Method and system for supervising small aircraft in low-altitude environment

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of low-altitude aircraft supervision, and provides a method and a system for supervising a small aircraft in a low-altitude environment, identity binding is performed on the aircraft and a supervision platform through a 4G communication module, and a guarantee is provided for large-scale supervision of the aircraft; during flight, the aircraft reports flight state data such as GNSS position, attitude and the like to the supervision platform in real time through a 4G network, the supervision platform performs electronic fence verification and abnormal behavior analysis on the received data, and once an abnormality is found, multi-level response early warning is triggered, so that low-cost supervision more suitable for small aircrafts is realized, and the supervision efficiency is improved. The supervision coverage rate of small aircrafts is improved by utilizing the characteristic of wide coverage rate of the 4G network; in addition, the supervisory system reduces the size of supervisory equipment through highly integrated hardware, so that the supervisory system is more suitable for small aircrafts.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of low-altitude aircraft monitoring technology, and in particular to a monitoring method and system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments. Background Technology

[0002] With the expansion of the low-altitude economy, low-altitude aircraft have been widely used in urban airspace, agricultural operations, environmental monitoring, and other fields. However, flight conflicts are inevitable during the flight of low-altitude aircraft, which seriously affect flight safety. Therefore, flight supervision of these aircraft is of great importance.

[0003] Traditional ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) or secondary radar systems have extremely high costs for airborne equipment and ground base station construction, making them difficult to popularize in small aircraft such as drones. Furthermore, the construction of dedicated ground surveillance radar stations is limited, making it impossible to achieve seamless coverage of vast low-altitude areas, especially urban areas obscured by buildings and remote regions, resulting in inadequate supervision of low-altitude aircraft. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Given that the aforementioned ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) or secondary radar systems have extremely high costs for airborne equipment and ground base station construction, making them difficult to popularize in small aircraft such as drones, and that the construction of dedicated ground surveillance radar stations is limited, it is impossible to achieve seamless coverage of vast low-altitude areas, especially urban areas obscured by buildings and remote areas, thus leading to inadequate supervision of low-altitude aircraft, one of the purposes of this application is to provide a method and system for supervising small aircraft in low-altitude environments. This method fully utilizes the wide coverage and low cost of existing 4G networks, effectively reducing the hardware cost of airborne supervision modules and achieving effective supervision in urban and rural areas and even remote areas, thereby improving the coverage of supervision of small aircraft.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, this application adopts the following technical solution: A method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments, comprising the following steps: Step S10: Before takeoff, the aircraft initiates a registration request to the regulatory platform via the 4G communication module to obtain the corresponding digital identity certificate; Step S20: During flight, the aircraft collects flight status data through sensors and reports the encrypted flight status data to the monitoring platform via a 4G network. Step S30: The monitoring platform receives the flight status data and performs data parsing and spatiotemporal information parsing on the flight status data to obtain monitoring information; Step S40: Based on the monitoring information, determine whether the aircraft has any flight abnormalities; if so, trigger the multi-level response warning of the monitoring platform.

[0006] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the flight status data includes real-time latitude and longitude, altitude, speed, heading, attitude angle, timestamp, and battery level.

[0007] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the flight anomaly includes flight area anomaly and flight behavior anomaly; an electronic fence database is pre-established, and the monitoring information is compared with the electronic fence database to determine whether the aircraft has a flight area anomaly; machine learning is performed on the monitoring information to determine whether the aircraft has a flight behavior anomaly.

[0008] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the multi-level response warning includes information push, platform alarm and remote link intervention command, wherein the remote link intervention command includes sending commands to the aircraft via 4G network to force return, hover, land or restrict operation permissions.

[0009] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the flight status data is encapsulated into structured binary telemetry data frames and transmitted to the monitoring platform via a UDP channel; the remote link intervention command is encapsulated into structured binary telemetry command frames and transmitted to the aircraft via a TCP channel; wherein the data frames and command frames follow the same set of predefined application layer protocols.

[0010] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the frame structure of the data frame and the instruction frame are independent of the underlying network transmission standard.

[0011] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, it further includes: Step S50: The monitoring platform stores all flight status data and flight anomalies to obtain flight logs; Step S60: Identify unregistered aircraft moving in the air and report them as suspicious targets to the monitoring platform.

