A folding rotorcraft storage device

Abstract

The present invention discloses a storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft, which relates to the technical field of drone storage and transportation. The device has a simple and reasonable structure, is easy to install and use, has a low manufacturing cost, and has a wide range of applications. It solves problems such as slow automatic deployment and retraction speed, low position control accuracy, and motor stalling in drone storage and transportation. The device has strong environmental adaptability and has completed a 50km sports car road test on a bumpy road section behind a vehicle. During the test mission, the storage and transportation device was able to deploy and retract quickly and automatically, and the aircraft stored and transported inside did not suffer any structural damage, making it worthy of large-scale promotion and use.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the unmanned aerial vehicle storage and transportation technical field, in particular to a folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device which can be used in vehicle. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the rapid development of aircraft, domestic and foreign vehicle-mounted automatic aircraft take-off and landing systems suitable for different scenes are constantly released. Most aircrafts use machine vision to achieve centimeter-level precision landing, and have basically realized the ideal environment of aircraft take-off and landing during vehicle travel. Most vehicle-mounted aircraft take-off and landing systems use push rod to realize aircraft homing, and can automatically complete battery replacement or contact charging operation.

[0003] However, the current aircraft does not have the functions of automatic folding of the propeller and automatic folding of the machine arm. After landing on the storage box landing platform, the push rod is used to realize the homing of the aircraft. Because the aircraft machine arm and propeller are in an unfolded state, the storage box occupies a large space, causing a lot of space waste.

[0004] At the same time, the fixed throttle value is used to control the motor rotation. In the face of complex driving environment and severe weather, the motor under the fixed throttle value is difficult to drive the mechanism to move.

[0005] In addition, some storage boxes only use encoders to record the motion position. Because there is a gap in the motion mechanism, it is difficult to ensure the motion accuracy of the mechanism after a long time of operation, and there is a certain safety hazard. SUMMARY

[0006] In view of the above problems, the present application provides a folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device for overcoming the above problems or at least partially solving the above problems.

[0007] The present application provides the following solutions:

[0008] A folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device, comprising:

[0009] a box body, the top of the box body is open and the inside is formed with a space for accommodating the aircraft after folding the rotor arm;

[0010] a box door unit, the box door unit comprises two sliding cover doors of a split type and a door opening and closing motor, the two sliding cover doors are arranged on the track at the top of the box body, and the door opening and closing motor is used to drive the two sliding cover doors to open or close;

[0011] a lifting assembly, the lifting assembly comprises a lifting platform and a lifting motor, the lifting motor is located at the bottom of the inside of the box body, the lifting platform is located in the inside of the box body and is connected with the lifting motor in a matching mode, and the lifting motor is used to drive the lifting platform to lift along the height direction of the box body;

[0012] a to-position switch unit, comprising an opening door limit to-position switch, a closing door limit to-position switch, an up-limit to-position switch, and a down-limit to-position switch;

[0013] a control unit, wherein the switch door motor, the lifting motor, the opening door limit to-position switch, the closing door limit to-position switch, the up-limit to-position switch, and the down-limit to-position switch are communicatively connected to the control unit;

[0014] the control unit is configured to perform the following operations:

[0015] determining the positions of the switch door motor and the lifting motor after power-on through motor encoders, calculating motor rotation speed, collecting current values and filtering, detecting the states of each limit switch, and calibrating the encoders;

[0016] after receiving a control instruction, determining the execution task content contained in the control instruction; the execution task content comprises stowing an aircraft or deploying an aircraft;

[0017] controlling the corresponding motor actions according to the execution task content, and controlling the motor to stop operating after the corresponding limit switch is triggered.

[0018] Preferably, it further comprises a centering locking unit, comprising a centering locking motor and a plurality of locking clamps; one end of each of the plurality of locking clamps is arranged in a through slot of the lifting platform; each of the plurality of locking clamps is connected to the centering locking motor; the centering locking motor is configured to drive the plurality of locking clamps to move along the axial direction of the through slot where each locking clamp is located, so as to lock or release the locking of the aircraft located on the lifting platform.

[0019] Preferably, it further comprises a locking to-position switch and an unlocking to-position switch; the centering locking motor, the locking to-position switch, and the unlocking to-position switch are communicatively connected to the control unit.

