Unmanned aerial vehicle with flying and crawling functions

Abstract

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle with flying and crawling functions, and the unmanned aerial vehicle has two operation modes of flying and crawling, can fly in the air, and can land and crawl on a horizontal plane, a vertical surface and a negative surface. The aircraft can crawl on different surfaces through shape transformation of the four-foot mechanism of the aircraft and the bionic adhesion material; and flight is realized through control of four rotors of the aircraft. The aircraft can be flexibly switched according to different environments and task requirements, and efficient operation in a complex environment is achieved. The aircraft has the advantages of being simple in structure, convenient to operate, high in environmental adaptability and the like, and has wide application prospects in the fields of inspection tour, detection and the like.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention provides a multi-functional aircraft that can not only fly in the air but also land and crawl on multi-angle planes such as horizontal planes, vertical planes, and negative surfaces. It belongs to the technical field of unmanned aircraft. Background Art

[0002] Driven by technology, unmanned aircraft are gradually developing from single-function and single-environment to multi-function and strong environmental adaptability, especially in the fields of inspection and detection. Existing robots and drones usually have a relatively single movement mode. For example, they are simply ground movement or air movement, which limits their usage environments. Robots usually include wheeled robots, tracked robots, multi-legged robots, etc. These robots all move and work on the ground and are greatly restricted by the terrain. It is difficult to drive when encountering large obstacles or complex terrains. Drones are generally divided into fixed-wing drones, flapping-wing drones, and single-rotor or multi-rotor drones. Fixed-wing drones have a high demand for initial speed and require a runway or catapult to be launched, and tend to have a low thrust load and cannot perform vertical takeoff and landing, hover, or maintain low-speed flight, etc. Although single-rotor and flapping-wing robots can stay in a fixed position, flight places a serious burden on mechanical connectors and has a low energy utilization efficiency and cannot work for a long time.

[0003] In recent years, due to its good stability, flexible control, low cost, low requirement for operator skills, excellent maneuverability, ability to perform fixed-point hovering operations, and strong adaptability to takeoff and landing environments, quadrotor drones have been widely used in various industries and the technology is mature and reliable. Therefore, the structure of quadrotor drones is adopted in this project to carry out the design of a crawling aircraft and combine it with a multi-rotor drone to form an unmanned aircraft with both flight and crawling functions.

[0004] Patent document CN114801613A discloses a deformable small quadrotor quadruped flying and crawling robot and its control method. The flying and crawling robot includes a fuselage, four rotor assemblies, and four leg assemblies. The leg assemblies achieve at least two degrees of freedom of rotation and realize horizontal swing through the corresponding joint drive servo motors; the rotor assemblies are connected to the leg assemblies one by one, the propellers are driven to rotate by motors, the motors are electrically connected to the electronic speed controllers, and can realize autonomous switching between air and ground and generate motion modes in different environments.

[0005] Although the robots described in the above literature can achieve both crawling and flying at the same time, it is difficult to land in some special environments, such as vertical surfaces or negative surfaces. Inspired by this, we combine a shape memory bionic material with outstanding adhesion performance and a shape switching function with an aircraft with both flying and crawling functions to form a multifunctional aircraft that integrates two working forms of flying and crawling and has the ability to land on multiple angles, including horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces, and negative surfaces, greatly expanding the application of unmanned aircraft in different working environments. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The object of the present invention is to provide a multifunctional unmanned aircraft that can autonomously transform its shape and can fly in the air and land and crawl on multiple-angle planes such as horizontal planes, vertical surfaces, and negative surfaces through movable structures and bionic adhesion materials. This aircraft has broad application prospects in fields such as inspection and detection, can adapt to more complex landing environments, and expands the applicable space of unmanned aircraft.