[0012] A monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments, employing any of the monitoring methods for small aircraft in low-altitude environments described above, comprising: The airborne monitoring module integrates a 4G communication module, a GNSS positioning module, a main control MCU, and sensors. It is used to collect and report flight status data, as well as receive remote link intervention commands. The monitoring platform is used to receive flight status data, identify flight anomalies, trigger multi-level response warnings, and store data. The 4G communication module integrates a radio frequency antenna unit and a user identification module interface, and the 4G communication module is connected to the main control MCU through a serial communication interface. The main control MCU integrates a lightweight data encapsulation unit and an instruction parsing unit, and the monitoring platform integrates a data parsing unit and an instruction encapsulation unit.

[0013] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the airborne surveillance module further includes a data compensation mechanism, which includes: Local storage unit is used to cache flight status data generated within a preset time period; Network status monitoring unit, used to monitor 4G network connection status; The data retransmission unit is configured to automatically resend the flight status data that was not successfully uploaded and cached in the local storage unit to the monitoring platform after the network is detected to have recovered from the interruption.

[0014] In one embodiment disclosed in this application, the main control MCU sends AT commands to the serial communication interface to control the 4G communication module to complete network registration and establish a transparent TCP / UDP data connection with the monitoring platform.

[0015] Compared with existing technologies, the beneficial effects of this invention are as follows: This method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments binds the aircraft to the monitoring platform via a 4G communication module, ensuring large-scale monitoring of the aircraft. During flight, the aircraft reports GNSS position, attitude, and other flight status data to the monitoring platform in real time via the 4G network. The monitoring platform performs electronic fence verification and abnormal behavior analysis on the received data. Once an anomaly is detected, a multi-level response warning is triggered, thereby achieving lower-cost monitoring more suitable for small aircraft and improving the monitoring coverage of small aircraft by leveraging the wide coverage of the 4G network. A monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments is also provided, which reduces the size of the monitoring equipment through highly integrated hardware, making it more suitable for small aircraft. Attached Figure Description

[0016] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of this application. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0017] Figure 1 A schematic diagram illustrating the steps of the method for monitoring small aircraft in a low-altitude environment provided in this application; Figure 2 A schematic diagram illustrating the data interaction between the regulatory platform and the aircraft provided in this application. Detailed Implementation

[0018] In the following description, only certain exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art will recognize, the described embodiments can be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, the drawings and description are considered to be exemplary in nature and not restrictive.

[0019] The terms “comprising” and “having”, and any variations thereof, used in this application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or apparatus that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the steps or units listed, but may optionally include steps or units not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units inherent to such process, method, product, or apparatus.

[0020] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used in this specification is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. The term "and / or" as used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0021] In this application, the reference to "embodiment" means that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of this application. The appearance of this phrase in various places throughout the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it a separate or alternative embodiment mutually exclusive with other embodiments. It will be explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

[0022] The embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0023] Figure 1 A schematic diagram illustrating the steps of the method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments provided in this application. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments includes the following steps: Step S10: Before takeoff, the aircraft initiates a registration request to the regulatory platform via the 4G communication module to obtain the corresponding digital identity certificate; Step S20: During flight, the aircraft collects flight status data through sensors and reports the encrypted flight status data to the monitoring platform via a 4G network. In step S30, the monitoring platform receives the flight status data and sequentially performs data parsing and spatiotemporal information parsing on the flight status data to obtain monitoring information. Step S40: Based on the monitoring information, determine whether the aircraft has any flight abnormalities; if so, trigger the multi-level response warning of the monitoring platform.

[0024] This method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments binds the aircraft to the monitoring platform via a 4G communication module, ensuring large-scale monitoring of the aircraft. During flight, the aircraft reports GNSS position, attitude, and other flight status data to the monitoring platform in real time via the 4G network. The monitoring platform performs electronic fence verification and abnormal behavior analysis on the received data. Once an anomaly is detected, a multi-level response warning is triggered, thereby achieving low-cost monitoring that is more suitable for small aircraft and improving the monitoring coverage of small aircraft by leveraging the wide coverage of the 4G network.

[0025] Preferably, the flight status data includes real-time latitude and longitude, altitude, speed, heading, attitude angle, timestamp, and battery level.

[0026] In the above technical solution, flight status data includes, but is not limited to, real-time latitude and longitude, altitude, speed, heading, attitude angle, timestamp, and battery level; among which, latitude and longitude and altitude are determined in real time by GNSS positioning module, and speed, heading, and attitude angle are collected in real time by sensors.

[0027] Preferably, the flight anomaly includes flight area anomaly and flight behavior anomaly; an electronic fence database is pre-established, and the monitoring information is compared with the electronic fence database to determine whether the aircraft has a flight area anomaly; machine learning is performed on the monitoring information to determine whether the aircraft has a flight behavior anomaly.

