide rail is not shown in the drawings) is provided on the top of the main body 1, the lid 3 is slidably arranged on the lid slide rail and is controlled to open by a telescopic structure arranged outside the top of the main body 1, and this telescopic structure can adopt an electric telescopic component, such as a telescopic electric cylinder. Both ends of the main body 1 are provided with battery warehouses 4 communicated with the parking warehouse 2, each battery warehouse 4 is provided with a battery swapping component 5, and the battery swapping component 5 can be deployed to the first position or retracted to the second position along the direction in which the battery warehouse 4 communicates with the parking warehouse 2, and a liftable parking component 6 is provided at the bottom of the parking warehouse 2; a pair of opposite clamping components 7 are also provided in the parking warehouse 2, and the clamping components 7 are used to clamp the UAV 10 on the parking component 6 entering the parking warehouse 2 and keep the UAV 10 in a stationary state, so as to facilitate the battery swapping component 5 to take and place the battery.

[0081] like Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Figure 8 as well as Fig. 9 As shown, the parking assembly 6 includes a lifting structure 61, a helipad 62 and a reflective photoelectric sensor. The lifting structure 61 is fixedly arranged at the center of the bottom of the parking compartment 2, and the lifting structure 61 is a telescopic electric cylinder A. The helipad 62 is rotatably arranged on the top of the lifting structure 61. The lifting structure 61 rises or shrinks so that the helipad 62 is in a state of leaving the warehouse to receive the aircraft or in a state of entering the warehouse to change the battery. In the state of entering the warehouse to change the battery, the battery of the UAV 10 on the helipad 62 is swapped with the spare battery in the battery compartment 4 through the battery exchange assembly 5; the helipad 62 is driven to rotate by a motor arranged at the bottom of the helipad 62, and the battery removal direction of the UAV 10 changes with the rotation of the helipad 62; the transmitting device in the reflective photoelectric sensor (the reflective photoelectric sensor is not shown in the figure) is arranged at the rear end of the battery compartment, and the receiver in the reflective photoelectric sensor is at the same end of the two landing gears of the UAV. The reflective photoelectric sensor is used to determine that the battery loading and unloading direction of the UAV is parallel to the battery replacement direction of the battery replacement assembly. At this time, the reflective photoelectric sensor senses that the reflection distance on the two landing gears is the same.

[0082] It should be noted that the aforementioned first position is the position where the drone battery is removed after the drone 10 is docked on the apron 62; the aforementioned second position is the battery charging position of the battery compartment 4, that is, the position where the battery is located in the battery compartment 4 and is in a charging state. The drone battery removal method is the same as the spare battery removal method in the charging compartment, both of which are removed by horizontal plugging and unplugging, and the battery position of the drone 10 is rotationally symmetrical with the battery position in the battery compartment. At least one of the two battery compartments 4 inside the main body 1 of the guard compartment contains a fully charged or charging battery.

[0083] Furthermore, a circular mounting hole is vertically arranged at the top of the lifting structure 61, and a mounting shaft matching the circular mounting hole is arranged at the bottom of the apron 62. A gear is arranged at the top of the lifting structure 61, and a gear is also arranged on the output shaft of the driving motor arranged at the bottom of the apron 62. The gear is meshed with the gear at the top of the lifting structure 61, and the apron 62 can be driven to rotate by the driving motor.

[0084] In some embodiments, Figure 4 , Figure 6 as well as Figures 8 to 12As shown, the battery exchange component 5 has a telescopic arm 51 arranged in the corresponding battery compartment 4, wherein the telescopic arm is a telescopic electric cylinder B; the telescopic arm 51 can be horizontally extended or retracted from the battery compartment 4 where it is located toward the parking compartment 2, and a battery clamping part 52 is fixedly arranged at the end of the telescopic arm 51; the battery clamping part 52 includes a first U-shaped frame 521 and a second U-shaped frame 522, and the two U-shaped frames each have two side walls and a bottom wall connecting the two side walls, and the bottom wall of the first U-shaped frame 521 is fixed to the end of the telescopic arm 51; the second U-shaped frame 522 is rotatably arranged between the two side walls of the first U-shaped frame 521 through a rotating shaft. Specifically, shaft holes are provided on the two side walls of the first U-shaped frame 521, and a rotating shaft corresponding to the shaft hole is provided on the outer side of the two side walls of the second U-shaped frame, and the rotating shaft is rotatably arranged in the mounting hole through a bearing. In order to control the rotation of the second U-shaped frame 522, a rotating motor C524 is fixedly provided on the outer side of the side wall of the first U-shaped frame 521 by bolts, and the output shaft of the rotating motor C524 is fixedly connected to one of the rotating shafts on the second U-shaped frame 522, so as to drive the second U-shaped frame 522 to rotate relative to the first U-shaped frame 521 through the rotating motor C524; a first clamping plate group 523a and a second clamping plate group 523b are provided on the inner side of the two side walls of the second U-shaped frame 522 through an electric cylinder, the upper end of the first clamping plate group 523a is exposed on the upper side of the second U-shaped frame 522, and the lower end of the second clamping plate group 523b is exposed on the lower side of the second U-shaped frame 522, so that the first clamping plate group 523a and the second clamping plate group 523b respectively form a first clamping end and a second clamping end, one of which is used to remove the low-power battery on the drone, and the other is used to clamp the spare battery in the charging compartment. Of course, when the two clamping plate groups are turned 180° along with the second U-shaped frame 522, the positions of the first clamping plate group 523a and the second clamping plate group 523b are swapped.

