A flight control system, method, medium and device for an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be upgraded during flight

Abstract

The present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle flight control system, method, medium and equipment that can be upgraded during flight. The flight control system includes: a peripheral communication subsystem, a flight control subsystem and an execution subsystem. The firmware can be upgraded during normal flight. The flight control subsystem as a whole adopts a distributed three-redundancy design, which simultaneously improves the operational reliability of the flight control system and avoids failure during flight. The flight control system has a reliable wireless upgrade capability and can be applied to algorithm updates and conventional flights of large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle clusters, which can improve the convenience, safety and reliability of the flight control system. The present invention has the ability to cope with the risk of loss of control in extreme abnormal situations and the ability to reliably upgrade the unmanned aerial vehicle flight control firmware by setting a flight control subsystem with an air firmware upgrade capability based on three redundancy.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of unmanned aerial vehicle flight control, and specifically provides an unmanned aerial vehicle flight control system, method, medium and equipment that can be upgraded during flight. Background Art

[0002] The flight control system of a drone is the core device for the drone to fly stably. It collects sensor data, calculates control laws and outputs control signals, and needs to have high stability, high real-time performance and high reliability. Usually, the flight control system is composed of a single-chip microcomputer or a microprocessor as the core, supplemented by peripheral devices to form a hardware circuit board, and runs the code on the single-chip microcomputer or microprocessor, and the code is packaged in the form of firmware. In the prior art, when a new flight control firmware needs to be loaded into the flight control system, the aircraft needs to stay on the ground, and after cutting off the power supply, the firmware is flashed into the flight control system in two forms: wired or wireless. Among them, the wired form is connected to the computer through a cable, and the firmware update is completed on the ground station software of the computer. The wireless form is to set up a special chip and circuit outside the flight control system, which is responsible for receiving the firmware and performing the flashing operation to complete the firmware update. However, the wired firmware update method requires a physical connection with the flight control system. Some drones have a compact spatial layout and the flight control system is installed deep in the body. The interface needs to be pre-leaded out separately, which takes up design resources. The existing wireless update method requires the use of a dedicated link, and firmware updates can usually only be performed at close range on the ground. During the firmware upgrade process, there is a probability that the upgrade will fail due to unstable data transmission. At this time, only an overwrite update can be performed, which will erase the data that you want to keep during the normal upgrade process, and the existing wireless update method does not support firmware updates during flight. Summary of the invention

[0003] In order to overcome the problems existing in the prior art, the present invention provides a UAV flight control system, method, medium and device that can be upgraded in flight, which are used to overcome the current defects.

[0004] A flight control system for a drone that can be upgraded during flight, the flight control system comprising: a peripheral communication subsystem, a flight control subsystem and an execution subsystem;

[0005] The peripheral communication subsystem is used to communicate with the ground station and receive the upgrade package of the flight control subsystem;

[0006] The flight control subsystem includes at least three independent flight control subsystems, each of which is capable of controlling the flight of the UAV, and periodically generates control instructions, and sends the instructions to the execution subsystem;

[0007] The execution subsystem is connected to the flight control subsystem, and is used to select one of the control instructions as the final output instruction according to one or more control instructions and status information received, and output it to the corresponding UAV actuator.

[0008] According to the aspects described above and any possible implementation methods, an implementation method is further provided, wherein each of the flight control subsystems includes a firmware upgrade module, a core module and a communication arbitration module that are interconnected, the firmware upgrade module is used to upgrade the flight control subsystem or other flight control subsystems; the communication arbitration module is used to communicate with other flight control subsystems and peripheral communication subsystems; the core module is used to detect the UAV and generate periodic control instructions, and send control instructions and UAV operation status information to the communication arbitration module.

[0009] According to the above aspects and any possible implementation, an implementation is further provided, wherein the execution subsystem is implemented using an FPGA chip.

[0010] The present invention also provides a flight control method of a UAV flight control system that can be upgraded during flight, the method is implemented using the flight control system, and comprises the following steps:

[0011] S1. A core module of any flight control subsystem performs attitude control on the UAV at a first frequency, and sends control instructions and operation status information to the communication decision module;

[0012] S2. The communication decision module interacts with other flight control subsystem communication decision modules at a second frequency;

[0013] S3. Each communication decision module selects a flight control subsystem for flight control according to the negotiation result of the interactive information, and the communication decision module of the flight control subsystem outputs control instructions and status information to the execution subsystem.