[0028] In the aforementioned technical solution, the monitoring platform parses the structured binary telemetry data frames reported by the aircraft, extracts raw latitude and longitude, altitude, timestamp, speed, heading, attitude angle, and other parameters from the parsed data frames, and converts them into spatiotemporally meaningful monitoring information, providing data support for subsequent electronic fence verification and abnormal behavior analysis. An electronic fence database is pre-established, including but not limited to geospatial information of no-fly zones, restricted-fly zones, and airport airspace. This monitoring information is compared with the electronic fence database to determine whether the aircraft's current location belongs to a no-fly zone, restricted-fly zone, or airport airspace. If it does, the aircraft is deemed to have an abnormal flight area, triggering a multi-level response warning from the monitoring platform. A neural network model is trained using normal flight status data and abnormal flight data, with the monitoring information as input. The model outputs abnormal behavior and its corresponding probability and risk level. When the probability exceeds a preset value, the aircraft is deemed to have abnormal flight behavior, triggering a multi-level response warning from the monitoring platform.

[0029] Preferably, the multi-level response early warning includes information push, platform alarm and remote link intervention command, wherein the remote link intervention command includes sending commands to the aircraft via 4G network to force return, hover, land or restrict operation permissions.

[0030] In the aforementioned technical solution, the information push includes sending warning text messages to the operators of the corresponding aircraft to alert them to flight anomalies; the platform alarm includes highlighting the aircraft with flight anomalies on the monitoring platform and issuing audible and visual alarms to notify the monitoring personnel; the remote link intervention command is a remote command sent by the monitoring platform to the corresponding aircraft via the 4G network to trigger the self-protection mechanism of the aircraft's onboard monitoring module. Commands include, but are not limited to, forced return to base, hovering, landing, or restricting its operational permissions. The information push, platform alarm, and remote link intervention command belong to Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 warnings, respectively. When an aircraft exhibits flight area anomalies, different levels of warnings are issued based on the distance between the aircraft's current location and no-fly zones, restricted flight zones, or airport airspace; the closer the distance, the higher the warning level. When an aircraft exhibits abnormal flight behavior, different levels of warnings are triggered based on the risk level of the abnormal behavior; the higher the risk level, the higher the warning level. Triggering different levels of warnings based on distance and the risk level of abnormal behavior ensures the effectiveness and flexibility of aircraft monitoring.

[0031] Preferably, the flight status data is encapsulated into a structured binary telemetry data frame and transmitted to the monitoring platform via a UDP channel; the remote link intervention command is encapsulated into a structured binary telemetry command frame and transmitted to the aircraft via a TCP channel; wherein the data frame and the command frame follow the same set of predefined application layer protocols.

[0032] In the above technical solution, to improve data transmission efficiency and reduce power consumption and transmission costs, data streams and command streams are transmitted separately. Due to the connectionless and low-cost characteristics of the UDP protocol, it is suitable for high-frequency, small-data-packet data transmission. The main control MCU encapsulates the collected latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading, attitude angle, and battery level information, and sends it to the monitoring platform through a UDP channel established by the 4G communication module, ensuring low latency and real-time performance. The TCP protocol, being connection-oriented, reliable, and ordered byte stream communication, is suitable for data transmission requiring high reliability. The remote link intervention command is transmitted through the TCP channel, ensuring that the command is delivered safely and reliably, thereby improving the safety and reliability of aircraft monitoring. The structured binary telemetry data frame and structured binary telemetry command frame contain at least a frame header to identify the start of the frame, an aircraft ID for identification, and a data / command payload area. Compared with text protocols such as JSON, the structured binary telemetry data frame eliminates a large number of quotation marks, parentheses, commas, and field name strings, which not only improves data encapsulation efficiency, but also effectively shortens the transmission time of the 4G communication module, reduces communication power consumption, and improves data transmission efficiency. This is beneficial for improving the endurance of low-altitude small aircraft and ensuring the real-time uploading of flight status data.

[0033] Preferably, the frame structure of both the data frame and the instruction frame is independent of the underlying network transmission standard.

[0034] In the above technical solution, the structure of the data frame and the instruction frame are independent of the underlying network transmission standard, so that the data will not be affected by network upgrades, thereby achieving a smooth upgrade of the 5G network without changing the protocol, expanding the scope of use and improving the flexibility of use.

[0035] Preferably, it further includes: Step S50: The monitoring platform stores all flight status data and flight anomalies to obtain flight logs; Step S60: Identify unregistered aircraft moving in the air and report them as suspicious targets to the monitoring platform.