[0085] In some embodiments, Figures 4 to 6 as well as Figures 8 to 9 The clamping assembly 7 includes a telescopic electric cylinder D71 arranged on the inner wall of the parking compartment. The telescopic electric cylinder D71 is respectively located on the mounting plates 72 on the inner walls of the parking compartment on both sides of the charging compartment 4. The mounting plate 72 has a mounting slope so that the telescopic electric cylinder D71 is in a slanted downward state after being set on the mounting slope. A cross bar 73 is provided at the end of each telescopic electric cylinder D71. When in use, the two telescopic electric cylinders D71 extend synchronously toward the middle of the parking compartment 2 to push the drone 10 on the apron 62 to the middle through the cross bar 73, and finally clamp the landing gear of the drone 10 through the cross bar 73 to keep the drone relatively fixed for battery replacement.

[0086] In addition, the steps of replacing the battery of the drone using the above drone system include:

[0087] 1. The compartment cover is opened. Specifically, the telescopic electric cylinder controls the compartment cover to slide along the compartment cover slide rail to open the shutdown compartment;

[0088] 2. The aircraft lands in the warehouse, the lifting structure 61 rises to lift the apron 62 to the opening of the parking warehouse, the UAV 10 to be replaced stops on the apron 62, the lifting structure 61 descends, and the UAV 10 enters the parking warehouse 2 along with the apron 62;

[0089] 3. The angle of the drone is adjusted. The motor at the bottom of the apron 62 drives the apron 62 to rotate, so that the reflective photoelectric sensor detects that the distance from the two landing gears to the rear end of the battery compartment 4 is equal. At this time, the loading and unloading direction of the drone battery is parallel to the battery replacement direction;

[0090] 4. The drone is centered and kept fixed. The two telescopic electric cylinders D71 are extended synchronously, so that the crossbar 73 gradually abuts against the landing gear of the drone. The drone is centered under the push of the crossbar 73. Finally, the two crossbars 73 exert a clamping force on the landing gear of the drone 10 under the action of the telescopic electric cylinders D71, keeping the drone relatively fixed on the apron;

[0091] 5. Battery replacement operation: the telescopic arm 51 is extended or retracted so that the battery clamping part 52 is in the position for taking and placing the spare battery in the battery compartment 4. The electric cylinder controls any one of the first clamping plate group 523a or the second clamping plate group 523b to clamp the spare battery in the battery compartment 4. Then the telescopic arm 51 is extended. As the telescopic arm 51 is extended, the spare battery is taken out of the battery compartment 4 until the other clamping plate group is in the disassembly position of the drone battery. The electric cylinder controls the clamping plate group to clamp the low-power battery on the drone. The telescopic arm 51 is retracted to take the drone battery out. At this time, the two clamping plate groups respectively clamp the spare battery and the low-power battery, the telescopic arm 51 shrinks to the area between the drone and the battery compartment, and the rotary motor C524 rotates to swap the positions of the first clamping plate group 523a and the second clamping plate group 523, so that the spare battery is on the drone battery installation side, and the low-power battery is on the charging side of the charging compartment; the telescopic arm 51 extends to the bottom of the drone battery position again and inserts the spare battery into the drone battery position to complete the battery replacement; the telescopic arm 51 shrinks to insert the replaced low-power battery into the impulse position in the charging compartment 4.