[0007] To achieve the above technical objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] The overall scheme of the unmanned aircraft prototype with both flying and crawling functions needs to consider various factors, including structural design, control systems, etc. Due to the complexity of the environment and the requirements of functional diversity, the structure of the unmanned aircraft with both flying and crawling functions of the present invention mainly includes four parts, namely the aircraft body (1), the flight components (2), the crawling components (3), and the landing components (4) for different target surfaces.

[0009] The aircraft body (1) is composed of a titanium alloy metal plate top plate (11), a bottom plate (12), and a support member (13) to form an overall frame, and the frame is used to install the subsequent flight components and crawling components.

[0010] The flight components (2) include a propeller (21), an electronic speed controller (22), a brushless motor (23), a motor mount (24), a battery, a GPS, a data transmitter, a flight controller, an on-board computer, etc. Among them, the propeller (21), the electronic speed controller (22), and the brushless motor (23) form a set of rotors, and four sets of rotors are evenly distributed and installed at the four diagonals of the frame through the motor mount (24). The rotation speed of the four rotors can be controlled by remote control to achieve various aerial motion forms of the entire aircraft, such as translation, rotation, and tilt.

[0011] The crawling component (3) consists of four mechanical legs. Each mechanical leg is composed of components such as servo 1 (31), servo 2 (32), servo 3 (33), joint 1 (34), joint 2 (35), thigh (36), and foot (37). Joint 1 (34) is connected to the aircraft body (1) through servo 1 (31), and servo 1 (31) can control the rotation of joint 1 (34); joint 2 (35) is connected to joint 1 (34) through servo 2 (33), and servo 2 (32) can control the rotation of joint 2 (35); the thigh (36) is connected to joint 2 (35) through servo 3 (33), and servo 3 (33) can control the rotation of the thigh (36); finally, the foot (37) is connected to the thigh (36). The assembled crawling component can achieve the rotation of each joint at various angles, enabling the aircraft to transform into different forms for work, so that the aircraft can crawl on subsequent multi-angle surfaces.

[0012] The landing component (4) is realized through the activity of the bionic adhesion material and the crawling component (3). The shape memory bionic micro-nano fiber structure responds through a heating device to achieve the adhesion and detachment process. A piece of bionic adhesion material is installed at the center above servo 2 (32) of each mechanical leg and at the bottom of the foot (37). The landing method on different surfaces is to install a rotatable joint at the end of the four legs of the airframe. The joint connects the thigh (36) and the foot (37), enabling it to have a certain adaptability on uneven non-structural surfaces. The shape memory controllable adhesion material installed on the bottom surface of the foot (37) gives it dynamic adhesion, providing technical support for the airframe to crawl on sloping surfaces. The vertical surface landing method is that two adjacent servo 1 (31) control the corresponding joint 1 (34) to make the two mechanical legs parallel and in the same direction, and then servo 2 (32) controls joint 2 (35) to make the adhesion material perpendicular to the landing surface. Servo 3 (33) controls the thigh (36) to make the adhesion material at the foot (37) perpendicular to the landing surface. After the rotor controls the aircraft to fly to the appropriate position, it can approach the vertical landing surface and make the four adhesion materials adhere to the vertical surface. When the adhesion is firm, the landing can be completed. The negative surface landing method is that each servo 2 (32) controls joint 2 (35) to rotate to be horizontal with the aircraft body (1); each servo 3 (33) controls the thigh (36) to rotate upward until the thigh (33) is perpendicular to the aircraft body (1). The foot rotates through the joint to make the bottom surface of the foot (37), that is, the surface of the adhesion material, parallel to the negative surface to be adhered. Start the flight component (2) to make the aircraft take off and gradually approach the negative surface and make the adhesion material fully contact the surface. After the adhesion is firm, the flight component (2) can be turned off to make the aircraft land on the negative surface.

[0013] The bionic adhesion material used is a shape memory polymer high polymer prepared by the template method with epoxy resin main agent and curing agent as raw materials. This adhesion material can provide sufficient adhesion force under a certain pre-pressure to ensure that the unmanned aerial vehicle can land adhesively on vertical surfaces and negative surfaces, and has stability and repeatable adhesion characteristics.

