Unmanned aerial vehicle ground station safe control method and device

Abstract

The invention provides an unmanned aerial vehicle ground station safe control method and device. The method comprises the steps that a ground station periodically sends corresponding control device data channel data to an unmanned aerial vehicle according to a control mode type; after receiving the control mode setting instruction, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to a corresponding mode of manually controlling the unmanned aerial vehicle, receives control device data sent by the ground station, judges the validity of a control device data channel, and adjusts a flight attitude and an engine throttle according to the valid control device data channel; the flight state and the position information are periodically downloaded to a ground station; when the unmanned aerial vehicle does not need manual control, the ground station sends an automatic control mode setting instruction to the unmanned aerial vehicle; after receiving the automatic control mode setting instruction, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an automatic control mode and downloads an automatic control state to the ground station; and the ground station receives the automatic control state downloaded by the unmanned aerial vehicle and stops periodically sending the control device data to the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application belongs to the field of unmanned aerial vehicle control technology, and in particular, relates to a method and device for safely controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle ground station. Background Art

[0002] With the widespread application of drone systems in various fields, the safety of drone flight control needs to be improved urgently. The flight control of drones is generally completed automatically by drones, but in some application scenarios or special cases, operators are still required to manually control the flight of drones through the joystick, throttle lever, pedals and other control devices of the drone ground station.

[0003] However, in actual applications, the communication bandwidth of the wireless link between the ground station and the UAV is limited, as well as possible communication interference, interruption, and excessive delay. When the ground station manually controls the UAV, the UAV may switch to manual control mode, the UAV may lose control during the period when the ground station does not receive the downlink, and the communication bandwidth may be wasted by periodically sending all the control device data. When the control device fails, the data transmission is disordered, resulting in abnormal UAV flight attitude or engine shutdown in the air, which may cause extremely serious flight safety accidents. Summary of the invention

[0004] The purpose of the present invention is to solve the safety problem of the above-mentioned manually controlled UAV flight control. The present invention proposes a highly safe manual control method and device, which aims to solve the problem of UAV loss of control during the switching of UAV control modes, enhance the fault tolerance to abnormal situations such as control device equipment failure and data transmission disorder, reduce the communication bandwidth occupancy during manual control, and improve the safety of manually controlled UAV flight control.

[0005] In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for safely controlling a drone ground station, the method comprising:

[0006] The ground station sends a control mode setting command to the drone. After the operator clicks the control mode setting command button, the ground station immediately sends the corresponding control device data channel data to the drone periodically according to the control mode type, and fills in the data valid bit according to the health status of the control device;

[0007] After receiving the control mode setting command, the drone switches to the corresponding manual control mode, receives the control device data sent by the ground station, determines the validity of the control device data channel, adjusts the flight attitude and engine throttle according to the valid control device data channel, and periodically transmits the flight status and position information to the ground station;

[0008] When the drone does not need manual control, the ground station sends an automatic control mode setting instruction to the drone;

[0009] After receiving the automatic control mode setting command, the drone switches to automatic control mode and transmits the automatic control state to the ground station;

[0010] The ground station receives the automatic control status transmitted by the drone and stops sending control device data to the drone periodically.

[0011] Preferably, the modes of manual control of the UAV include all manual control modes, attitude manual control mode, throttle manual control mode, heading manual control mode and brake manual control mode.

[0012] Preferably, the full manual control mode is the highest authority manual control mode, and the full manual control mode manually controls the throttle, pitch, roll, heading and brakes of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from all data channels.

[0013] Preferably, the attitude manual control mode performs manual control on the pitch, roll and heading of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the joystick and pedal displacement data channels.

[0014] Preferably, the manual throttle control mode performs manual control on the engine throttle of the UAV, and the UAV will receive and respond to data from the throttle lever data channel.

[0015] Preferably, the heading manual control mode manually controls the heading of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the pedal displacement data channel.

[0016] Preferably, the manual brake control mode manually controls the brakes of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the pedal data channel.

[0017] In a second aspect, the present application also provides a UAV ground station safety control device, the device comprising: an operating lever, a throttle lever and a pedal;

[0018] Among them, the operating lever is designed with a longitudinal data channel and a lateral data channel, the throttle lever is designed with a throttle lever data channel, and the pedal is designed with a displacement data channel and a pedal data channel; wherein each data channel is relatively independent, and a failure of any data channel will not affect other data channels.

