Unmanned aerial vehicle power control system and unmanned aerial vehicle power control method

Abstract

The application provides a kind of unmanned aerial vehicle power control system and unmanned aerial vehicle power control method, the system includes flight control system, unmanned aerial vehicle electric propulsion domain controller and multiple power units.Unmanned aerial vehicle electric propulsion domain controller at least includes communication unit, communication unit includes first communication harness and multiple second communication harness, first communication harness is used to be connected with flight control system and unmanned aerial vehicle electric propulsion domain controller, each second communication harness is used to be connected with unmanned aerial vehicle electric propulsion domain controller and each power unit respectively;Power unit includes multiple motor controllers in unmanned aerial vehicle system, battery management system and power distribution unit, wherein, motor controller is connected with motor in unmanned aerial vehicle system, battery management system and power distribution unit are connected with power supply in unmanned aerial vehicle system respectively.The application reduces the functional coupling degree between flight control system and power system, and reduces the real-time scheduling pressure of flight control system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control technology, and in particular to a UAV power control system and a UAV power control method. Background Technology

[0002] In current UAV power control systems, especially for medium-to-high power multi-rotor and compound wing platforms, a flat topology is commonly used, where a flight control system (also known as a flight controller system) is directly connected to multiple power units. Specifically, the flight controller system establishes point-to-point or shared bus communication with each independent motor controller unit (MCU) and battery management system (BMS) via a low-speed bus. The flight controller system is responsible for directly issuing throttle commands to each MCU and polling to collect status data from each BMS and MCU.

[0003] However, in addition to performing core flight tasks such as navigation calculation, attitude control, environmental perception, and mission planning, the flight control system also needs to undertake many low-level management tasks at the power system level. These power-related tasks occupy a large amount of computing resources and bus bandwidth of the flight control system, which exacerbates the real-time scheduling burden of the flight control system. In the current architecture, the functions of the flight control system and the power system are highly coupled, resulting in excessive real-time scheduling pressure on the flight control system.

[0004] Therefore, how to reduce the functional coupling between the flight control system and the power system and alleviate the real-time scheduling pressure on the flight control system is a technical problem that urgently needs to be solved in this field. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This invention provides a UAV power control system and a UAV power control method, which reduces the functional coupling between the flight control system and the power system, and alleviates the real-time scheduling pressure of the flight control system.

[0006] This invention provides a drone power control system, the system comprising: a flight control system, a drone electric propulsion domain controller, the drone electric propulsion domain controller including at least a communication unit, wherein the communication unit includes a first communication harness and multiple second communication harnesses, the first communication harness being used to communicate between the flight control system and the drone electric propulsion domain controller, and each of the second communication harnesses being used to communicate between the drone electric propulsion domain controller and each power unit; the multiple power units, each power unit including multiple motor controllers, a battery management system, and a power distribution unit in the drone system, wherein the motor controllers are connected to the motors in the drone system, and the battery management system and the power distribution unit are respectively connected to the power source in the drone system.

[0007] According to a UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller further includes a main control unit, wherein the flight control system is used to issue thrust commands for the operation of the UAV system to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller based on the first communication harness; the UAV electric propulsion domain controller is used to receive real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the UAV system based on multiple second communication harnesses, and to call the main control unit to determine the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data, and to determine the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, and to issue the target thrust command to each motor; the motor receives the target thrust command through the second communication harness and operates according to the target thrust command.

[0008] According to a UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the health status of the power unit includes at least the motor health status and the power supply health status; the main control unit determines the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit in the following manner: based on the motor health status, a first operating power limit of the motor is determined; based on the power supply health status, a second operating power limit of the power supply is determined; when the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of each motor is determined based on the thrust command; based on the target thrust of each motor, the target thrust command for each motor is generated.

[0009] According to a UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the main control unit determines the target thrust of each motor based on the thrust command when the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit: in response to the motor health state being a motor failure state, the motor corresponding to the motor health state is designated as the failure motor; when the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of the effective motor is determined based on the thrust command, wherein the effective motor is any motor other than the failure motor; the generation of the target thrust command for each motor based on the target thrust of each motor is achieved by: generating the target thrust command for each effective motor based on the target thrust of each effective motor.

