Data synchronization method of unmanned aerial vehicle system

Abstract

The invention relates to a data synchronization method of an unmanned aerial vehicle system, which is based on intelligent unit software, the intelligent unit software comprises a load data scheduling application program, a flight control data scheduling application program and other application programs, and the other application programs refer to electrical interface software and are used for conversion of general protocols. Data real-time synchronization among a load data scheduling application program, a flight control data scheduling application program and other application programs is completed in an inter-process communication mode, and the specific implementation mode is that shared memories are allocated to all the applications, and it is guaranteed that all the applications and even the applications extend to external devices corresponding to all the applications; the clusters can share real-time data, and the data synchronization requirement of the unmanned aerial vehicle system is met.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of data synchronization and relates to a data synchronization method for an unmanned aerial vehicle system. Background Art

[0002] Data synchronization refers to ensuring data consistency and real-time performance between different data sources or data systems through certain mechanisms or methods. These data sources or systems may be database software, file systems, applications, etc. The purpose of data synchronization is to eliminate data silos and achieve data sharing and consistency so that the latest and most accurate data can be accessed in various scenarios. Therefore, as the information flow inside and outside the system continues to become more complex, it becomes particularly important to ensure data consistency, real-time performance, and reliability between different parts.

[0003] The five most common data synchronization methods nowadays are manual synchronization, periodic batch synchronization, incremental synchronization, full synchronization, and real-time synchronization. They are briefly described as follows:

[0004] 1. Manual synchronization is the most basic synchronization method. As the name suggests, data is copied from the source location to the target location through manual operation;

[0005] 2. Periodic batch synchronization means exporting data from the source location and importing it to the target location through batch processing at a predetermined time interval;

[0006] 3. Incremental synchronization means synchronizing only the data that has changed in the source location, rather than copying the entire data set.

[0007] 4. Compared with incremental synchronization, full synchronization copies all data from the source system to the target system periodically or on demand;

[0008] 5. Real-time synchronization is to synchronize data from the source location to the target location in real time.

[0009] All five synchronization methods have shortcomings or do not meet the data synchronization requirements of this UAV system. The following analysis is made:

[0010] 1. The manual synchronization method is relatively simple, but time-consuming and prone to errors.

[0011] 2. The regular batch synchronization method can be automated by using scripts, ETL tools or data integration platforms, but the real-time performance is poor and the data reliability is difficult to guarantee;

[0012] 3. The incremental synchronization method can effectively reduce the amount of data transmission and synchronization time. Incremental synchronization usually uses log files or timestamps for tracking and updates the corresponding data at the target location. Although this technology enhances the real-time transmission, data consistency is difficult to guarantee and the fault tolerance of data transmission is not strong;

[0013] 4. The full synchronization method is suitable for scenarios where the data volume is not large or the data update is not frequent. It is also often used for initial data migration, which does not meet the actual needs of this drone system.

[0014] 5. The real-time synchronization method requires a high-speed network connection between the source and target systems, and uses a real-time data transmission protocol or message queue to ensure fast data transmission and processing. This technology is very suitable for the specific needs of this drone system, but it needs to be further optimized and expanded in the specific application scenarios of this drone system, especially in the three aspects of real-time task collaboration, cross-device synchronization, and distributed system data synchronization. Summary of the invention

[0015] In view of this, the present invention proposes a data synchronization method for an unmanned aerial vehicle system, which is a data synchronization method capable of processing data scheduling tasks in real time based on the existing real-time synchronization method and is the guarantee for information exchange of the entire unmanned aerial vehicle system.

[0016] The specific technical solutions are as follows:

[0017] A data synchronization method for an unmanned aerial vehicle system is based on intelligent unit software. The intelligent unit software includes a payload data scheduling application, a flight control data scheduling application and other applications. The other applications refer to electrical interface software for converting common protocols. The real-time synchronization of data among the payload data scheduling application, the flight control data scheduling application and other applications is completed by using inter-process communication. The specific implementation method is: allocating shared memory to each application to ensure that real-time data can be shared between each application and even between external devices corresponding to each application, including clusters, to meet the data synchronization requirements of the unmanned aerial vehicle system.

[0018] Furthermore, the structure based on the SoC core module plus the expansion baseboard is composed of an ARM core board capable of running an embedded real-time operating system and a stacked expansion baseboard, wherein the expansion baseboard adopts an open interconnection interface and general specifications based on FPGA, and the embedded real-time operating system refers to a tailored Ubuntu-server.