[0014] S4. The execution subsystem selects one of the control instructions as the final output instruction based on the one or more control instructions and status information received, and outputs it to the corresponding UAV actuator.

[0015] According to the aspects described above and any possible implementation method, an implementation method is further provided. If the flight control subsystem selected in S1 is abnormal, the communication arbitration module again decides a new flight control subsystem for executing the control signal sending; the flight control subsystem sends a control signal to the execution subsystem.

[0016] According to the aspects described above and any possible implementation method, an implementation method is further provided, in which the firmware upgrade module of each flight control subsystem includes a core firmware module and an overall firmware module.

[0017] According to the above aspects and any possible implementation, an implementation is further provided, wherein the step of upgrading or updating the core firmware module includes:

[0018] C1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then forwards it to the communication arbitration module of each flight control subsystem.

[0019] C2. The communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package;

[0020] C3. The communication decision module of each flight control subsystem determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded and the flight control subsystem that performs the current UAV control;

[0021] C4. The core firmware module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded uses the verified firmware package to back up and upgrade the core firmware of the core module;

[0022] C5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the core firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn.

[0023] According to the above aspects and any possible implementation, an implementation is further provided, and the steps of upgrading or updating the overall firmware module are as follows:

[0024] D1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then receives the package and forwards it to the communication decision module of each flight control subsystem.

[0025] D2. Each communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package;

[0026] D3. Each communication arbitration module determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded, the flight control subsystem that needs to be guided for upgrade, and the flight control subsystem that performs the current UAV control;

[0027] D4. The overall firmware module of the flight control subsystem guided by the upgrade performs overall firmware backup and upgrade of each module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded;

[0028] D5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the overall firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn. The present invention also provides a computer storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program is executed by a processor to implement the method described.

[0029] The present invention further provides an electronic device, comprising:

[0030] A memory storing executable instructions;

[0031] A processor is used to execute the executable instructions in the memory to implement the method.

[0032] Beneficial effects of the present invention

[0033] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0034] Book The invention discloses an upgradeable UAV flight control system during flight. The flight control system includes: a peripheral communication subsystem, a flight control subsystem and an execution subsystem. The firmware can be upgraded during normal flight. The flight control subsystem as a whole adopts a distributed three-redundancy design, which simultaneously improves the operational reliability of the flight control system and avoids failure during flight. The flight control system has a reliable wireless upgrade capability and can be applied to the algorithm update and conventional flight of large-scale UAV clusters, which can improve the convenience, safety and reliability of the flight control system. The present invention has the ability to cope with the risk of loss of control in extreme abnormal situations and the ability to reliably upgrade the UAV flight control firmware in the air by setting a flight control system with an air firmware upgrade capability based on three redundancy, and has the following beneficial effects: 1) It is convenient to perform batch version management on large-scale unmanned clusters, so as to achieve remote upgrade, senseless upgrade and / or in-flight upgrade of the flight control firmware. 2) The reliability of the flight control system during flight is improved, and the interchangeability of the three flight control subsystems is fully utilized through the communication arbitration module. 3) The disaster recovery capability of the flight control system is improved. In the face of extreme abnormal situations, the unit in normal state can be guaranteed to take over the flight control to the maximum extent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the flight control system of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] In order to better understand the technical solution of the present invention, the content of the present invention includes but is not limited to the specific implementation methods described below, and similar technologies and methods should be considered to be within the scope of protection of the present invention. In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and advantages to be solved by the present invention clearer, the following will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0037] It should be clear that the embodiments described in the present invention are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0038] like Figure 1 As shown, the present invention provides a flight control system for a UAV that can be upgraded during flight, the flight control system comprising: a peripheral communication subsystem, a flight control subsystem and an execution subsystem;

[0039] The peripheral communication subsystem is used to communicate with terminal command devices such as ground stations and receive upgrade packages for the flight control subsystem;

[0040] The flight control subsystem includes at least three independent flight control subsystems, each of which is capable of controlling the flight of the UAV, and periodically generates control instructions, and sends the instructions to the execution subsystem;

[0041] The execution subsystem is connected to the flight control subsystem and is used to select one of the control instructions as the final output instruction according to one or more control instructions and status information received, and output it to the corresponding UAV actuator, wherein one control instruction comes from one of the flight control subsystems, and multiple control instructions come from two or three flight control subsystems.