[0010] According to a UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller further includes a storage unit, wherein the storage unit stores prior operating data reported by the power unit during prior operating periods of the UAV system; the main control unit determines the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data in the following manner: calling a pre-trained health status judgment model, wherein the health status judgment model is pre-trained using a training dataset, and the health status judgment model is used to determine the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data; the training dataset is constructed based on the prior operating data; the real-time operating data is input into the trained health status judgment model to obtain the health status of the power unit output by the health status judgment model.

[0011] According to the UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the main control unit is further configured to: in response to the power unit's health status not meeting preset requirements, issue an alarm reminder to the user, wherein the alarm reminder is used to indicate to the user that the power unit's health status is abnormal.

[0012] According to a UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller further includes a synchronization signal module; the UAV electric propulsion domain controller sends the target thrust command to each motor in the following manner: based on the synchronization signal module, the target thrust command is synchronously sent to each motor.

[0013] According to the UAV power control system provided by the present invention, the storage unit is further configured to: store real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the UAV system, and use the real-time operating data as the prior operating data of the power unit in the later operating period.

[0014] The present invention also provides a method for controlling the power of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is applied to any of the UAV power control systems described in the present invention. The method includes: receiving a thrust command for the operation of the UAV system; acquiring real-time operating data of the power unit during the operation of the UAV system; determining the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data; determining a target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit; and controlling the motors to operate according to the target thrust command.

[0015] According to a UAV power control method provided by the present invention, the health status of the power unit includes at least the motor health status and the power supply health status; the step of determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit includes: determining a first operating power limit for the motor based on the motor health status; determining a second operating power limit for the power supply based on the power supply health status; determining the target thrust for each motor based on the thrust command when the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit; and generating the target thrust command for each motor based on the target thrust of each motor.

[0016] According to the present invention, a method for controlling the power unit of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) determines the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data, and achieves this in the following manner: A pre-trained health status assessment model is invoked, wherein the health status assessment model is pre-trained using a training dataset and is used to determine the health status of the power unit based on real-time operating data; the training dataset is constructed based on the prior operating data. The real-time operating data is input into the trained health status judgment model to obtain the health status of the power unit output by the health status judgment model.

[0017] According to the present invention, a method for controlling the power of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) further includes: In response to the fact that the health status of the power unit does not meet the preset requirements, an alarm reminder is issued to the user, wherein the alarm reminder is used to indicate to the user that the health status of the power unit is abnormal.

[0018] According to the present invention, a method for controlling the power of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) further includes: The system stores the real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle system, and uses the real-time operating data as the prior operating data of the power unit in the later operating period.

[0019] The present invention also provides an electronic device, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor executes the computer program to implement any of the above-described unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) power control methods.

[0020] The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the unmanned aerial vehicle power control method as described above.

[0021] The present invention also provides a computer program product, including a computer program that, when executed by a processor, implements any of the above-described unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) power control methods.

[0022] This invention provides a UAV power control system and a UAV power control method. The system includes a flight control system, a UAV electric propulsion domain controller, and multiple power units. The UAV electric propulsion domain controller includes at least a communication unit, wherein the communication unit includes a first communication harness and multiple second communication harnesses. The first communication harness is used to communicate between the flight control system and the UAV electric propulsion domain controller, and each of the second communication harnesses is used to communicate between the UAV electric propulsion domain controller and each power unit, respectively. The power unit includes multiple motor controllers, a battery management system, and a power distribution unit in the UAV system. The motor controllers are connected to the motors in the UAV system, and the battery management system and the power distribution unit are respectively connected to the power source in the UAV system. This invention reduces the functional coupling between the flight control system and the power system, alleviating the real-time scheduling pressure on the flight control system. Attached Figure Description

[0023] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in this invention 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 some embodiments of this invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without creative effort.