[0020] The execution task content comprises locking the aircraft or releasing the locking of the aircraft.

[0021] Preferably, after determining that the control instruction contains stowing an aircraft, controlling the corresponding motor actions according to the execution task content, and controlling the motor to stop operating after the corresponding limit switch is triggered comprises:

[0022] calculating the centering locking motor throttle output through position, speed, and current three-loop PID, controlling the centering locking motor actions, and controlling the centering locking motor to stop operating after the locking to-position switch is triggered;

[0023] The lifting motor is controlled to act by calculating the lifting motor throttle output through position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the lifting motor is controlled to stop acting after the lowering limit switch is triggered.

[0024] The switch door motor is controlled to act by calculating the switch door motor throttle output through position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the switch door motor is controlled to stop acting after the closing limit switch is triggered.

[0025] Preferably, after determining the control instruction, the corresponding motor is controlled to act according to the execution task content, and the motor is controlled to stop operating after the corresponding limit switch is triggered.

[0026] The switch door motor is controlled to act by calculating the switch door motor throttle output through position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the switch door motor is controlled to stop acting after the closing limit switch is triggered.

[0027] The lifting motor is controlled to act by calculating the lifting motor throttle output through position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the lifting motor is controlled to stop acting after the lowering limit switch is triggered.

[0028] The switch door motor is controlled to act by calculating the switch door motor throttle output through position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the switch door motor is controlled to stop acting after the closing limit switch is triggered.

[0029] Preferably, the throttle value is obtained by real-time acquisition of the encoder value, the motor speed and direction, and first-order low-pass filtering calculation of the real-time acquisition current value.

[0030] Preferably, the control unit is further connected with the contact charging unit in communication.

[0031] The control unit is further configured to control the contact charging unit to charge the aerial vehicle after determining that the aerial vehicle is stored.

[0032] Preferably, the control unit comprises a microcontroller based on ARM-CortexM4 architecture.

[0033] Preferably, the box is used to be carried on a carrier vehicle.

[0034] According to the specific embodiments of the present application, the following technical effects are provided.

[0035] The folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device provided by the embodiment of the application has simple and reasonable structure, is convenient to install and use, has low manufacturing cost, and is widely applied. The problems of slow automatic unfolding and folding speed, low position control precision, and motor blockage of the unmanned aerial vehicle storage and transportation are solved. The device has strong environmental adaptability, and has completed 50km vehicle road test on a bumpy road section. During the test process, the storage and transportation device can be quickly and automatically unfolded and folded, and the aircraft stored in the device is not structurally damaged, so the device is worth popularizing and using on a large scale.

[0036] Of course, implementing any product of the application does not necessarily need to achieve all the advantages described above at the same time. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0037] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings in the following description only constitute some embodiments of the application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort on the basis of these drawings.

[0038] Figure 1 is a structural schematic diagram of a folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0039] Figure 2 is another structural schematic diagram of a folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0040] Figure 3 is a structural schematic diagram of an unlocked state of an aircraft provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0041] Figure 4 is a structural schematic diagram of a locked state of an aircraft provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0042] Figure 5 is a structural schematic diagram of a lowering platform after being lowered provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0043] Figure 6 is a structural schematic diagram of a sliding cover door after being closed provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0044] Figure 7 is a control unit work flowchart provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0045] Figure 8 is a three-ring PID control flowchart provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0046] Figure 9 is an automatic storage flowchart provided by the embodiment of the application;

[0047] Figure 10The automatic unfolding flowchart is provided by the embodiment of the present application.

[0048] In the figure: box 1, sliding cover door 2, door opening and closing motor 3, lifting platform 4, lifting motor 5, door opening limit position switch 6, door closing limit position switch 7, upward limit position switch 8, downward limit position switch 9, centering locking motor 10, locking clamping jaw 11, locking limit position switch 12, unlocking limit position switch 13, contact type charging unit 14, aircraft 15. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0049] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described in combination with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments in the present application belong to the scope of protection of the present application.