[0042] Preferably, each of the flight control subsystems includes a firmware upgrade module, a core module and a communication arbitration module that are interconnected. The firmware upgrade module is used to upgrade the flight control subsystem or other flight control subsystems; the communication arbitration module is used to communicate with other flight control subsystems and peripheral communication subsystems; the core module is used to measure or detect the UAV and calculate and generate periodic control instructions, and send the control instructions and the operating status information of the UAV to the communication arbitration module. The measurement or detection is achieved through real-time data information collected by the posture sensor of the UAV.

[0043] Preferably, the execution subsystem is implemented using an FPGA chip, and can achieve signal interpretation and processing with extremely low latency and extremely high stability through hardware programming.

[0044] As an embodiment disclosed by the present invention, the present invention also discloses a flight control method of a flight control system of a UAV that can be upgraded during flight. The method is implemented by the flight control system, and comprises the following steps:

[0045] S1. A core module of any flight control subsystem performs attitude control on the UAV at a first frequency, and sends control instructions and operation status information to the communication decision module;

[0046] S2. The communication decision module interacts with other flight control subsystem communication decision modules at a second frequency;

[0047] S3. Each communication decision module selects a flight control subsystem for flight control according to the negotiation result of the interactive information, and the communication decision module of the flight control subsystem outputs control instructions and status information to the execution subsystem.

[0048] S4. The execution subsystem selects one of the control instructions as the final output instruction based on the one or more control instructions and status information received, and outputs it to the corresponding UAV actuator.

[0049] Preferably, in step S1, if the current flight control subsystem fails abnormally, the operation steps are as follows:

[0050] Step B1. The communication decision module determines an abnormal flight control subsystem;

[0051] Step B2. The communication decision module decides a new flight control subsystem for executing control signal transmission;

[0052] Step B3. The flight control subsystem sends a control signal to the execution subsystem.

[0053] Preferably, the firmware upgrade module of each flight control subsystem includes a core firmware module and an overall firmware module.

[0054] Preferably, the steps of upgrading or updating the core firmware module include:

[0055] C1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then forwards it to the communication arbitration module of each flight control subsystem.

[0056] C2. The communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package;

[0057] C3. The communication decision module of each flight control subsystem determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded and the flight control subsystem that performs the current UAV control;

[0058] C4. The core firmware module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded uses the verified firmware package to back up and upgrade the core firmware of its core module;

[0059] C5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the core firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn.

[0060] Preferably, the steps for upgrading or updating the overall firmware module are as follows:

[0061] D1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then receives the package and forwards it to the communication decision module of each flight control subsystem.

[0062] D2. The communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package;

[0063] D3. The communication arbitration module of each unit determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded, the flight control subsystem that needs to be guided for upgrade, and the flight control subsystem that executes the current UAV control;

[0064] D4. The overall firmware module of the flight control subsystem guided by the upgrade performs overall firmware backup and upgrade of each module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded;

[0065] D5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the overall firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn.

[0066] according to Figure 1 As shown, after the entire flight control system is powered on, the peripheral communication subsystem communicates with the terminal command equipment such as the ground station through the communication link and other equipment to send the working status of the flight control subsystem, receive the control instructions of the ground station, and upgrade the instructions and corresponding firmware. The flight control subsystem is used to receive the measurement information of each sensor on the drone and calculate the position and attitude, and generate the control instructions for controlling the next time step or moment of the drone in combination with the flight status of the drone and the control command of the ground station. The execution subsystem is used to receive the control instructions generated by the flight control subsystem and make the final safety judgment, select the most appropriate control instructions and output them to the actuator of the drone, so that the drone flies according to the control instructions.

