Medium and large unmanned aerial vehicle structure

By adopting carbon fiber mezzanine landing gear, guardrail and heat dissipation design in medium and large-scale drone structures, the problems of poor rigidity and flight stability of the rotor installation structure are solved, personnel and equipment are ensured, and aerodynamic thrust and heat dissipation efficiency are improved.

CN119305760APending Publication Date: 2025-01-14XIAN LEITONG SCI & TECH
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Patent Information

Application Number
CN202411219686.3
Authority / Receiving Office
CN · China
Patent Type
Applications(China)
Current Assignee / Owner
Filing Date
2024-09-02
Publication Date
2025-01-14

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

The rotor installation structure of medium and large drone structures has poor rigidity, resulting in poor flight stability. The exposed rotor blades may pose a threat to ground personnel and equipment, and accidents are more likely to occur when rotating at high speed.

Method used

A medium-sized drone structure including equipment compartment, landing gear, motor assembly and guard ring is designed. The landing gear is an arc-shaped carbon fiber sandwich structure, a guard ring is installed around the motor assembly, and a motor mounting arm between adjacent motor components is designed. Set at 90 degrees, it adopts a thin-walled carbon fiber structure and integrated heat-solidation molding to form a pneumatic duct to increase pneumatic thrust, and heat is exported through heat dissipation teeth and vortex ribs.

Benefits of technology

It improves the overall rigidity and flight stability of the drone, protects ground personnel, enhances the aerodynamic thrust of the rotor, ensures efficient heat dissipation of the motor components, and realizes a lightweight and high-strength structural design.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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Abstract

A medium-large unmanned aerial vehicle structure comprises an equipment cabin, a control assembly and a power supply assembly are arranged in the equipment cabin, an undercarriage is installed below the equipment cabin, a plurality of motor assemblies are symmetrically arranged on the periphery of the equipment cabin, the control assembly is in control connection with each motor assembly, and the power supply assembly is electrically connected with each motor assembly. A protective ring connected with the equipment compartment is arranged on the periphery of each motor assembly, the adjacent motor assemblies are connected through motor mounting arms, and the unmanned aerial vehicle rotor is mounted below each motor assembly, so that the problems that a rotor mounting structure of a medium-large unmanned aerial vehicle structure is poor in rigidity, the deviation between the center position of the rotor after mounting and the design theoretical position of the whole machine is large, and the reliability is poor are solved. The overall rigidity of the aircraft body is poor, and the flight stability is poor. By arranging the protective ring, the problems that the rotor blades are exposed, ground personnel can be threatened in the take-off and landing stages, and the aircraft, load equipment and the like are damaged when the high-speed rotating blades have accidents are solved.
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Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application belongs to the field of UAV technology, and specifically relates to medium and large UAV structures. Background Art

[0002] With the rise of the civilian market, more and more types of drones are being used in public safety maintenance, emergency search and rescue, agriculture and forestry, environmental protection, communications and aerial photography, and other fields. With the increasing support of low-altitude economic policies, the drone market is also booming, and users are more eager to diversify the functions of drones. Load capacity is an important competitive indicator for drones. Increasing load capacity will inevitably lead to more power consumption, making the endurance problem of drones more prominent. In order to solve this problem, tethered drones came into being, that is, traditional drones are connected to retractable cable devices through cables to achieve real-time power supply and signal transmission, which can effectively extend the working time of drones and even meet all-weather working needs. The endurance advantage of tethered drones is extremely obvious, making tethered drones irreplaceable in occasions such as fixed-point monitoring and emergency lighting, emergency communications, and even electronic countermeasures and surveillance in war zones.