[0050] Referring to Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Figure 6 A folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device is provided by the embodiment of the present application, as shown in Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Figure 6 The device can include:

[0051] The box 1 is open at the top and has a space inside for accommodating the aircraft 15 after folding of the rotor arms;

[0052] The box door unit includes two sliding cover doors 2 and a door opening and closing motor 3. The two sliding cover doors 2 are arranged on the track at the top of the box 1, and the door opening and closing motor 3 is used to drive the two sliding cover doors 2 to open or close. The two sliding cover doors 2 can be closed to each other or opened to each other simultaneously under the driving of the door opening and closing motor 3.

[0053] The lifting assembly includes a lifting platform 4 and a lifting motor 5. The lifting motor 5 is located at the bottom of the inside of the box 1, and the lifting platform 4 is located inside the box 1 and is connected with the lifting motor 5. The lifting motor 5 is used to drive the lifting platform 4 to rise and fall along the height direction of the box 1.

[0054] The position switch unit includes a door opening limit position switch 6, a door closing limit position switch 7, an upward limit position switch 8, and a downward limit position switch 9.

[0055] The control unit, the door opening and closing motor 3, the lifting motor 5, the door opening limit switch 6, the door closing limit switch 7, the rising limit switch 8 and the falling limit switch 9 are all communicatively connected to the control unit;

[0056] like Figure 7 As shown, the control unit is used to perform the following operations:

[0057] After power is turned on, the positions of the door opening and closing motor 3 and the lifting motor 5 are read through the motor encoder, the motor rotation speed is calculated, the current value is collected and filtered, the status of each limit switch is detected, and the encoder is calibrated;

[0058] After receiving the control instruction, determining the execution task content contained in the control instruction; the execution task content includes storing the aircraft 15 or deploying the aircraft 15;

[0059] The corresponding motor action is controlled according to the execution task content, and the motor is controlled to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered.

[0060] The storage and transportation device for the folding rotorcraft 15 provided in the embodiment of the present application can be customized to set the instructions for automatic unfolding, automatic storage, single-step door opening, single-step door closing, single-step ascending, single-step descending, single-step locking, single-step unlocking and motor stopping. Figure 8 As shown in the figure, the automatic deployment and automatic storage adopt the three-loop PID controller of position loop, speed loop and current loop. By real-time acquisition of encoder values, calculation of motor speed and direction, real-time acquisition of current values ​​and first-order low-pass filtering to calculate the throttle value, it can effectively ensure the motor position control accuracy, operating speed and prevent stalling.

[0061] In order to lock the aircraft 15 when it is on the lifting platform 4, the embodiment of the present application can also provide a centering locking unit, which includes a centering locking motor 10 and a plurality of locking jaws 11; one end of the plurality of locking jaws 11 is respectively arranged in the through groove of the lifting platform 4; the plurality of locking jaws 11 are all connected to the centering locking motor, and the centering locking motor is used to drive the plurality of locking jaws 11 to move axially along the through groove where they are located, so as to lock or release the aircraft 15 located on the lifting platform 4.

[0062] In order to sense the locking state in real time, the embodiment of the present application may further provide a locking position switch 12 and an unlocking position switch 13; the centering locking motor 10, the locking position switch 12 and the unlocking position switch 13 are all communicatively connected to the control unit;

[0063] The mission execution content includes locking the aircraft 15 or releasing the aircraft 15 .

[0064] The device provided in the embodiment of the present application can realize the automatic execution of various tasks through the control of the control unit. For example, in one implementation, Figure 9 As shown, the embodiment of the present application can provide that after determining that the control instruction includes storing the aircraft 15, the corresponding motor action is controlled according to the execution task content, and the motor is controlled to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered, including:

[0065] The throttle output of the centering locking motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the centering locking motor 10 is controlled to move and stop when the locking position switch 12 is triggered;

[0066] The throttle output of the lifting motor 5 is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID to control the movement of the lifting motor 5, and the lifting motor 5 is controlled to stop when the lowering limit switch 9 is triggered;

[0067] The throttle output of the door opening and closing motor 3 is calculated through the position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the door opening and closing motor 3 is controlled to close the two sliding doors 2, and the door opening and closing motor 3 is controlled to stop after the door closing limit switch is triggered.