[0067] In the flight control subsystem, when faced with scenarios such as changes in control methods, changes in control logic, routine maintenance upgrades, and adaptive changes to flight missions, it is necessary to perform firmware flashing operations on the flight control subsystem, that is, to upgrade the flight control subsystem. In the prior art, the firmware upgrade package is transmitted to the flight control subsystem by wired or wireless means during the upgrade, and then guided by external software or internal corresponding functional modules to complete the upgrade and restart. However, due to the inherent characteristics of electronic equipment and chips, the drone cannot operate normally at the same time when writing firmware. Therefore, the upgrade of the drone is usually carried out in the ground stage, that is, the drone is restarted and the flight mission is started after the upgrade is completed when the drone is stationary. This method requires the use of ground equipment resources, and batch upgrades cannot be performed at the same time. In addition, in some important flight missions, in order to cope with special situations such as sudden scenes and emergency scenes, the flight control subsystem cannot directly load the corresponding firmware to cope with it, and the mission adaptability is not high. Therefore, from the perspective of cluster management and mission adaptability, the present invention proposes a drone flight control system that can upgrade the drone while the drone is flying, that is, the drone can be upgraded at the same time during flight, and the upgrade does not affect or change the current operating state of the drone.

[0068] The present invention is designed based on the redundancy framework, and can deal with single point failure problems through arbitration in normal flight, thereby increasing the operational stability of the flight control subsystem. It also has the ability to hot-switch the flight control subsystem in the air, and on this basis, adds a firmware flashing function, and finally completes reliable firmware updates during flight.

[0069] The present invention adopts a distributed redundant flight control system without a center and without a bus. Since a single flight control subsystem cannot perform flight control during the upgrade, the present invention adopts a triple-redundancy design and optimizes the method based on the existing bus redundant distributed system to achieve a design without a center and without a bus, avoiding potential risks such as single-point failure of devices and bus congestion. The three sets of redundant flight control subsystems communicate at high speed through point-to-point lines to complete the synchronization of flight status information and control law working status, and use a competitive method to complete the control quantity voting.

[0070] The real-time seamless switching strategy of the flight control system of the present invention requires that each group of flight control subsystems be upgraded in turn during the firmware upgrade of redundant flight control subsystems. To ensure that the drone can continue to fly in the air without being affected, the present invention synchronizes the underlying key information to achieve real-time seamless switching between flight control subsystems.

[0071] The firmware upgrade module of each flight control subsystem in the flight control system includes a core firmware module and an overall firmware module. The firmware update strategy during flight, the present invention sets a firmware update strategy for the flight control subsystem during flight, which is implemented by the firmware upgrade module in each flight control subsystem, specifically including:

[0072] 1) Send the firmware to the peripheral communication subsystem of the flight control system through the ground station,

[0073] 2) The peripheral communication subsystem receives the firmware and distributes it to the various firmware upgrade modules of the flight control subsystem.

[0074] 3) After each firmware upgrade module completes the firmware integrity check, it performs a core firmware upgrade or a complete firmware upgrade according to the upgrade instructions, and simultaneously backs up the old version of the firmware.

[0075] 4) The corresponding flight control subsystem will automatically restart after the upgrade is completed. After the restart, the running status will be checked. If the check is normal, the backup will be deleted and the upgrade is completed.

[0076] The above process completes the actions of firmware reception, firmware upgrade, firmware verification, flight control restart and backup and restoration, ensuring that the firmware can adapt to the communication conditions with high packet loss rate in the relative verification function. The storage space of the firmware update module can also be stored for a long time, which is suitable for the communication environment with low transmission rate. Therefore, reliable firmware update can be completed in the wireless communication environment with high packet loss rate and low rate.

[0077] The present invention manufactures the flight control system on a circuit board, adopts a peripheral communication subsystem module, a flight control subsystem including at least three isomorphic flight control subsystems, the three isomorphic flight control subsystems are respectively recorded as the first flight control unit A1, the second flight control unit A2 and the third flight control unit A3, and an execution subsystem, each flight control unit includes three modules, namely a core module, a firmware upgrade module and a communication decision module, the core module is used to unlock the posture of the drone and generate control instructions, the firmware upgrade module is used to receive and store firmware and guide the upgrade, the communication decision module is used to exchange information and judge the running status of the flight control unit, the three modules in each unit are interconnected or connected, and each flight control unit communicates through the communication decision module. The execution subsystem is hardware programmed by an FPGA chip, and is used to receive one or more control signals of the flight control subsystem and select one of them as the final instruction to output to the execution mechanism.