[0003] Common motor-driven, vertical take-off and landing drones have multi-rotor structures, usually with an even number of rotors for easy symmetrical control, and are mostly configured with four, six, or eight rotors. Whether it is a battery-driven motor or a tethered cable-powered motor, multi-rotor drones generally use the following: Figure 1 The fuselage configuration shown in the figure has a multi-rotor motor mounting arm junction at the center, and batteries, electronic control, flight control and other units are installed at the center. For small drones of this configuration, the rotor arms are generally designed to be foldable, which further reduces the size when stored, and has the advantage of being easy to carry and store. However, as the size of the aircraft increases, if medium and large drones still use a fuselage configuration with foldable rotor arms, the rigidity of their rotor mounting structure will be poor, and the center position of the rotor after installation will deviate greatly from the theoretical position of the overall design, resulting in poor overall rigidity of the fuselage and poor flight stability. The exposed rotor blades may pose a threat to ground personnel during takeoff and landing. When an accident occurs with the high-speed rotating blades, it will also cause damage to the aircraft itself, load equipment, etc. Summary of the invention

[0004] In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, the purpose of this application is to propose a medium-to-large UAV structure, which solves the problem that the rotor mounting structure of the medium-to-large UAV structure has poor rigidity, and the center position after the rotor is installed has a large deviation from the theoretical position of the whole machine design, resulting in poor overall rigidity of the fuselage and poor flight stability; by setting a guard ring, the problem that the exposed rotor blades may pose a threat to ground personnel during take-off and landing, and the problem that the high-speed rotating blades may cause damage to the aircraft itself, load equipment, etc. when an accident occurs is solved.

[0005] In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical solution adopted in this application is as follows:

[0006] A medium-to-large UAV structure comprises an equipment cabin, wherein a control component and a power component are arranged inside the equipment cabin, a landing gear is installed below the equipment cabin, a plurality of motor components are symmetrically arranged around the equipment cabin, a control component is respectively connected to each motor component for control, a power component is respectively connected to each motor component for electrical communication, a guard ring connected to the equipment cabin is arranged on the periphery of each motor component, adjacent motor components are connected by motor mounting arms, and a UAV rotor is installed below each motor component.

[0007] The axial length of the guard ring is 115mm-135mm and is used to form the aerodynamic duct of the UAV.

[0008] The motor mounting arms between adjacent motor assemblies are arranged at 90 degrees.

[0009] The landing gear is a carbon fiber sandwich structure with an inward-bent arc hook. When the drone lands, the hook of the landing gear contacts the ground.

[0010] The motor assembly comprises a motor, a motor drive control unit is installed on the top of the motor, a mounting positioning interface is arranged on the side of the motor, and a cable inlet is opened at the mounting positioning interface.

[0011] The motor mounting arm is a hollow carbon fiber tube, and the cables of the power supply assembly and the control assembly are connected to the motor assembly through the cable inlets on the motor mounting arm and the motor assembly.

[0012] The connecting surface between the installation positioning interface and the motor installation arm is an inclined surface.

[0013] Positioning devices are symmetrically arranged on the surface of the equipment cabin between two sets of adjacent UAV rotors, and the positioning devices are used for precise control of the UAV body posture.

[0014] An installation interface is provided at the bottom of the equipment compartment for connection with the mooring cable and load mounting.

[0015] Heat dissipation teeth are arranged on the motor assembly, and raised vortex ribs are arranged at the bottom of the motor to dissipate the heat of the motor assembly. An aluminum heat-conducting base plate is arranged at the bottom of the equipment compartment, and heat dissipation teeth are arranged on the outside of the heat-conducting base plate to dissipate the heat in the equipment compartment.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of this application are:

[0017] 1. The landing gear designed in this application is an inwardly curved arc hook carbon fiber sandwich structure, which absorbs impact energy when deformed by force, has a large deformation range, and has a gentle impact buffer, ensuring that medium and large UAVs have sufficient elastic buffering when landing.

[0018] 2. The periphery of the motor assembly of the present application is provided with a guard ring connected to the equipment cabin, which ensures the safety of the UAV rotor and ground personnel, and the guard ring has a certain axial length, forming an aerodynamic duct of the UAV, which can significantly improve the aerodynamic thrust of each rotor.

[0019] 3. This application is formed by integrated thermosetting of carbon fiber thin-wall structure, ensuring the light weight and high strength of medium and large UAVs.