[0068] Further, such as Figure 10 As shown, after determining that the control instruction includes storing the aircraft 15, controlling the corresponding motor action according to the execution task content, and controlling the motor to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered includes:

[0069] The throttle output of the centering locking motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the door opening and closing motor 3 is controlled to open the two sliding doors 2, and the door opening and closing motor 3 is controlled to stop after the door opening limit switch 6 is triggered;

[0070] The throttle output of the lifting motor 5 is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID to control the movement of the lifting motor 5, and the lifting motor 5 is controlled to stop when the rising position limit switch 8 is triggered;

[0071] The throttle output of the centering locking motor is calculated through the position, speed and current three-loop PID to control the movement of the centering locking motor 10 and to stop the centering locking motor 10 after the unlocking position switch 13 is triggered.

[0072] In order to accurately obtain the motor throttle value, the embodiment of the application can provide a throttle value obtained by real-time acquisition of encoder values, motor speed and direction, real-time acquisition of current values, first-order low-pass filtering calculation.

[0073] In order to charge the UAV after it is stored, the embodiment of the application can provide a contact charging unit 14 connected with the lifting platform 4; the control unit is communicatively connected with the contact charging unit 14;

[0074] The control unit is further configured to control the contact charging unit 14 to charge the aerial vehicle 15 after the aerial vehicle 15 is stored.

[0075] In a specific implementation, the control unit can include a microcontroller based on an ARM-CortexM4 architecture.

[0076] It can be understood that the box 1 provided by the embodiment of the application can be placed on the ground for use, or can be used on a mobile device, for example, in an implementation, the box 1 can be used to be carried on a carrier vehicle. The aerial vehicle 15 can be a multi-rotor UAV capable of automatically folding wings.

[0077] The device provided by the embodiment of the application can use three brush motors with encoders as driving mechanisms of the storage and transportation box door opening and closing mechanism, the lifting platform 4, and the centering mechanism when implemented, and eight limit switches as position limits of the movement mechanism, including one up-to-position limit switch 8, one down-to-position limit switch 9, two door opening-to-position limit switches 6, two door closing-to-position limit switches 7, one locking-to-position limit switch 12, and one unlocking-to-position limit switch 13.

[0078] The microcontroller based on the ARM-CortexM4 architecture is used as the main control chip to form the control unit, the encoder values are used to represent the mechanism running position, the timer is used to collect the encoder data in real time, the motor rotation speed and direction are calculated, the ADC is used to collect the current of each motor, the motor current stall current parameters are set according to the physical performance of the motor to prevent accidents caused by excessive current due to structural hindering of motor rotation. The limit switches disposed inside the storage and transportation box are collected in real time, when the up-limit switch is triggered, the up-motor stops rotating and no longer responds to the up instruction. Because there is a one-way gap in the running mechanism, the motor rotates without driving the movement mechanism, and the accuracy of the encoder cannot meet the reciprocating motion of the mechanism, therefore, the encoder values are calibrated by the limit switches.

[0079] In summary, the folding rotor aircraft storage and transportation device provided by the application has simple and reasonable structure, is convenient to install and use, has low manufacturing cost, and has wide application scenarios. The problems of slow automatic deployment and retraction speed, low position control accuracy, and motor blockage of the unmanned aerial vehicle storage and transportation are solved. The device has strong environmental adaptability, and has completed a 50km road test of the vehicle on a bumpy road section. During the test process, the storage and transportation device can quickly and automatically deploy and retract, and the aircraft stored in the device does not have structural damage, and is worthy of large-scale popularization and use.

[0080] It should be noted that, in this document, the terms such as first and second are used only to distinguish one entity or operation from another, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "contain" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that the process, method, article or device including a series of elements not only includes those elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed or inherent to such process, method, article or device. Without more limitations, the element defined by the statement "including a" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the element.

[0081] From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the application can be implemented by means of software plus the necessary general hardware platform. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the application can be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes a number of instructions to make a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) execute the methods described in various embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of the application.

[0082] The various embodiments described in this specification are presented as examples of the application. Each example is provided by way of best mode, and variations of or additions to these examples can be possible. For example, the various embodiments described in this specification can be combined in different combinations. Further, other embodiments of the application will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the application disclosed herein. For example, to implement a system embodiment, one can implement a method embodiment and one or more system modules needed to implement the method embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art will be able to practice the application with the disclosed materials, without undue experimentation. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that features from different embodiments can be interchanged, and / or modified, and / or substituted. Therefore, it is the intention of the inventors to be limited only by the scope of the claims and the full breadth of equivalents thereof.