[0014] The normal forces provided by the bionic adhesion material are all greater than the total weight of the aircraft, and there is a certain load margin. When the aircraft lands on the negative surface or vertical surface, the bionic adhesion material can also provide a certain tangential force to resist the tangential airflow interference and maintain a determined landing position without tipping over and falling.

[0015] The remote control module uses an STM32F407 processor, adds interfaces and programs for controlling servos and rotors, and integrates other functional units required for flight control, such as three-axis accelerometers / gyroscopes and three-axis angular velocity meters, so as to simplify the peripherals and circuits of the remote control module to the greatest extent and minimize the weight and volume.

[0016] Beneficial effects: The present invention provides a multifunctional aircraft that combines flight and crawling capabilities, flying with four rotors and crawling with four mechanical legs. In addition, it can also land on multi-angle surfaces, such as vertical surfaces and negative surfaces, through the morphological switching of bionic adhesion materials and mechanical legs. Such an aircraft can complete tasks that require both land and air conditions, has broad application prospects in the fields of rescue, detection, etc., can adapt to more complex landing environments, and greatly expands the flight space. Description of the Drawings

[0017] In order to more clearly illustrate the specific embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings required for the description of the specific embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, without creative efforts, other drawings can also be obtained based on these drawings.

[0018] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the aircraft

[0019] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the aircraft body

[0020] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the flight mechanism

[0021] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the crawling mechanism

[0022] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the vertical surface landing process

[0023] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the negative surface landing process

[0024] The reference numerals in the figure are indicated as follows: 1: aircraft main body, 11: top plate, 12: bottom plate, 13: support member, 2: flight component, 21: propeller, 22: electronic speed controller, 23: brushless motor, 24: motor mount; 3: crawling component, 31: servo 1, 32: servo 2, 33: servo 3, 34: joint 1, 35: joint 2, 36: thigh, 37: foot, 4: landing component. Detailed implementation manners

[0025] The present invention will be described in detail below. The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a 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 those of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0026] The present invention aims to solve the problem of limited working environments of existing unmanned aerial vehicles and crawling robots, and provides an unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions that can switch between flight and crawling modes and can land and crawl on multi-angle surfaces such as horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces and negative surfaces. The described unmanned aerial vehicle can realize aerial flight motion and ground crawling motion. In the aerial flight motion mode, it has six degrees of freedom and can hover in the air; in the crawling motion mode, it can move freely forward, backward, left and right on the ground; and it can land and crawl on surfaces at different angles, such as horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces and negative surfaces.

[0027] According to the unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions provided by the present invention, as Figure 1 shown, it is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the aircraft in the embodiment of the present invention, including an aircraft main body (1), a flight component (2), a crawling component (3) and a landing component for different target surfaces, namely an adhesion material (4). The aircraft has an aerial flight motion mode and a multi-angle surface landing and crawling mode.

[0028] According to the working method of the unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions provided by the present invention, it includes an aerial flight motion mode and a multi-angle surface landing and crawling mode.

[0029] 1. Working method of the aerial flight motion mode of the aircraft with both flight and crawling functions

[0030] The rotors of the aircraft are composed of two pairs of positive and negative propellers with exactly the same size, weight and structure, as Figure 3As shown, the positive propellers are diagonally distributed on the left and right sides of the aircraft body and rotate counterclockwise; the counter-rotating propellers rotate in the opposite direction (clockwise) and are diagonally distributed on the left and right sides of the aircraft body. An electronic speed controller (commonly known as an "ESC") is used to control the motor speed. The motor drives the rotors to rotate to generate lift. By adjusting the rotor speed, the lift of the UAV can be changed to control the attitude and position of the UAV. Due to the existence of two pairs of rotors with opposite rotation directions and helix directions, when the UAV is flying in balance, both the gyroscopic effect and the aerodynamic torque effect are cancelled out. A quadcopter is an underactuated system that can generate outputs in six states of motion, namely, forward / backward, lateral, vertical, pitch, roll, and yaw, using only the input forces of the four rotors.