[0020] 4. The motor mounting arms between adjacent motor assemblies of the present application are set at 90 degrees to ensure the stability of the UAV's force-bearing structure and facilitate precise control of the aircraft's flight attitude. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a common multi-rotor drone.

[0022] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the drone for this application;

[0023] Figure 3 This is a bottom view of the overall structure of the drone in this application;

[0024] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the landing gear structure of the UAV for this application;

[0025] Figure 5 This is a cross-sectional view of the UAV structure for this application;

[0026] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the arm structure for installing the motor assembly of the drone in this application;

[0027] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of the motor assembly structure of the drone in this application;

[0028] Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the bottom structure of the motor assembly of the drone in this application;

[0029] Fig. 9 Schematic diagram of the interface structure for the motor assembly of the drone in this application

[0030] Fig.10 This is a schematic diagram of the bottom structure of the drone equipment in this application.

[0031] In the figure: 1. Equipment compartment, 2. Landing gear, 3. Motor assembly, 4. Motor mounting arm, 5. UAV rotor, 6. Guard ring, 3-1. Electrode, 3-2. Motor drive control unit, 3-3. Installation positioning interface, 3-4. Cable inlet, 7. Installation interface. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of this application more clear, the following is a further detailed description of this application in conjunction with the embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are only used to explain this application and are not used to limit this application.

[0033] Example 1

[0034] like Figure 2 , 3 As shown, a medium-to-large UAV structure includes an equipment cabin 1, a control component and a power component are arranged inside the equipment cabin 1, a landing gear 2 is installed below the equipment cabin, four groups of motor components 3 are symmetrically arranged around the equipment cabin 1, the control component is respectively controlled and connected to each group of motor components 3, the power component is respectively electrically connected to each group of motor components 3, and a guard ring 6 connected to the equipment cabin is arranged on the periphery of each group of motor components 3. The axial length of the guard ring 6 is 125 mm and is used to form an aerodynamic duct of the UAV. Adjacent motor components 3 are connected by motor mounting arms 4, and a UAV rotor 5 is installed below each group of motor components.

[0035] like Figure 4 As shown, the landing gear 2 is a carbon fiber sandwich structure with an inwardly curved hook. When the UAV lands, the hook of the landing gear contacts the ground.

[0036] like Figure 6 As shown, the motor mounting arms 4 between adjacent motor assemblies 3 are arranged at 90 degrees.

[0037] like Figure 7 The motor assembly 3 shown includes a motor 3-1, a motor drive control unit 3-2 is installed on the top of the motor 3-1, a mounting positioning interface 3-3 is set on the side of the motor 3-1, and a cable inlet 3-4 is opened at the mounting positioning interface.

[0038] like Figure 5 As shown, the motor mounting arm 4 is a hollow carbon fiber tube, and the cables of the power supply assembly and the control assembly are connected to the motor assembly 3 through the motor mounting arm 4 and the cable inlet 3-4 on the motor assembly.

[0039] like Fig. 9 As shown, the interface between the mounting positioning interface 3 - 3 and the motor mounting arm 4 is an inclined surface.

[0040] Between two adjacent groups of UAV rotors 5, positioning devices are symmetrically arranged on the surface of the equipment cabin 1 for precise control of the UAV body posture.

[0041] like Fig.10 As shown, a mounting interface 7 is provided at the bottom of the equipment cabin 1 for mooring cable connection and load mounting.

[0042] like Figure 8 , 10The motor assembly 3 shown is provided with heat dissipation teeth, and the bottom of the motor is provided with raised vortex ribs for dissipating the heat of the motor assembly. An aluminum heat-conducting base plate is provided at the bottom of the equipment compartment, and the equipment compartment is provided with heat dissipation teeth for dissipating the heat in the equipment compartment.