[0078] The flight control subsystem has data exchange between the units, and normal flight includes the following steps:

[0079] Step 1: The flight control system starts, and the three flight control units start running. The core module controls the attitude of the drone at a stable 500Hz frequency of the real-time operating system;

[0080] Step 2: The core module of each flight control unit sends control process information to the communication decision module of the flight control unit, including control instructions, attitude solution covariance information, sensor measurement original information, system clock synchronization information, communication packet loss rate information and / or firmware version number information, etc.;

[0081] Step 3: The communication decision module communicates at a frequency of 1000Hz, which is twice the operating frequency of the core module. This frequency can ensure that the data frames sent by the core module are received and processed without delay. The information communicated between the communication decision module and the other two flight control units includes control instructions, attitude solution covariance information, sensor measurement original information, system clock synchronization information, communication packet loss rate information, firmware version number information and / or health quantification information, etc. Each communication decision module independently runs an isomorphic decision algorithm, which is a weighted multi-level neural network model. It takes the above data as input and finally outputs the health quantification value of the core module. The network model can be implemented using an existing neural network model, and the present invention does not make specific restrictions;

[0082] Step 4: Each communication arbitration module coordinates according to the quantified health information and negotiates the flight control unit for flight control. For example, when the first flight control unit A1 performs flight control, the communication arbitration module of the first flight control unit A1 outputs a control command signal and a status confirmation signal to the execution subsystem. The execution subsystem verifies the legitimacy of the control command through the status confirmation signal. After the verification is passed, an execution signal is generated to each actuator of the UAV, thereby controlling the flight of the UAV.

[0083] The execution subsystem has up to three control signal inputs, which come from the communication arbitration modules of the three flight control units, and one command output interface, which is used to output the execution signal generated by itself according to the input control signal to each actuator of the drone.

[0084] Accordingly, the execution subsystem follows the following working logic:

[0085] P1: The control command signal is in the form of a periodic data frame. The frame content is the current control quantity content, frame count, signal ID, flight control unit priority and CRC16 checksum. If the check passes, the control command sent by the flight control unit with the highest priority is read;

[0086] P2: Under normal operating conditions, only one flight control unit selected as the best sends a status confirmation signal and control command at the same time.

[0087] P3: If more than one control command signal is received at the same time and all pass the verification, the control command signal of the flight control unit with the highest priority is selected. If the priorities of the signals are inconsistent, the control command of the flight control unit with a higher frame count is selected first.

[0088] When a software abnormality occurs in a flight control unit (such as the first flight control unit A1), if the flight control unit itself can identify the abnormality, the flight control unit will set its own priority to the lowest. If the abnormality cannot be identified by a single flight control unit itself, there will be inconsistent opinions in the negotiation and selection process. At this time, the final priority ranking is determined by the majority. Identifiable abnormal conditions include but are not limited to: sensor failure, operation timeout, program abnormality, excessive memory usage, abnormal temperature increase. Abnormal conditions that cannot be identified by a single system include: external magnetic field interference, external navigation signal interference, electromagnetic compatibility issues, increased variance of fitting data, sensor failure, increased sensor error, operation timing timeout, logical processor crash, etc.

[0089] When a flight control unit (such as A1) encounters a hardware abnormality, such as upgrading, freezing, restarting, etc., its communication arbitration module will not be able to generate a pulse signal with strict periodicity, nor can it generate a periodic control command signal. Therefore, the remaining flight control units will lower its priority, and the execution subsystem will also refuse to receive the control commands it sends.

[0090] When a certain flight control unit (such as A1) fails due to hardware anomalies, the communication status is as follows:

[0091] Step 1: The communication arbitration module of each flight control unit independently calculates the health of itself and other flight control units, and votes based on the calculation results to determine the abnormal flight control unit, such as the first flight control unit A1;

[0092] Step 2: The communication decision module of each flight control unit decides a new flight control unit for sending control signals according to the voting result, such as the second flight control unit A2;

[0093] Step 3: The second flight control unit A2 sends a control command signal, and the execution subsystem receives the control command through frame verification and generates a control signal to send to each actuator of the drone.