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the UAV power control system provided by the present invention.

[0025] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the application scenario of the UAV power control system provided by the present invention.

[0026] Figure 3 This is a flowchart illustrating the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) power control method provided by the present invention.

[0027] Figure 4 This is a flowchart illustrating the process of determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, as provided by the present invention.

[0028] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the electronic device provided by the present invention.

[0029] Figure label: 110: Flight Control System; 120: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Electric Propulsion Domain Controller; 1301: Power Unit 1; 1302: Power Unit 2; 1303: Power unit n. Detailed Implementation

[0030] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of this invention clearer, the technical solutions of this invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of this invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of this invention without creative effort are within the scope of protection of this invention.

[0031] The UAV power control system provided by this invention can be applied to UAV systems. By adopting a "backbone bus + branch node" wiring harness layout, a highly reliable intra-domain communication architecture is established. In application, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller (PDC) acts as the bus master node, and each motor controller (MCU) and battery management system (BMS) acts as slave nodes, sharing one or more high-speed CAN FD backbone buses (corresponding to the second communication harness). This completely replaces the traditional point-to-point communication links between the flight control system and each MCU / BMS, significantly reducing the number of buses and the length of the wiring harness. The flight control system and PDC use an independent communication harness (corresponding to the first communication harness), physically isolated from the power domain backbone bus. This effectively avoids interference from a large amount of communication data from the power system to the flight control system, ensuring the reliability of high-level flight control decision-making commands. Relying on the multi-channel CAN FD controller integrated in the PDC, a bus redundancy design can be achieved. When one backbone bus fails, it can quickly switch to a backup bus, ensuring uninterrupted power domain communication.

[0032] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the UAV power control system provided by the present invention.

[0033] The following will combine Figure 1 The structure of the UAV power control system provided by the present invention will be described.

[0034] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, combined with Figure 1 It can be seen that the UAV power control system may include a flight control system 110, a UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120, and multiple power units, wherein the multiple power units correspond to power unit 1 (corresponding to figure number 1301) to power unit n (corresponding to figure number 1303) in the attached figures.

[0035] In one embodiment, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120 serves as the intelligent hub of the propulsion domain and includes at least a communication unit. The communication unit comprises a first communication harness and multiple second communication harnesses. The first communication harness is used to connect the flight control system 110 and the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120, making the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120 the sole external communication interface for the electric propulsion domain.

[0036] In application, the first communication harness can be implemented through a standard bus (such as CAN, CAN FD or Ethernet). The UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120 is connected to the flight control system 110 through the first communication harness, receives high-level thrust commands (such as total lift, roll torque, pitch torque, yaw torque), and reports domain-level operating status and health summary, thereby ensuring that the flight control system 110 and the power domain (corresponding power unit) are functionally decoupled through the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120.

[0037] In another embodiment, each second communication harness is used to communicate between the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120 and each power unit. Specifically, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller 120 acts as the bus master node, and each power unit acts as the slave node, sharing one or more high-speed CAN FD backbone buses (corresponding to the second communication harnesses). This completely replaces the traditional point-to-point communication links between the flight control system and each power unit, significantly reducing the number of buses and the length of the harnesses. The communication adopts a harness layout of "backbone bus + branch nodes" to build a highly reliable intra-domain communication architecture.

[0038] In another embodiment, the multiple power units may include multiple motor control units (MCUs), battery management systems (BMS), and power distribution units (PDUs) within the UAV system. The MCUs are connected to the motors in the UAV system to drive the propellers. The BMS and PDUs are connected to the power supply in the UAV system. The BMS monitors parameters such as voltage, current, and temperature and performs basic protection functions (e.g., overcharge, over-discharge, overcurrent protection). The PDUs are used for current collection, distribution, and protection of the high-voltage DC bus. During application, the multiple power units can be connected to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller via a high-speed intra-domain bus (such as CAN FD or Ethernet, corresponding to the second communication harness). The UAV electric propulsion domain controller then centrally manages status acquisition, command scheduling, health assessment, and fault management.