[0019] Furthermore, the intelligent unit software of the UAV system and the ground station software exchange information and transmit data through a wireless communication link. These data are service object data streams, and the communication protocols used include Ethernet UDP and Ethernet TCP.

[0020] Furthermore, the intelligent unit software interacts with the mission payload software of the drone system, and the data of the mission payload software of the drone system is used as the source data stream and the terminal data stream. The data of the mission payload software of the drone system is transmitted in real time to other communication nodes, and the other communication nodes include the flight control software and the ground station software.

[0021] Furthermore, the intelligent unit software interacts with the flight control software of the UAV system, and real-time transmission of the data is preferentially guaranteed. The data serves as both a source data stream and a service object data stream. The flight control software of the UAV system provides execution control logic for the entire UAV flight.

[0022] Furthermore, the intelligent unit software applies for several blocks of shared memory in the memory, which belong to dynamic storage areas. They still exist after each process ends and must be released. After having several blocks of shared memory areas, the shared memory first address is associated with the three major data flow types of service object data flow, source data flow and terminal data flow by writing a program. Then, the payload data scheduling application, flight control data scheduling application and other applications in the intelligent unit software use the time wheel timer combined with the semaphore to schedule the data flow to achieve data synchronization.

[0023] This article proposes a data synchronization method that guarantees consistency, real-time, and reliability. Its advantages are as follows:

[0024] 1. The implementation of real-time memory sharing greatly improves the efficiency and accuracy of various applications within the software to complete a task collaboratively, ensuring real-time task collaboration;

[0025] 2. The cross-device synchronization function is achieved through real-time memory sharing, so that various external devices of the drone system can maintain real-time, consistent and reliable data in different mission scenarios;

[0026] 3. In a distributed system, data may be distributed on multiple nodes. To ensure data consistency and availability, data needs to be synchronized between these nodes. Based on the implementation of points 1 and 2 above, this UAV system can have distributed system data synchronization function in a cluster mission scenario.

[0027] 4. The entire hardware architecture of this method is as follows Figure 1 , 2As shown, the compact structure of SoC core module plus expansion baseboard is adopted, which is composed of an ARM core board capable of running an embedded real-time operating system (tailored Ubuntu-server) and an expansion baseboard stacked together. The key point is that the expansion baseboard adopts an open interconnection interface and general specifications based on FPGA to ensure that the intelligent unit is portable (universal), maintainable, renewable, scalable, and scalable in the system, and allows upgrading and updating at a minimum cost, thus efficiently and quickly realizing the underlying foundation of the data synchronization method of the drone system; the expansion baseboard is designed to adapt to different models of SoC core modules of various manufacturers (including domestic ones) as much as possible under the existing software and hardware development conditions, and fully meets the specific hardware interface requirements of the data synchronization method of the drone system;

[0028] 5. The basic software framework of this method is as follows Figure 3 As shown in the figure, it is mainly divided into three major applications: payload data scheduling application, flight control data scheduling application and other applications. The real-time data synchronization between them is completed by inter-process communication. The specific implementation method is: allocate shared memory to each application to ensure that real-time data can be shared between each application and even between external devices including clusters to meet the data synchronization requirements of the drone system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the hardware used in this method:

[0030] Figure 2 Dimensional drawing of the hardware used for the data synchronization method (in mm)

[0031] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the basic software framework of the data synchronization method; DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] The main logical steps of this UAV system data synchronization method are as follows:

[0033] 1. The ground station software exchanges information and transmits data with the intelligent unit software of the drone system through a wireless communication link. The main communication protocols used are Ethernet UDP and Ethernet TCP. This communication method ensures smooth transmission of uplink and downlink data between the drone and the ground station. These data can be used as the main service object of this synchronization method;

[0034] 2. The mission load software of the UAV system will change according to the actual situation, mainly including the fuze control software and optoelectronic software. Their data will be used as the data source and data terminal of this synchronization method. The fuze control software uses the RS422 serial port combined with the fuze-specific protocol to interact with the intelligent unit software. The optoelectronic software uses the RS422 serial port combined with the optoelectronic-specific protocol to interact with the intelligent unit software. The optoelectronic software uses Ethernet RTSP for image transmission and video streaming to interact with the intelligent unit software. These mission load data need to be transmitted to other communication nodes in real time, and the other communication nodes mainly include flight control software and ground station software;

[0035] 3. The flight control software of the UAV system provides the execution control logic for the entire UAV flight. It frequently interacts with the intelligent unit software, so the real-time transmission of the data must be guaranteed first. These data can be used as the data source and service object of this synchronization method at the same time. Considering the compatibility of the UAV system, the flight control software uses two sets of communication protocols to interact with the intelligent unit software. The open source flight control software uses the general MavLink protocol, and the closed source flight control software uses a dedicated protocol.