[0019] Beneficial technical effects of the present invention:

[0020] The safe control method involved in the present invention enhances the fault tolerance to abnormal situations such as control device equipment failure and disordered data transmission, reduces the communication bandwidth occupancy during manual control, and improves the safety of manually controlled unmanned aerial vehicle flight control. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] Figure 1A mapping diagram of a drone manual control mode and data channel provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0022] Figure 2 A flowchart of manual control of a drone by a ground station is provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] The present application is mainly used in a UAV ground station flight control system. By designing the mode of sending manual control commands for the UAV and the data protection logic, it solves the problems of UAV loss of control during the switching of UAV control modes, wasting communication bandwidth by periodically sending all control device data, and abnormal UAV flight attitude or engine shutdown caused by data transmission confusion when the control device fails, thereby improving the safety of manual control of UAVs by ground stations.

[0024] The present invention proposes a method for safe control of a UAV ground station. Aiming at the use scenario where an operator uses a UAV ground station joystick, throttle lever, pedal and other control devices to manually control the flight of a UAV, the method designs a UAV manual control command sending mode and data protection logic, thereby improving the safety of manually controlled UAV flight control.

[0025] The main technical points of the present invention mainly include:

[0026] 1) First, the UAV manual control modes are classified according to their functions, and different types of UAV control modes are mapped to the corresponding control device data channels. The control device data channels to be sent are adaptively adjusted according to the control modes to solve the problem of wasting communication bandwidth by periodically sending all control device data.

[0027] 2) Comprehensively apply the manual control mode instructions sent by the UAV ground station, the manual control mode status transmitted by the UAV, and the health status of the UAV ground station control device equipment, and design the data sending logic of the control device during manual control to solve the problems of the UAV losing control when the UAV switches to manual control mode but the ground station does not receive the transmitted status, and the data transmission is disordered when the control device fails, resulting in abnormal UAV flight attitude or engine shutdown in the air, so as to improve the safety of manually controlled UAV flight control.

[0028] The safe control method involved in the present invention enhances the fault tolerance to abnormal situations such as control device equipment failure and disordered data transmission, reduces the communication bandwidth occupancy during manual control, and improves the safety of manually controlled unmanned aerial vehicle flight control.

[0029] This method can be flexibly used in various types of UAV flight control systems, and can also be extended to mechanical devices such as civilian unmanned vehicles that require wireless remote control.

[0030] See also Figure 1 - Figure 2 In the embodiments of the present application, the scheme provided by the present application is as follows:

[0031] Manual control mode classification and control device data channel mapping

[0032] Firstly, the UAV manual control modes are classified according to their functions, and different types of UAV control modes are mapped to corresponding control device data channels. The control device data channels to be sent are adaptively adjusted according to the control modes to solve the problem of wasting communication bandwidth by periodically sending all control device data.

[0033] The modes of manual control of UAVs can be mainly divided into five types: full manual control, attitude manual control, throttle manual control, heading manual control and brake manual control. The control devices of the UAV ground station include joystick, throttle lever and pedals.

[0034] Among them, the operating lever is designed with longitudinal data channel and lateral data channel, the throttle lever is designed with throttle lever data channel, and the pedal is designed with displacement data channel and pedal data channel. Each data channel is relatively independent, and failure of any data channel will not affect other data channels.

[0035] Functional decomposition of five modes of manually controlled drones.

[0036] Among them, the full manual control mode is the highest authority manual control mode, which can manually control the throttle, pitch, roll, heading and brake of the drone. The drone will receive and respond to data from all data channels;

[0037] Among them, the attitude manual control mode can manually control the pitch, roll and heading of the drone. The drone will receive and respond to data from the joystick and pedal displacement data channels.

[0038] Among them, the throttle manual control mode can manually control the engine throttle of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the throttle lever data channel.

[0039] Among them, the heading manual control mode can manually control the heading of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the pedal displacement data channel.

[0040] Among them, the manual brake control mode can manually control the brakes of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the pedal data channel.

[0041] When the ground station of the present invention sends control device data to the UAV, it will adaptively adjust the control device data channel sent to the UAV according to the mode of manual control of the UAV, thereby reducing the communication bandwidth occupancy during manual control.

[0042] In a feasible implementation, the mapping relationship between the manual control mode and the data channel of the ground station control device is as follows: Figure 1 shown.

[0043] Design of data transmission logic of control device during manual control

[0044] By comprehensively applying the manual control mode instructions sent by the UAV ground station, the manual control mode status transmitted by the UAV, and the health status of the UAV ground station control device, we design the data sending logic of the control device during manual control to solve the problems of the UAV losing control when the UAV switches to manual control mode but the ground station does not receive the transmitted status, and the data sending disorder when the control device fails, resulting in abnormal UAV flight attitude or engine shutdown in the air.