[0036] In the above technical solution, in step S50, the monitoring platform performs long-term encrypted storage of all flight status data and flight anomalies, forming an immutable flight log. This log enables post-event auditing, accident investigation, and accountability tracing. In step S60, the mobile operator network side, collaborating with the monitoring platform, analyzes 4G network signaling data. By integrating the 4G network signaling data, it identifies unregistered aircraft moving in the air, treats them as suspicious targets, and reports their location information to the monitoring platform. This prevents unauthorized flights and ensures the integrity of aircraft monitoring.

[0037] This application also provides a monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments, employing the monitoring method for small aircraft in low-altitude environments as described in any of the above claims, comprising: The airborne monitoring module integrates a 4G communication module, a GNSS positioning module, a main control MCU, and sensors. It is used to collect and report flight status data, as well as receive remote link intervention commands. The monitoring platform is used to receive flight status data, identify flight anomalies, trigger multi-level response warnings, and store data. The 4G communication module integrates a radio frequency antenna unit and a user identification module interface, and the 4G communication module is connected to the main control MCU through a serial communication interface. The main control MCU integrates a lightweight data encapsulation unit and an instruction parsing unit, and the monitoring platform integrates a data parsing unit and an instruction encapsulation unit.

[0038] In the above technical solution, the radio frequency antenna unit includes, but is not limited to, a ceramic antenna integrating 4G and GPS functions, thereby saving space and reducing assembly complexity, making the hardware more suitable for small aircraft; the user identification module interface is connected to a 4G SIM card for identity authentication in the operator network; it should be noted that the airborne monitoring module needs to communicate with the aircraft's flight control module to execute remote link intervention commands. Before the aircraft takes off, the 4G communication module needs to initiate a registration request to the monitoring platform. This registration request includes, but is not limited to, the aircraft's unique identification code (such as SN code), model, owner information, and the SIM card identity information of the 4G communication module. After the monitoring platform approves the request, it generates a digital identity certificate corresponding to the aircraft, completing the identity binding between the aircraft and the SIM card. The lightweight data encapsulation unit and the command encapsulation unit are both configured to generate structured binary telemetry data frames according to the same predefined application layer protocol, and the command parsing unit and the data parsing unit are both configured to parse the structured binary telemetry data frames according to the same predefined application layer protocol; wherein, such as Figure 2 As shown, the lightweight data encapsulation unit encapsulates flight status data into structured binary telemetry data frames according to a predefined application layer protocol and transmits them via a UDP channel; the data parsing unit receives and parses the structured binary telemetry data frames transmitted via the UDP channel to reconstruct the flight status data; the command encapsulation unit encapsulates remote link intervention commands into structured binary command frames according to the same predefined application layer protocol and transmits them via a TCP channel; the command parsing unit receives and parses the structured binary telemetry command frames transmitted via the TCP channel to reconstruct the remote intervention commands and execute them.

[0039] Preferably, the airborne monitoring module further includes a data compensation mechanism, which includes: Local storage unit is used to cache flight status data generated within a preset time period; Network status monitoring unit, used to monitor 4G network connection status; The data retransmission unit is configured to automatically resend the flight status data that was not successfully uploaded and cached in the local storage unit to the monitoring platform after the network is detected to have recovered from the interruption.

[0040] In the above technical solution, while the main control MCU is reporting data normally via the 4G network, it simultaneously writes all structured binary telemetry data frames to be sent to the onboard local storage unit (such as an SD card). This local storage unit adopts a cyclic overwrite strategy, retaining only the flight status data within the most recent preset time period (such as the most recent 30 minutes) to prevent insufficient storage space and invalid data from occupying storage space. During flight, the main control MCU or 4G communication module continuously monitors the network connection status. When the network signal strength is detected to be lower than a preset threshold or the communication link is interrupted, a data compensation mechanism is immediately triggered. During the network interruption, newly generated flight status data is not sent but only written to the local storage unit to prevent data loss. When the 4G network connection is detected to be restored, the main control MCU automatically starts the data retransmission unit, first reading the flight status data that was not successfully uploaded from the local storage unit and sending it to the monitoring platform via the 4G network to ensure data integrity and reliability. The data retransmission unit also supports Quality of Service (QoS) classification. For example, core data such as aircraft ID, latitude and longitude, altitude, and timestamp are classified as QoS=1 data. This type of data must be uploaded at least once and should be retransmitted first after the network is restored. Detailed readings collected by sensors are classified as QoS=0 data. This type of data can be retransmitted according to network conditions and storage space, and can even be selectively discarded when storage space is insufficient. By classifying the data, the integrity and continuity of core data can be guaranteed, avoiding regulatory blind spots caused by network problems.