[0031] The driving process of the unmanned aircraft is that the battery powers the four ESCs, and the ESCs control the speeds of the four motors. When receiving the direction commands output by the remote controller, they are decoded by the control board of the unmanned aircraft, and corresponding signals are output to each ESC to control the speeds of the four motors respectively, so as to execute the expected motion.

[0032] When the four rotors achieve forward / backward or left / right motion, it is necessary to increase the speed of one of the motors on the opposite side and slightly decrease the speed of the other motor, while keeping the speeds of the other two motors unchanged, so that the pulling force on one side of the UAV increases, and the forward / backward or left / right motion of the UAV can be achieved. By adjusting the speed of each motor of the UAV, it can also achieve various complex motions, such as vertical motion, pitch motion, roll motion, and yaw motion.

[0033] 2. Landing method on the vertical surface of the aircraft with both flight and crawling functions

[0034] As Figure 5 shown, in the flight state of the unmanned aircraft (by default, the aircraft body is parallel to the horizontal ground), remotely control one of the mechanical legs so that its servo 2 (32) rotates downward around joint 2 (35) until it is perpendicular to the aircraft body, and servo 3 (33) controls the thigh (36) to rotate until it is parallel to the two servos and perpendicular to the ground. At this time, the sole rotates around the rotating joint until the surface of the adhesion material (4) at the bottom is parallel to the vertical surface to be landed; then remotely control the two mechanical legs adjacent to this mechanical leg. Each servo 1 (31) of these two mechanical legs controls its respective joint 1 (34) to rotate towards the vertical surface respectively, and servo 3 (33) controls the thigh (36), and the rotating joint controls the foot (37) so that the adhesion material (4) on the sole is parallel to the landing surface and is in the same plane as the adhesion material (4) of the previous mechanical leg; at this time, the overall attitude of the aircraft is as Figure 5As shown, control the flight mechanism to make the aircraft fly towards the vertical landing surface. Gradually reduce the flight speed when approaching, and slowly bring the surface of the adhesion material (4) close to the landing surface until all the adhesion materials (4) are completely attached to the landing surface. After firm adhesion, the landing can be completed.

[0035] 3. Landing method for the negative surface of the aircraft with both flight and crawling functions

[0036] As Figure 6 shown, in the flight state of the aircraft (by default, the main body of the aircraft is parallel to the horizontal ground), remotely control each mechanical leg. Each servo 2 (32) rotates around the joint 2 (35) to be horizontal with the main body of the aircraft (1); each servo 3 (33) controls the thigh (36) to rotate upwards until the thigh (33) is perpendicular to the main body of the aircraft (1). The foot rotates through the rotating joint to make the bottom surface of the foot (37), i.e., the surface of the adhesion material (4), parallel to the negative surface to be adhered. Start the flight component (2) to make the aircraft take off and gradually approach the negative surface and make the adhesion material (4) fully contact the surface. After firm adhesion, the flight component (2) can be turned off to make the flying and crawling aircraft land on the negative surface.

[0037] 4. Working method for the crawling motion mode of the unmanned aircraft with both flight and crawling functions

[0038] As Figure 4 shown, control each servo of the crawling component to make different movements:

[0039] Forward and backward movement: When the servos on both sides rotate forward or backward at the same frequency simultaneously, drive the mechanical legs on both sides to move forward or backward at the same frequency, and the aircraft can move forward and backward on the ground.

[0040] Steering and turning: When the servos on both sides rotate at different frequencies, drive the mechanical legs on both sides to move forward or backward at different frequencies, so that the aircraft can turn on the ground.

[0041] In-situ turning: When the servos on both sides rotate in opposite directions and at the same rotational speed, they can drive the mechanical legs on both sides to move in opposite directions, so that the aircraft can achieve in-situ turning.