[0045] To address the problem of the UAV losing control when it switches to manual control mode but the ground station does not receive any downlink transmission, the present invention innovatively designs a method of periodically sending control device data to the UAV based on the characteristics of large wireless link communication delay and possible interference or interruption.

[0046] When the operator clicks the control mode setting command button, the ground station immediately sends the control device data to the drone in a cycle, and no longer judges based on the manual control mode transmitted by the drone. This ensures that the drone can receive the control device data immediately after switching to manual control mode, solving the problem of the drone losing control during the switching of the drone's control mode.

[0047] In order to solve the problem of disordered data transmission when the control device fails, the present invention adds a data channel valid bit to the control device data periodically sent to the drone.

[0048] When the ground station control device is normal, the data valid bit is valid, and when the control device fails, the corresponding data channel valid bit is invalid.

[0049] When the UAV receives data from the control device, it first determines whether the control device data channel is valid based on the valid bit of the data channel, and then adjusts the flight attitude and engine throttle based on the valid control device data channel data, to solve problems such as abnormal UAV flight attitude or engine shutdown in the air caused by disordered data transmission when the control device fails.

[0050] The content of the manual control command message of the ground station designed by the present invention is shown in Table 1.

[0051] Table 1 Manual control command message content

[0052]

[0053] In other embodiments of the present application, the main steps of the high-security manual control method of a ground station for a drone proposed by the present invention are as follows: Figure 2 shown.

[0054] 1. The ground station sends a control mode setting command to the drone. After the operator clicks the control mode setting command button, the ground station immediately sends the corresponding control device data channel data to the drone periodically according to the control mode type, and fills in the data valid bit according to the health status of the control device.

[0055] 2. After receiving the control mode setting command, the drone switches to the corresponding manual control mode, receives the control device data sent by the ground station, determines the validity of the control device data channel, adjusts the flight attitude and engine throttle according to the valid control device data channel, and periodically transmits the flight status and position information to the ground station.

[0056] 3. When the UAV does not need manual control, the ground station sends an automatic control mode setting instruction to the UAV.

[0057] 4. After receiving the automatic control mode setting command, the drone switches to automatic control mode and transmits the automatic control status to the ground station.

[0058] 5. The ground station receives the automatic control status transmitted by the drone and stops sending control device data to the drone periodically.

Claims

1. A method for safely controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle ground station, characterized in that: The method comprises: The ground station sends a control mode setting command to the drone. After the operator clicks the control mode setting command button, the ground station immediately sends the corresponding control device data channel data to the drone periodically according to the control mode type, and fills in the data valid bit according to the health status of the control device; After receiving the control mode setting command, the drone switches to the corresponding manual control mode, receives the control device data sent by the ground station, determines the validity of the control device data channel, adjusts the flight attitude and engine throttle according to the valid control device data channel, and periodically transmits the flight status and position information to the ground station; When the drone does not need manual control, the ground station sends an automatic control mode setting instruction to the drone; After receiving the automatic control mode setting command, the drone switches to automatic control mode and transmits the automatic control state to the ground station; The ground station receives the automatic control status transmitted by the drone and stops sending control device data to the drone periodically.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The modes of manual control of the UAV include all manual control modes, attitude manual control mode, throttle manual control mode, heading manual control mode and brake manual control mode.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The full manual control mode is the highest authority manual control mode. The full manual control mode manually controls the throttle, pitch, roll, heading and brakes of the drone. The drone will receive and respond to data from all data channels.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The attitude manual control mode performs manual control on the pitch, roll and heading of the UAV, and the UAV will receive and respond to the data from the joystick and pedal displacement data channels.

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The manual throttle control mode manually controls the engine throttle of the UAV, and the UAV will receive and respond to data from the throttle lever data channel.

6. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The manual heading control mode manually controls the heading of the UAV, and the UAV will receive and respond to the data from the pedal displacement data channel.

7. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The manual brake control mode manually controls the brakes of the drone, and the drone will receive and respond to data from the pedal data channel.

8. A UAV ground station safety control device, characterized in that: The device comprises: an operating lever, a throttle lever and a pedal; Among them, the operating lever is designed with a longitudinal data channel and a lateral data channel, the throttle lever is designed with a throttle lever data channel, and the pedal is designed with a displacement data channel and a pedal data channel; wherein each data channel is relatively independent, and a failure of any data channel will not affect other data channels.

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