[0039] In another embodiment, the communication unit can also integrate multiple CAN FD controllers, supporting the construction of one or more high-speed intra-domain backbone buses (corresponding to the second communication harness), respectively connecting the flight control system with each motor controller, battery management system, and power distribution unit within the domain, and supporting broadcast frame and synchronization frame transmission mechanisms. The communication unit has bus fault tolerance and redundancy design; when a backbone bus fails, it can quickly switch to a backup bus to ensure uninterrupted power domain communication.

[0040] In this embodiment, by introducing the UAV electric propulsion domain controller as the sole external communication interface for the power domain, and employing a "backbone bus + branch node" wiring harness layout, the multiple low-speed communications originally scattered to the flight control system are integrated into a single high-speed domain backbone bus. The flight control system and the UAV electric propulsion domain controller use independent communication harnesses, achieving physical isolation from the power domain backbone bus. This architecture significantly reduces the number of communication nodes on the flight control side, simplifies the backbone harness layout, reduces the risk of electromagnetic interference coupling, and improves overall system integration and operational reliability.

[0041] This invention provides a UAV power control system, comprising: a flight control system, a UAV electric propulsion domain controller, and multiple power units. The UAV electric propulsion domain controller includes at least a communication unit, wherein the communication unit includes a first communication harness and multiple second communication harnesses. The first communication harness is used to communicate between the flight control system and the UAV electric propulsion domain controller, and each of the second communication harnesses is used to communicate between the UAV electric propulsion domain controller and each power unit, respectively. The power unit includes multiple motor controllers, a battery management system, and a power distribution unit within the UAV system. The motor controllers are connected to the motors in the UAV system, and the battery management system and the power distribution unit are respectively connected to the power source in the UAV system. This invention reduces the functional coupling between the flight control system and the power system, alleviating the real-time scheduling pressure on the flight control system.

[0042] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller may further include a main control unit, wherein... The flight control system is used to send thrust commands for the operation of the UAV system to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller based on the first communication harness; The UAV electric propulsion domain controller is used to receive real-time operating data reported by the power unit of the UAV system during operation based on multiple second communication harnesses, and to call the main control unit to judge the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data, and to determine the target thrust command of each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, and to send the target thrust command to each motor. The motor receives the target thrust command through the second communication harness and operates according to the target thrust command.

[0043] In one embodiment, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller may further include a main control unit. The main control unit may employ a high-reliability multi-core embedded processor, supporting parallel execution of physically isolated hard real-time tasks. The main control unit may use a high-reliability multi-core embedded processor, such as the AURIX TC387 series microcontroller. This chip integrates multiple independent processor cores with a clock frequency of up to 300 MHz, supporting parallel execution of physically isolated hard real-time tasks. It ensures that key algorithms such as thrust distribution, synchronization control, and fault diagnosis are completed within a ≤1ms control cycle, meeting the real-time requirements of high-precision synchronization of multiple motors and millisecond-level fault-tolerant response.

[0044] During the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, the flight control system can send thrust commands for the UAV system's operation to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller via the first communication harness. Specifically, the flight control system can send thrust commands to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller at a fixed frequency. These thrust commands can be high-level commands, including total lift, roll moment, pitch moment, and yaw moment.

[0045] In another embodiment, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can receive real-time operational data reported by the power units during the operation of the UAV system based on multiple second communication harnesses. Specifically, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can synchronously collect the raw operational data reported by each power unit through a high-speed intra-domain bus (such as CAN FD) at a sampling frequency of not less than 1kHz. This includes motor speed, phase current, bus voltage, current, and motor temperature of each motor controller, as well as cell voltage, current, SOC, SOH, and cell temperature of the battery management system, and assigns a unified timestamp to each data point.

[0046] In another embodiment, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can call the main control unit to determine the health status of the power unit based on real-time operating data, and further determine the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, and send the target thrust command to each motor.