[0043] Example 2

[0044] The overall shape of the fuselage of this application is beautiful and exquisite, and all geometric contour transitions are smooth and rounded. The equipment is thermosetted by an integrated carbon fiber thin-wall structure to ensure light weight, high structural rigidity and high strength. The thickness of the carbon fiber material layer in the main part of the fuselage is 0.6 to 0.8 mm. It is thermosetted into a shell structure with a hollow inner cavity using a composite material molding process. In addition, thanks to the extremely high tensile strength of carbon fiber materials, the structural configuration minimizes the weight of the fuselage while maintaining the best structural rigidity, thereby improving the load capacity of the entire machine.

[0045] The UAV rotor 5 of the present application is designed with a protective ring 6 that is integrally formed with the body. The protective ring 6 ensures the safety of the rotor and personnel. More importantly, the protective ring 6 has a certain axial length, forming an aerodynamic duct of the UAV, which can significantly improve the aerodynamic characteristics such as the air intake volume and airflow pressure of each rotor, and increase the aerodynamic thrust of the entire machine.

[0046] The electrode mounting arms 4 of the four motor assemblies 3 use four symmetrical variable-section hollow carbon fiber tubes. The variable-section design ensures that the maximum bending moment can be borne with the minimum deformation; they are combined in a square and integrated with the fuselage. In this way, each motor assembly has two mounting arms intersecting at 90 degrees to bear the force, and the force-bearing structure is stable, which is conducive to the precise control of the flight attitude of the fuselage; the power supply and control cables in the equipment cabin 1 are routed to each motor assembly 3 through the inner hole of the arm.

[0047] The installation between the motor assembly 3 and the motor mounting arm 4 adopts a mechanical interface form that is easy to replace and can be accurately installed and positioned. Each arm end is compositely molded with a motor assembly positioning piece, and the positioning piece is designed with a positioning stop to ensure that after the motor assembly 3 is installed, the rotor center is located at its theoretical design position.

[0048] The motor assembly 3 installation interface parts are designed with power supply and data cable inlet and outlet, and the interface between the cable inlet and the support arm is an inclined surface, such as Fig. 9 As shown, it can be ensured that after the interface part is connected to the support arm, as the tightening force increases, the two surfaces contacted by the aforementioned inclined surfaces will be further pressed, and the sealing ring will be further compressed, thereby ensuring reliable sealing.

[0049] Since this model is designed as a medium-to-large UAV with heavy load (maximum size of 1.8 meters, full weight with load exceeds 60kg), the landing gear 2 will bear a large impact force when the UAV lands. In order to make the landing of the body have enough elastic buffer, the landing gear 2 is designed as a special arc-shaped carbon fiber sandwich structure solidified with the body. The landing gear is designed as a variable cross-section structure, and the thickness of the part close to the root is greater than the part close to the ground. When the landing gear is subjected to the impact of the UAV landing and the force is applied, the deformation absorbs the impact energy, the deformation is uniform, and the impact buffering is gentle and reliable.

[0050] The motor drive control unit 3-2 is integrated with the motor 3-1 and installed on the top of the motor 3-1. The control and drive cables between the motor 3-1 and the motor 3-1 are located inside the packaging shell, and the connection is reliable, which improves the anti-interference ability of the communication cable. The motor 3-1 and the motor drive control unit 3-2 are the main heat sources in the UAV power assembly. With the help of high-speed airflow, the heat dissipation teeth cover the part with good heat dissipation. The bottom of the motor assembly 3 is in the airflow shadow area, which is prone to turbulence, poor airflow, and poor heat dissipation. Therefore, raised vortex ribs are designed on the bottom cover of the motor 3-1. When the motor rotates at high speed, the vortex ribs will drive the air in this part to flow at high speed, and the heat dissipation problem here is solved.

[0051] The surface of the equipment cabin of the drone of the present application is symmetrically designed with two circular cavities between the two rotors, and the top of the cavity is sealed with a wave-transmitting material cover. A GPS or Beidou module can be installed in the cavity to determine the precise orientation of the body with respect to the geographic magnetic pole, that is, the precise orientation of the body, so as to facilitate precise control of the body's attitude.

[0052] The fuselage structure of the present application naturally forms a large space in the middle of the four rotors. The top of the space has a sealing cover designed to match the fuselage shape, and the internal layered design has a large equipment installation space that can be used to install UAV power supply, flight control and other related equipment.