[0092] It should be understood that the present invention is described by some embodiments, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes or equivalent substitutions may be made to these features and embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In addition, under the teachings of the present invention, these features and embodiments may be modified to adapt to specific circumstances and materials without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed herein, and all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims of this application are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: S1. Establish a communication connection between the server and the on-duty drone, between the server and all on-duty warehouses in the area, and between the server and the user control terminal. The server has a preset battery replacement warning threshold; S2. The server receives all drone guard warehouse information and guard drone information in a preset area; The information of all drone guard stations in the preset area includes at least the location information of each guard station, the position information in the guard station, and the battery power information in the station; The on-duty drone information includes at least drone location information, drone remaining battery information, and drone remaining endurance information; S3. The server determines whether the on-duty drone needs to enter the warehouse for battery replacement based on the received on-duty drone information; the specific judgment method is as follows: If the remaining endurance value of the drone received by the server is greater than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server sends normal flight command information to the user control terminal or the on-duty drone; If the remaining endurance value of the drone received by the server is less than the battery replacement warning threshold, the server matches the drone endurance information with the drone guard warehouse to determine the guard warehouse set A that may be used for drone battery replacement within the drone endurance range, and executes step S4; S4. Based on the received information about the positions in each guard warehouse in the preset area, the server selects a guard warehouse set B with vacant positions in the guard warehouse from the guard warehouse set A that may be used for UAV battery replacement, and selects the guard warehouse with the largest battery power from the guard warehouse set B as the final charging warehouse; S5. Based on the received final charging compartment information, the user control terminal controls the compartment opening and sends instructions for the drone to enter the compartment and replace the battery.

2. A method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone according to claim 1, characterized in that: The drone guard warehouse includes a plurality of first guard warehouses set at a certain distance from the edge of the area and a second guard warehouse set in the middle of the area; the battery replacement warning threshold includes a battery power warning value and a battery life warning value, wherein the battery power warning value is set to a, and the battery life warning value is set to b; Where a is the percentage of the remaining power of the drone to the battery capacity, and b is the remaining flight time of the drone when the battery power of the drone is a.

3. A method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone according to claim 2, characterized in that: The method for determining a set of guard warehouses that can be used for UAV battery replacement includes the following steps: S301. When the server receives a warning value a or less than a for the remaining battery power of the drone, the server compares and analyzes the received drone location information with the drone guard warehouse location information to obtain a set of guard warehouses A for the drones within the drone's endurance range; S302. The server selects the drone guard warehouse with a battery power greater than the drone battery power within the endurance range as the first target warehouse according to the received drone remaining power information; S303. The server selects the on-duty warehouse with the largest battery power in the first target warehouse and defines it as the second target warehouse. The second target warehouse is eventually used as the battery replacement for the drone.

4. The method for selecting a warehouse for an on-duty drone according to claim 3, characterized in that: The method for determining the drone guard warehouse within the drone's flight range includes the following steps: S3011. The server obtains the distance c between the drone and any guard warehouse based on the received drone location information and the drone guard warehouse location information; S3012. The server compares and analyzes the endurance warning value b with the distance c between the drone and any duty warehouse; If b > c, add this duty warehouse to the set A of duty warehouses within the drone's endurance range; If b < c, exclude this duty warehouse from the set A of duty warehouses within the drone's endurance range.

5. A drone guard system, characterized in that: The drone duty system executes the method described in claims 1-4. The system includes a server, several duty warehouses set in the area, a user control terminal, and a drone flying and on duty in the area; Among them, the server is communicatively connected or electrically connected to the duty warehouses in the area, the server is communicatively connected to the drones on duty in the area, and the server is communicatively connected to the user control terminal; the duty warehouses are used for parking the drones in the area and for swapping the batteries of the drones in the area; The duty warehouse includes a main body; wherein, a cube-shaped parking bay is provided in the middle of the main body, a lid that can be opened and closed is provided at the hatch at the top of the parking bay, battery bays communicating with the parking bay are provided at both ends of the main body, a battery swapping component is provided in each battery bay, and the battery swapping component can be extended to the first position or retracted to the second position along the direction of communication between the battery bay and the parking bay, and a liftable parking component is provided at the bottom of the parking bay; a pair of opposite clamping components are further provided in the parking bay, and the clamping components are used to clamp and hold the drone on the parking component entering the parking bay so as to facilitate the battery swapping component to pick up and place the battery.