[0047] During application, the motor can receive the target thrust command via the second communication harness and operate according to the target thrust command. In one example, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can simultaneously send the target throttle command to all motor controllers at the beginning of each control cycle via a CAN FD broadcast frame or a synchronization trigger signal. After receiving the command, each motor controller drives the motor to execute the corresponding speed output.

[0048] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the health status of the power unit includes at least the motor health status and the power supply health status; the main control unit can determine the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit in the following manner: Based on the motor's health status, determine the motor's first upper limit for operating power; Determine the second upper limit of the power supply's operating power based on the power supply's health status; Under the condition that the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of each motor is determined based on the thrust command; Based on the target thrust of each motor, the target thrust command for each motor is generated.

[0049] In one embodiment, the health status of the power unit can include at least the motor health status and the power supply health status. During application, a first upper limit for the motor's operating power can be determined based on the motor health status, and a second upper limit for the power supply's operating power can be determined based on the power supply health status. It should be noted that the first upper limit for the motor's operating power and the second upper limit for the power supply's operating power under different motor health statuses can be determined according to a pre-determined mapping table.

[0050] In another embodiment, a constrained thrust allocation optimization problem (such as quadratic programming QP) can be solved to optimally allocate thrust commands to the six motors, ensuring that the target thrust demand of each motor does not exceed its respective first operating power limit, and that the total power of all motors does not exceed the second operating power limit of the power supply. The target thrust determined by this scheme is within a safe operating range.

[0051] In application, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller generates target thrust commands for each motor based on the target thrust of each motor. In one example, the main control unit can convert the target thrust value of each motor into a corresponding throttle command and synchronously send it to each motor controller via the second communication harness at the beginning of each control cycle.

[0052] In this embodiment, the thrust allocation problem is transformed into an optimization problem under dual power upper limit constraints. Compared to the traditional architecture's open-loop approach that allocates thrust based on a fixed ratio and lacks constraint verification, by solving constrained optimization problems online (such as quadratic programming QP), the optimal allocation of the target thrust can be achieved while satisfying the first operating power upper limit of all motors and the second operating power upper limit of the power supply. This ensures both flight safety boundaries and maximizes the utilization of the system's remaining available capacity, making it particularly suitable for degraded operation scenarios with single-point power degradation or insufficient power supply energy.

[0053] In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the main control unit can determine the target thrust of each motor based on the thrust command, provided that the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit: In response to the motor health status being a motor failure state, the motor corresponding to the motor health status is designated as the failed motor. If the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of the effective motor is determined based on the thrust command. The effective motor is any motor other than the failed motor. Specifically, the target thrust command for each motor is generated based on the target thrust of each motor, which is achieved in the following way: Based on the target thrust of each effective motor, the target thrust command for each effective motor is generated.

[0054] In one embodiment, if the motor health status is detected as a motor failure state, the motor corresponding to this motor health status can be designated as a failed motor. For example, if the motor health status of motor 2 is detected as a motor failure state, motor 2 can be designated as a failed motor.

[0055] Furthermore, the health status of each effective motor can be assessed to determine a first operating power limit for each effective motor. The power supply health status can also be assessed to determine a second operating power limit to meet the power constraints required for simultaneous operation of all effective motors. In application, if both the motors and the power supply meet the first and second operating power limits, the main control unit can re-solve the thrust allocation optimization problem based on thrust commands. In one example, if both effective motors and the power supply meet the first and second operating power limits, the target thrust for each effective motor can be determined based on thrust commands. Here, the power supply can correspond to the sum of the operating power of all effective motors.

[0056] Furthermore, target thrust commands for each effective motor can be generated based on the target thrust of each effective motor.

[0057] In this embodiment, the target thrust of the effective motors is determined only if each motor (i.e., the effective motor) meets its first operating power limit and the power supply meets its second operating power limit. This dual-constraint verification mechanism ensures that after a failed motor is removed, all thrust redistribution schemes are implemented within the physical capability boundaries of the remaining effective motors and the power supply capability boundaries of the power supply. This avoids secondary faults such as overload of the effective motors and over-discharge of the power supply caused by the transfer of load from the failed motors to the effective motors, significantly improving the safety and controllability of the system under single-point or multi-point power failure conditions.