[0053] The central part of the drone body of the present application, at the bottom of the equipment cabin 1, is designed with an installation interface 7 for mooring cables and load installation, for mooring cable connection and load mounting.

[0054] In the center of the UAV body, at the bottom of the equipment compartment 1, there is a heat dissipation tooth made of a large area of ​​thermal conductive material. The thermal resistance between it and the bottom surface of the equipment compartment 1 is very small. It is used to conduct the heat of the heat-generating components such as the power supply in the equipment compartment 1 to the outside of the body, and dissipate the heat through high-altitude airflow to ensure the normal operation of the equipment.

[0055] This design is a tethered UAV. The power supply of the whole machine is provided by the tethered cable from the ground. The tethered cable is compounded with communication cables. The communication signals between the UAV and the ground equipment, the communication between the special equipment carried by the UAV and the ground control equipment and other related signals are also transmitted through the tethered cable. Fig.10As shown, the bottom surface of the fuselage equipment compartment 1 is designed with an installation interface 7 for installing mooring cables and load equipment.

[0056] In summary, the drone body and motor mounting arm of the present application are all integrated molding structures, the drone's overall force structure is reasonable, and the motor support structure is stable and reliable; the entire body uses a light and thin high-strength carbon fiber shell structure; the inner cavity of the body is designed with a fully enclosed equipment installation cabin, which is convenient for installing power supplies, flight control and other adjustment, control and communication components; the drone rotor is designed with a guard ring integrated with the body, which not only protects the rotor and ensures personnel safety, but also plays the aerodynamic function of a duct, enhancing the lift of the rotor on the drone under the same power; the motor and the motor drive controller are integrated to form a motor assembly with a modular design; the motor assembly adopts an efficient heat dissipation design.

[0057] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above embodiments are specific embodiments for implementing the present application, and in actual applications, various changes may be made thereto in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A medium-to-large UAV structure, including an equipment cabin, a control component and a power component are arranged inside the equipment cabin, and a landing gear is installed below the equipment cabin, characterized in that: Multiple groups of motor components are symmetrically arranged around the equipment cabin. The control components are respectively connected to the control of each group of motor components, and the power components are respectively electrically connected to each group of motor components. The periphery of each group of motor components is provided with a protective ring connected to the equipment cabin. Adjacent motor assemblies are connected by motor mounting arms, and a drone rotor is installed under each group of motor components.

2. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The axial length of the guard ring is 115mm-135mm and is used to form the aerodynamic duct of the UAV.

3. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The motor mounting arms between adjacent motor assemblies are arranged at 90 degrees.

4. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The landing gear is a carbon fiber sandwich structure with an inward-bent arc hook. When the drone lands, the hook of the landing gear contacts the ground.

5. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The motor assembly comprises a motor, a motor drive control unit is installed on the top of the motor, a mounting positioning interface is arranged on the side of the motor, and a cable inlet is opened at the mounting positioning interface.

6. The medium to large UAV structure according to claim 5, characterized in that: The motor mounting arm is a hollow carbon fiber tube, and the cables of the power supply assembly and the control assembly are connected to the motor assembly through the cable inlets on the motor mounting arm and the motor assembly.

7. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 5, characterized in that: The connecting surface between the installation positioning interface and the motor installation arm is an inclined surface.

8. The medium to large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: Positioning devices are symmetrically arranged on the surface of the equipment cabin between two sets of adjacent UAV rotors, and the positioning devices are used for precise control of the UAV body posture.

9. The medium-to-large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: An installation interface is provided at the bottom of the equipment compartment for connection with the mooring cable and load mounting.

10. The medium to large UAV structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: Heat dissipation teeth are arranged on the motor assembly, and raised vortex ribs are arranged at the bottom of the motor to dissipate the heat of the motor assembly. An aluminum heat-conducting base plate is arranged at the bottom of the equipment compartment, and heat dissipation teeth are arranged on the outside of the heat-conducting base plate to dissipate the heat in the equipment compartment.