6. The unmanned aerial vehicle guarding system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The parking component includes a lifting structure, a parking apron, and a reflective photoelectric sensor. The lifting structure is fixedly provided at the center of the bottom of the parking bay, the parking apron is rotatably provided at the top of the lifting structure, and the lifting structure rises or contracts to make the parking apron in the state of receiving the plane outside the warehouse or in the state of swapping the battery inside the warehouse; Among them, in the state of swapping the battery inside the warehouse, the battery of the drone on the parking apron is swapped with the spare battery in the battery bay through the battery swapping component; the parking apron is driven to rotate by a motor provided at the bottom of the parking apron, and the battery removal direction of the drone changes along with the rotation of the parking apron; the transmitting device of the reflective photoelectric sensor is provided at the rear end of the battery bay, and the receiver of the reflective photoelectric sensor is at the same end of the two landing gears of the drone. The reflective photoelectric sensor is used to determine that the battery loading and unloading direction of the drone is parallel to the battery swapping direction of the battery swapping component.

7. The drone guarding system according to claim 6, characterized in that: The battery exchange component has a telescopic arm arranged in the corresponding battery compartment, and the telescopic arm can be horizontally extended or retracted from the battery compartment where it is located toward the parking compartment, and a battery clamping part is fixedly arranged at the end of the telescopic arm; the battery clamping part includes a first U-shaped frame and a second U-shaped frame, and the two U-shaped frames each have two side walls and a bottom wall connecting the two side walls, and the bottom wall of the first U-shaped frame is fixed to the end of the telescopic arm; the second U-shaped frame is rotatably arranged between the two side walls of the first U-shaped frame through a rotating shaft, and a rotating motor C is arranged on the outer side of the side wall of the first U-shaped frame, and the rotating motor The output shaft of machine C is fixedly connected to one of the rotating shafts so as to drive the second U-shaped frame to rotate relative to the first U-shaped frame through the rotating motor C; a first clamping plate group and a second clamping plate group are provided on the inner side of each side wall of the second U-shaped frame through an electric cylinder, the upper end of the first clamping plate group is exposed on the upper side of the second U-shaped frame, and the lower end of the second clamping plate group is exposed on the lower side of the second U-shaped frame, so that the first clamping plate group and the second clamping plate group form a first clamping end and a second clamping end respectively, one of which is used to remove the low-power battery on the drone, and the other is used to clamp the spare battery in the charging compartment.

8. The drone guarding system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The clamping assembly includes a telescopic electric cylinder arranged on the inner wall of the parking compartment, and the two telescopic electric cylinders are respectively located on the inner walls of the parking compartment on both sides of the charging compartment, and a cross bar is provided at the end of each telescopic electric cylinder; when in use, the two telescopic electric cylinders are synchronously extended toward the middle of the parking compartment to center the drone on the apron through the cross bar, and finally the landing gear of the drone is clamped by the cross bar to keep the drone relatively fixed until the battery is replaced.

9. The unmanned aerial vehicle guarding system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The steps for replacing the battery of the drone in the warehouse include: The compartment cover is open; The aircraft lands in the bay, and the lifting structure rises to lift the apron to the top of the bay. The drone to be replaced stops on the apron, and the lifting structure descends, and the drone enters the bay along with the apron; The angle of the drone is adjusted, and the motor at the bottom of the apron drives the apron to rotate, so that the reflective photoelectric sensor detects that the distance from the two landing gears to the rear end of the battery compartment is equal. At this time, the direction of loading and unloading the drone battery is parallel to the direction of battery replacement; The drone is centered and kept fixed. The two telescopic electric cylinders are extended synchronously, so that the crossbar gradually rests against the drone landing gear. The drone is centered under the push of the crossbar. Finally, the two crossbars exert a clamping force on the drone landing gear under the action of the telescopic electric cylinders, keeping the drone relatively fixed on the apron. During the battery replacement operation, the telescopic arm extends or contracts so that the battery clamping part is in the position for taking and placing the spare battery in the battery compartment. The electric cylinder controls any one of the first clamping plate group or the second clamping plate group to clamp the spare battery in the battery compartment, and then the telescopic arm extends. At the same time, the spare battery is taken out of the battery compartment as the telescopic arm extends, until the other clamping plate group is at the disassembly position of the drone battery. The electric cylinder controls the clamping plate group to clamp the low-power battery on the drone, and the telescopic arm contracts to remove the drone battery. At this time, the two clamping plate groups clamp the spare battery and the low-power battery respectively. The telescopic arm contracts to the area between the drone and the battery compartment, and the rotary motor C rotates to swap the positions of the first clamping plate group and the second clamping plate group, so that the spare battery is on the drone battery installation side, and the low-power battery is on the charging side of the charging compartment. The telescopic arm extends to the bottom of the drone battery position again and inserts the spare battery into the drone battery position to complete the battery replacement; the telescopic arm retracts to insert the replaced low-power battery into the impulse position in the charging compartment.

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