[0058] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller may further include a storage unit, wherein the storage unit stores prior operational data reported by the power unit during a prior period of operation of the UAV system; the main control unit may determine the health status of the power unit based on real-time operational data in the following manner: The pre-trained health status judgment model is invoked. The health status judgment model is pre-trained using a training dataset and is used to determine the health status of the power unit based on real-time running data. The training dataset is constructed based on prior running data. Real-time running data is input into the trained health status judgment model to obtain the health status of the power unit output by the health status judgment model.

[0059] In one embodiment, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller may further include a storage unit. This storage unit stores prior operational data reported by the power unit during previous periods of UAV system operation. Specifically, in multiple previous UAV flight missions, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller continuously collects operational data reported by each motor controller and battery management system via multiple second communication harnesses at a sampling frequency of not less than 1 kHz. This data includes three-phase current, bus voltage, motor speed, winding temperature, cell voltage, and cell temperature. This prior operational data is timestamped and stored in the UAV electric propulsion domain controller's storage unit, categorized by flight sortie. For example, the storage unit may contain complete operational data from the UAV's past 50 flight sorties, totaling approximately 500 flight hours, covering the complete degradation process data from a new motor to the current state.

[0060] Furthermore, the main control unit can call the pre-trained health status judgment model and input real-time running data into the trained health status judgment model, thereby obtaining the health status of the power unit output by the health status judgment model.

[0061] In one embodiment, a training dataset can be constructed based on prior operational data and measured health status labels of the power units corresponding to the prior operational data. During application, a health status model can be trained based on the training dataset, thereby obtaining a well-trained health status model.

[0062] In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the main control unit is further configured to: in response to the power unit’s health status not meeting preset requirements, issue an alarm reminder to the user, wherein the alarm reminder is used to indicate to the user that the power unit’s health status is abnormal.

[0063] In one embodiment, when the main control unit detects that the health status of the power unit does not meet the preset requirements, it can also issue an alarm reminder to the user to indicate that the health status of the power unit is abnormal, so as to facilitate the user to inspect the power unit.

[0064] In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller further includes a synchronization signal module; the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can send target thrust commands to each motor in the following manner: Based on the synchronization signal module, the target thrust command is synchronously sent to each motor.

[0065] In one embodiment, the synchronization signal module can be integrated into the communication unit of the UAV electric propulsion domain controller. For example, it can be a multi-channel CAN FD controller built into the main control chip of the UAV electric propulsion domain controller and its associated high-precision GPIO synchronization signal output pin. During application, the target thrust command can be synchronously sent to each motor under the synchronization calibration of the synchronization signal module. In one example, at the start of the control cycle, the synchronization signal module of the UAV electric propulsion domain controller can use the CAN FD controller to package the target thrust commands of each motor into the same broadcast frame, and send it simultaneously to all motor controllers via the second communication harness (CAN FD backbone bus). Each motor controller receives the broadcast frame at the same time, parses its corresponding target thrust command, and synchronously executes the command under the trigger of the same hardware synchronization pulse.

[0066] In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the storage unit is further configured to: store real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle system, and use the real-time operating data as the prior operating data of the power unit in the later operating period.

[0067] In one embodiment, the storage unit can also use the real-time operational data reported by the power unit during the operation of the UAV system as the prior operational data of the power unit in subsequent time periods. In one example, after the flight is completed, all the real-time operational data stored in the storage unit for this flight becomes the prior operational data for subsequent flight flights (in later time periods). During the health status assessment of subsequent flight missions, when the main control unit calls the health status assessment model, the training dataset will include the data stored for this flight; that is, the real-time operational data for this flight has been incorporated into the prior operational dataset for subsequent health status assessment.