[0094] The characteristics of this system enable it to have the function of over-the-air firmware update, which can update the firmware of the three modules in the flight control unit. According to the update content, the firmware upgrade module is divided into a core firmware module and an overall firmware module. The core firmware module is the firmware used only for updating the core module, and the overall firmware module is the firmware used to update the three modules including the communication arbitration module, the core module and the firmware upgrade module. Under normal circumstances, small-scale iterative and corrective updates only need to update the core firmware module. This update can be completed within a flight control unit, that is, the firmware upgrade module inside the flight control unit guides the core module to complete the firmware update.

[0095] The steps to update the core firmware module are as follows:

[0096] Step 1: The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem of each flight control unit. The firmware package contains the new firmware program, version number, file type, checksum, etc. The peripheral communication subsystem forwards it to the firmware upgrade module of each flight control unit;

[0097] Step 2: The firmware upgrade module performs integrity check on the firmware package, mainly by generating a checksum for the entire file and comparing it with the checksum in the package to confirm the integrity of the firmware package;

[0098] Step 3: Each unit communication arbitration module makes a decision based on the current priority, and selects the flight control unit with the lowest priority to update the firmware first. For example, if the current priority order is the first flight control unit A1, the second flight control unit A2, and the third flight control unit A3, then the first flight control unit A1 is in the state of outputting control signals, and the third flight control unit A3 is used for upgrading first. If there is an abnormal flight control unit at present, the update will not be performed, and the result will be fed back to the ground station through the peripheral communication subsystem.

[0099] Step 4: The firmware upgrade module of the third flight control unit A3 performs firmware backup and boot upgrade on its core module. After the upgrade is completed, the core module restarts and starts running normally.

[0100] Step 5, after the third flight control unit A3 is upgraded, priority sorting is performed again. If the priority sorting is still the first flight control unit A1, the second flight control unit A2 and the third flight control unit A3, then the second flight control unit A2 is upgraded or updated this time. If the priority sorting becomes the third flight control unit A3, the first flight control unit A1 and the second flight control unit A2, then the second flight control unit A2 is also upgraded or updated, and so on.

[0101] The overall firmware module update steps are as follows:

[0102] Step 1: The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem of each flight control unit. The firmware package contains the new firmware program, version number, file type, checksum, etc. The peripheral communication subsystem forwards it to the firmware upgrade module of each flight control unit.

[0103] Step 2: The firmware upgrade module performs integrity check on the firmware package, mainly by generating a check code for the entire file and comparing it with the check code in the package to confirm the integrity of the received firmware package.

[0104] Step 3: The communication arbitration module of each flight control unit makes a decision based on the current priority, and selects the flight control unit with the lowest priority to update the firmware first. For example, the current priority order is the first flight control unit A1, the second flight control unit A2 and the third flight control unit A3, and the first flight control unit A1 is in the state of outputting the control signal, and the third flight control unit A3 is used for upgrading first, and the second flight control unit A2 is used to guide the upgrade. If there is an abnormal flight control unit at present, the update will not be performed, and the result will be fed back to the ground station through the peripheral communication subsystem.

[0105] In step 4, the firmware upgrade module of the second flight control unit A2 backs up and upgrades the overall firmware of the core module, firmware upgrade module, and communication arbitration module of the third flight control unit A3. Because the firmware upgrade module of the third flight control unit A3 cannot guide its own upgrade, it is guided by the firmware upgrade module of the second flight control unit A2. After the firmware of each module is upgraded, it restarts in turn and runs normally.

[0106] Step S5, after the third flight control unit A3 is upgraded, priority sorting is performed again. If the priority sorting is still the first flight control unit A1, the second flight control unit A2 and the third flight control unit A3, then the second flight control unit A2 is upgraded or updated this time, but is guided by the third flight control unit A3; if the priority sorting becomes the third flight control unit A3, the first flight control unit A1 and the second flight control unit A2, then the second flight control unit A2 is upgraded or updated this time, guided by the first flight control unit A1, and so on.

[0107] As an embodiment disclosed in the present invention, the present invention further provides a computer storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program is executed by a processor to implement the method described.