[0036] 4. The various protocol data mentioned above are stored in the memory where the intelligent unit software runs through the hardware interface. At this time, several blocks of shared memory can be applied for in the memory through the intelligent unit software. They belong to dynamic storage areas and still exist after each process ends, so they must be released. After having several blocks of shared memory areas, you can then write a program to associate their first addresses with the three major data flow types mentioned above, namely, the service object data flow, the source data flow, and the terminal data flow. Then, the payload data scheduling application and the flight control data scheduling application in the intelligent unit software and other applications schedule the data flow through the time wheel timer combined with the semaphore. For example, when the flight control software (or the fuze control software) needs to obtain the data flow sent by the optoelectronic software (or the ground station) at a certain frequency, it will first open the read-write lock of the source data flow area corresponding to the shared memory through the semaphore to obtain the data. Similarly, the optoelectronic software will also use this method to write data in the source data flow area corresponding to the shared memory. By analogy, other data flow interactions are also synchronization methods of similar processes. The software framework diagram of this synchronization method is as follows Figure 3 shown.

[0037] The data synchronization method of this UAV system is mainly implemented with the help of an embedded hardware and software platform (intelligent unit). The overall hardware architecture is composed of a stack of SoC core modules and an expansion baseboard. The expansion baseboard adopts an open interconnection interface and general specifications based on FPGA to ensure that the intelligent unit is portable (universal), maintainable, renewable, scalable, and variable in scale in the system, and allows upgrading and updating at the lowest cost; it tries to adapt to different models of SoC core modules from multiple manufacturers (including domestic ones) as much as possible, and is designed under the existing software and hardware development conditions.

[0038] The overall software framework is mainly implemented by an embedded real-time operating system (tailored Ubuntu-server) and the intelligent unit software running on the system. The intelligent unit software mainly includes payload data scheduling applications and flight control data scheduling applications.

Claims

1. A data synchronization method for an unmanned aerial vehicle system, based on intelligent unit software, the intelligent unit software includes a payload data scheduling application, a flight control data scheduling application and other applications, the other applications refer to electrical interface software, used for conversion of general protocols, characterized in that: The real-time synchronization of data between the payload data scheduling application, the flight control data scheduling application and other applications is achieved through inter-process communication. The specific implementation method is: allocate shared memory to each application to ensure that real-time data can be shared between each application and even between the corresponding external devices of each application, including clusters, to meet the data synchronization requirements of the drone system.

2. The data synchronization method of a drone system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The structure is based on the SoC core module plus the expansion baseboard, which is composed of an ARM core board that can run an embedded real-time operating system and a stacked expansion baseboard. The expansion baseboard adopts an open interconnection interface and general specifications based on FPGA, and the embedded real-time operating system refers to a tailored Ubuntu-server.

3. The data synchronization method of a drone system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The intelligent unit software of the UAV system and the ground station software exchange information and transmit data through a wireless communication link. These data are service object data streams, and the communication protocols used include Ethernet UDP and Ethernet TCP.

4. The data synchronization method of a drone system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The intelligent unit software exchanges data with the mission payload software of the drone system. The data of the mission payload software of the drone system is used as the source data stream and the terminal data stream. The data of the mission payload software of the drone system is transmitted in real time to other communication nodes, including the flight control software and the ground station software.

5. The data synchronization method of a drone system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The intelligent unit software interacts with the flight control software of the UAV system, and the real-time transmission of the data is guaranteed first. The data serves as both the source data stream and the service object data stream. The flight control software of the UAV system provides execution control logic for the entire UAV flight.

6. A data synchronization method for an unmanned aerial vehicle system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The intelligent unit software applies for several blocks of shared memory in the memory, which are dynamic storage areas. They still exist after each process ends and must be released. After having several blocks of shared memory areas, the first address of the shared memory is associated with the three major data flow types: service object data flow, source data flow and terminal data flow by writing a program. Then, the payload data scheduling application, flight control data scheduling application and other applications in the intelligent unit software use the time wheel timer combined with the semaphore to schedule the data flow to achieve data synchronization.

Images