[0042] Compared with the prior art, the above-described embodiments of the invention can implement two operation modes of flight and crawling, capable of flying in the air and landing and crawling on a horizontal plane, a vertical surface, and a negative surface. The aircraft can be flexibly switched according to mission requirements to achieve efficient operation in complex environments and has broad application prospects in fields such as inspection and detection. The technical features of the above-described embodiments can be combined arbitrarily. For the sake of brevity of description, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, it should be considered to be within the scope described in this specification. For example, the number of legs and blades can be adjusted, etc.

[0043] The foregoing description enables those skilled in the art to implement or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention will not be limited to these embodiments shown herein, but rather to the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions that can simultaneously complete aerial flight and ground crawling and can land on special-angle surfaces (such as vertical surfaces and negative surfaces), characterized in that: It includes an aircraft body (1), flight components (2), crawling components (3), and a landing component for different target surfaces, namely, an adhesion material (4). The flight components (2) include four groups of rotors. Each group of rotors consists of a propeller (21), an electronic speed controller (22), a brushless motor (23), and a motor mount (24). The four groups of rotors are evenly distributed at the four diagonals of the aircraft body (1). The flight, hovering, and attitude adjustment of the aircraft are achieved by controlling the rotational speed of the rotors. The crawling components (3) include four mechanical legs. Each mechanical leg consists of a servo 1 (31), a servo 2 (32), a servo 3 (33), a joint 1 (34), a joint 2 (35), a thigh (36), and a foot (37). By controlling the rotation of the joints with servos, the shape transformation of the mechanical legs is achieved, enabling the aircraft to crawl on a horizontal plane, a vertical surface, and a negative surface. The landing component (4) includes a bionic adhesion material installed on the feet (37) of the mechanical legs. Due to the adhesion characteristics of the shape memory bionic material, the aircraft can land on vertical surfaces and negative surfaces.

2. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bionic adhesion material is prepared from a shape memory polymer (SMP) and has stable and repeatable adhesion characteristics, capable of providing sufficient adhesion force to support the unmanned aircraft to land and crawl on vertical surfaces and negative surfaces.

3. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, The flight components (2) are controlled by a remote control module. The remote control module uses an STM32F407 processor and integrates a three-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, and an angular velocity meter to control the rotational speed of the rotors and the flight attitude of the aircraft.

4. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, wherein Each mechanical leg of the crawling components (3) is controlled by a servo 1 (31), a servo 2 (32), and a servo 3 (33) to rotate the joint 1 (34), the joint 2 (35), and the thigh (36) respectively, enabling the mechanical legs to transform their shapes on surfaces at different angles and realizing the landing and crawling of the aircraft.

5. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bionic adhesion material of the landing component (4) controls the response of the shape memory bionic micro-nano fiber structure through a heating device to achieve the adhesion and detachment processes, enabling the aircraft to land and crawl stably on a horizontal plane, a vertical surface, and a negative surface.

6. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, The aircraft can achieve six-degree-of-freedom movements in the air flight mode, including forward and backward, lateral, vertical, pitch, roll, and yaw movements; in the crawling mode, the aircraft can perform forward and backward, left and right, and in-place turning movements on the ground.

7. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the aircraft lands on a vertical surface, the adhesion material of the mechanical legs is made parallel to the vertical surface by controlling the servo 2 (32) and the servo 3 (33), and the aircraft is slowly approached to the vertical surface by controlling the rotors of the flight components (2) until the adhesion material is fully attached to the surface.

8. The unmanned aerial vehicle with both flight and crawling functions according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the aircraft lands on a negative surface, the adhesion material of the mechanical legs is made parallel to the negative surface by controlling the servo 2 (32) and the servo 3 (33), and the aircraft is approached to the negative surface by controlling the rotors of the flight components (2) until the adhesion material is fully attached to the surface.

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