[0108] As an embodiment disclosed in the present invention, the present invention further provides an electronic device, the electronic device comprising:

[0109] A memory storing executable instructions;

[0110] A processor is used to execute the executable instructions in the memory to implement the method.

[0111] The terms used in the embodiments of the present invention are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. The singular forms "a", "said" and "the" used in the embodiments of the present invention and the appended claims are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates other meanings.

[0112] The above description shows and describes several preferred embodiments of the present invention, but as mentioned above, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the form disclosed herein, and should not be regarded as excluding other embodiments, but can be used in various other combinations, modifications and environments, and can be modified within the scope of the application concept described herein through the above teachings or the technology or knowledge of the relevant field. The changes and modifications made by those skilled in the art shall not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and shall be within the scope of protection of the claims attached to the present invention.

Claims

1. A flight control method for an unmanned aerial vehicle flight control system that can be upgraded during flight, characterized in that: The flight control system of the UAV that can be upgraded during flight includes: a peripheral communication subsystem, a flight control subsystem and an execution subsystem; The peripheral communication subsystem is used to communicate with the ground station and receive the upgrade package of the flight control subsystem; The flight control subsystem includes at least three independent flight control subsystems, each of which can control the flight of the drone, and periodically generate control instructions, and send the instructions to the execution subsystem. Each of the flight control subsystems includes a firmware upgrade module, a core module and a communication arbitration module that are interconnected; The execution subsystem is connected to the flight control subsystem, and is used to select one of the control instructions as the final output instruction according to one or more control instructions and status information received, and output it to the corresponding UAV execution mechanism. The method includes the following steps: S1. A core module of any flight control subsystem of the flight control subsystem performs attitude control on the UAV at a first frequency, and sends control instructions and operation status information to a communication arbitration module at the same time; S2. The communication decision module interacts with other flight control subsystem communication decision modules at a second frequency; S3. Each communication decision module selects a flight control subsystem for flight control according to the negotiation results of the interactive information, and the communication decision module of the flight control subsystem outputs control instructions and status information to the execution subsystem; S4. The execution subsystem selects one of the control instructions as the final output instruction according to the received one or more control instructions and status information, and outputs it to the corresponding UAV actuator; The firmware upgrade module of each flight control subsystem includes a core firmware module and an overall firmware module. The upgrade steps of the core firmware module include: C1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then forwards it to the communication arbitration module of each flight control subsystem. C2. The communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package; C3. The communication decision module of each flight control subsystem determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded and the flight control subsystem that performs the current UAV control; C4. The core firmware module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded uses the verified firmware package to back up and upgrade the core firmware of the core module; C5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the core firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn.

2. The flight control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The firmware upgrade module upgrades the flight control subsystem or other flight control subsystems; the communication arbitration module communicates with other flight control subsystems and peripheral communication subsystems; the core module detects the drone and generates periodic control instructions, and sends the control instructions and the operating status information of the drone to the communication arbitration module.

3. The flight control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The execution subsystem is implemented using an FPGA chip.

4. The flight control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: If the flight control subsystem selected in S1 is abnormal, the communication arbitration module will again decide on a new flight control subsystem for executing control signal transmission; the flight control subsystem will send a control signal to the execution subsystem.

5. The flight control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The steps for upgrading or updating the overall firmware module are as follows: D1. The ground station sends a firmware package to the peripheral communication subsystem, which then receives the firmware package and forwards it to the communication arbitration module of each flight control subsystem; D2. Each communication arbitration module performs integrity check on the received firmware package; D3. Each communication arbitration module determines the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded, the flight control subsystem that needs to be guided for upgrade, and the flight control subsystem that performs the current UAV control; D4. The overall firmware module of the flight control subsystem guided by the upgrade performs overall firmware backup and upgrade of each module of the flight control subsystem that needs to be upgraded; D5. The upgraded flight control subsystem is used as the new UAV flight control subsystem, and the communication arbitration module makes decisions and upgrades the overall firmware modules of the remaining flight control subsystems in turn.

6. A computer storage medium, characterized in that: The medium stores a computer program, and the computer program is executed by a processor to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. An electronic device, characterized in that: The electronic device comprises: A memory storing executable instructions; A processor, wherein the processor runs the executable instructions in the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

Images