[0083] The embodiments described above are merely exemplary implementations of the application. Variations of or additions to the embodiments described can be possible. Modifications made to the above described embodiments should not, under any circumstances, be considered to be beyond the scope of the application. Therefore, the scope of the application should be determined by the following claims and applicable law.

Claims

1. A storage and transportation device for a folding rotorcraft, characterized in that: include: a box body, the top of which is open and the interior of which is formed with a space for accommodating the aircraft after the rotor arm is folded; The door unit includes two sliding doors and a door opening and closing motor. The two sliding doors are arranged on the track at the top of the box body. The door opening and closing motor is used to drive the two sliding doors to open or close. A lifting assembly, comprising a lifting platform and a lifting motor, wherein the lifting motor is located at the bottom inner side of the box body, the lifting platform is located inside the box body and is connected to the lifting motor, and the lifting motor is used to drive the lifting platform to move up and down along the height direction of the box body; The position switch unit includes a door opening position limit switch, a door closing position limit switch, an ascending position limit switch and a descending position limit switch; A control unit, wherein the door opening and closing motor, the lifting motor, the door opening limit switch, the door closing limit switch, the rising limit switch, and the falling limit switch are all communicatively connected to the control unit; The control unit is configured to perform the following operations: After power is turned on, the positions of the door opening and closing motor and the lifting motor are read through the motor encoder, the motor rotation speed is calculated, the current value is collected and filtered, the status of each limit switch is detected, and the encoder is calibrated; After receiving the control instruction, determining the execution task content contained in the control instruction; the execution task content includes stowing the aircraft or deploying the aircraft; The corresponding motor action is controlled according to the execution task content, and the motor is controlled to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered.

2. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a centering locking unit, which includes a centering locking motor and a plurality of locking jaws; one end of each of the locking jaws is respectively arranged in the through slot of the lifting platform; each of the locking jaws is cooperated with the centering locking motor, and the centering locking motor is used to drive the locking jaws to move axially along the through slots in which they are located, so as to lock or release the aircraft located on the lifting platform.

3. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 2, characterized in that: It also includes a locking limit switch and an unlocking limit switch; the centering locking motor, the locking limit switch and the unlocking limit switch are all communicably connected to the control unit; The mission execution content includes locking the aircraft or releasing the aircraft.

4. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 3, characterized in that: After determining that the control instruction includes storing the aircraft, controlling the corresponding motor action according to the execution task content, and controlling the motor to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered includes: The throttle output of the centering locking motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID, the centering locking motor is controlled to move and the centering locking motor is controlled to stop when the locking limit switch is triggered; The throttle output of the lifting motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID to control the movement of the lifting motor, and the lifting motor is controlled to stop when the lowering limit switch is triggered; The throttle output of the door opening and closing motor is calculated through the position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the door opening and closing motor is controlled to close the two sliding doors. After the door closing limit switch is triggered, the door opening and closing motor is controlled to stop.

5. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 3, characterized in that: After determining that the control instruction includes storing the aircraft, controlling the corresponding motor action according to the execution task content, and controlling the motor to stop running after the corresponding limit switch is triggered includes: The throttle output of the centering lock motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID, and the door opening and closing motor is controlled to open the two sliding doors, and the door opening and closing motor is controlled to stop when the door opening limit switch is triggered; The throttle output of the lifting motor is calculated by the position, speed and current three-loop PID to control the movement of the lifting motor, and the lifting motor is controlled to stop when the limit switch of the lifting position is triggered; The throttle output of the centering locking motor is calculated through the position, speed and current three-loop PID, the movement of the centering locking motor is controlled, and the centering locking motor is controlled to stop after the unlocking limit switch is triggered.

6. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that: The throttle value is obtained by real-time acquisition of encoder values, motor speed and direction, and current values, and performing first-order low-pass filtering calculations.

7. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a contact charging unit, which is connected to the lifting platform; the control unit is communicably connected to the contact charging unit; The control unit is further configured to control the contact charging unit to charge the aircraft after determining that the aircraft has been stored.

8. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 1, characterized in that: The control unit includes a microcontroller based on the ARM-CortexM4 architecture.

9. The storage and transportation device for folding rotorcraft according to claim 1, characterized in that: The box body is used for being carried on a transport vehicle.

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