[0041] Preferably, the main control MCU sends AT commands to the serial communication interface to control the 4G communication module to complete network registration and establish a transparent TCP / UDP data connection with the monitoring platform.

[0042] In the above technical solution, the main control MCU sends AT commands through a serial communication interface (such as a UART serial port) to initialize the 4G communication module, enabling it to attach to the 4G network and obtain a private IP address assigned by the operator. Furthermore, the main control MCU uses AT commands to control the 4G communication module to establish a TCP / UDP connection with the monitoring platform. After successful connection establishment, both parties enter a transparent data transmission mode, specifying the public IP address and port of the monitoring platform. In this transparent data transmission mode, the main control MCU writes the pre-constructed structured binary telemetry data frames as raw byte streams into the serial communication interface connected to the 4G communication module. Upon receiving this byte stream, the 4G communication module does not perform any application-layer parsing or processing; instead, it packages it into complete network data packets and sends them to the designated IP address and port of the monitoring platform via the 4G network. This effectively reduces hardware costs, alleviates computational burden, and improves data transmission efficiency, thereby ensuring real-time data transmission.

[0043] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this invention without departing from its spirit and scope. Therefore, if these modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this invention and their equivalents, this invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments, characterized in that, It includes the following steps: Step S10: Before takeoff, the aircraft initiates a registration request to the regulatory platform via the 4G communication module to obtain the corresponding digital identity certificate; Step S20: During flight, the aircraft collects flight status data through sensors and reports the encrypted flight status data to the monitoring platform via a 4G network. Step S30: The monitoring platform receives the flight status data and sequentially performs data parsing and spatiotemporal information parsing on the flight status data to obtain monitoring information; Step S40: Based on the monitoring information, determine whether the aircraft has any flight abnormalities; If so, the multi-level response warning of the regulatory platform will be triggered.

2. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 1, characterized in that: The flight status data includes real-time latitude and longitude, altitude, speed, heading, attitude angle, timestamp, and battery level.

3. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 1, characterized in that: The flight anomalies include flight area anomalies and flight behavior anomalies; an electronic fence database is pre-established, and the monitoring information is compared with the electronic fence database to determine whether the aircraft has flight area anomalies; machine learning is performed on the monitoring information to determine whether the aircraft has flight behavior anomalies.

4. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 1, characterized in that: The multi-level response early warning includes information push, platform alarm and remote link intervention command. The remote link intervention command includes sending commands to the aircraft via 4G network to force return, hover, land or restrict operation permissions.

5. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 4, characterized in that: The flight status data is encapsulated into structured binary telemetry data frames and transmitted to the monitoring platform via a UDP channel; the remote link intervention command is encapsulated into structured binary telemetry command frames and transmitted to the aircraft via a TCP channel. The data frames and instruction frames follow the same set of predefined application layer protocols.

6. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 5, characterized in that: The frame structure of the data frames and command frames is independent of the underlying network transmission standard.

7. The method for monitoring small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 1, characterized in that, Also includes: Step S50: The monitoring platform stores all flight status data and flight anomalies to obtain flight logs; Step S60: Identify unregistered aircraft moving in the air and report them as suspicious targets to the monitoring platform.

8. A monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments, employing the monitoring method for small aircraft in low-altitude environments as described in any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, It includes: The airborne monitoring module integrates a 4G communication module, a GNSS positioning module, a main control MCU, and sensors. It is used to collect and report flight status data, as well as receive remote link intervention commands. The monitoring platform is used to receive flight status data, identify flight anomalies, trigger multi-level response warnings, and store data. The 4G communication module integrates a radio frequency antenna unit and a user identification module interface, and the 4G communication module is connected to the main control MCU through a serial communication interface. The main control MCU integrates a lightweight data encapsulation unit and an instruction parsing unit, and the monitoring platform integrates a data parsing unit and an instruction encapsulation unit.

9. The monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 8, characterized in that, The airborne surveillance module also includes a data compensation mechanism, which includes: Local storage unit is used to cache flight status data generated within a preset time period; Network status monitoring unit, used to monitor 4G network connection status; The data retransmission unit is configured to automatically resend the flight status data that was not successfully uploaded and cached in the local storage unit to the monitoring platform after the network is detected to have recovered from the interruption.

10. The monitoring system for small aircraft in low-altitude environments according to claim 8, characterized in that: The main control MCU sends AT commands to the serial communication interface to control the 4G communication module to complete network registration and establish a transparent TCP / UDP data connection with the monitoring platform.

Images