[0068] In this embodiment, the storage unit continuously stores the real-time operational data reported by the power unit during flight and automatically uses this data as prior operational data in subsequent time periods, enabling data generated by each UAV flight to be reused in subsequent flight missions. As the number of flights increases, the prior operational data continuously expands, covering the entire lifecycle degradation process from a new state to the current state, providing a continuously updated and enriched data foundation for the training, verification, and iterative optimization of the health status assessment model.

[0069] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the application scenario of the UAV power control system provided by the present invention.

[0070] To further introduce the UAV power control system provided by this invention, the following will be combined with... Figure 2 Please provide an explanation.

[0071] In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, combined with Figure 2 It is understood that the UAV power control system can be a centralized management architecture based on the UAV electric propulsion domain controller (PDC), replacing the traditional flat topology where the flight controller (also known as the flight control system) directly connects to multiple independent motor controllers (MCUs), battery management systems (BMS), and power distribution units (PDUs). The PDC, as the sole external communication interface of the power domain, uniformly schedules multiple power units (including motors, MCUs, and power batteries) across the entire aircraft, achieving system-level integration of control logic, state awareness, and fault management. This architecture significantly reduces the number of communication nodes on the flight controller side, simplifies the backbone wiring layout, reduces the risk of electromagnetic interference coupling, and improves the overall integration and operational reliability of the aircraft.

[0072] In application, the PDC, as a dedicated power domain controller, is deployed on an independent hardware platform and employs a hard real-time scheduling mechanism. At the beginning of each control cycle, it sends unified instructions to each MCU via a high-speed intra-domain bus (such as CAN FD, which corresponds to the dotted line under the electric propulsion domain in the diagram) in the form of broadcast frames or synchronous triggering, combined with closed-loop correction based on status feedback. This mechanism effectively avoids the instruction timing dispersion caused by multi-task scheduling jitter and CAN bus arbitration uncertainty in general flight controllers, controlling the multi-rotor motor response synchronization error to within 1 ms, which is significantly better than traditional architectures. This improves the attitude stability and operational accuracy of heavy-payload UAVs under gusts or sudden load changes.

[0073] Furthermore, the PDC, as the only external communication interface of the electric propulsion domain, connects to the flight control system via a standard bus (such as CAN, CAN FD, or Ethernet, corresponding to the dotted line between the flight control and electric propulsion domain items in the diagram), receives high-level thrust commands (such as total lift, roll moment, pitch moment, and yaw moment), and reports domain-level operating status and health summary, thereby achieving functional decoupling between the electric propulsion system and the flight control system.

[0074] As described above, the UAV power control system provided by this invention can quickly identify and rate faults, isolate damaged units, and optimally redistribute remaining thrust. When any power unit fails (such as motor jamming, battery over-discharge, or communication interruption), the PDC can solve for a new thrust ratio that satisfies attitude stability constraints online based on the real-time health status and dynamic capability boundaries of the remaining units, without waiting for flight control intervention, and simultaneously distribute the solution to all healthy MCUs. This mechanism is significantly superior to the traditional architecture that relies on centralized flight control decision-making, effectively avoiding attitude loss of control or mission interruption caused by single-point failures, and is particularly suitable for high-reliability scenarios such as logistics transportation and emergency rescue. In addition, by integrating multiple low-speed communications that were originally scattered to the flight control into a single high-speed domain backbone bus (such as CAN FD) and achieving physical isolation between the flight control communication harness and the power domain bus, the number of harnesses and cross-interference are greatly reduced. As the only external interface of the electric propulsion domain, the PDC simplifies the flight control cabin wiring topology, reduces electromagnetic coupling risks, and improves the overall electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance.

[0075] The UAV power control method provided by the present invention is described below. The UAV power control method described below can be referred to in correspondence with the UAV power control system described above.

[0076] Figure 3 This is a flowchart illustrating the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) power control method provided by the present invention.

[0077] The following will combine Figure 3 The process of the UAV power control method provided by the present invention will be described.

[0078] In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, combined with Figure 3 As can be seen, the UAV power control method may include steps 310 to 350, and each step will be described below.

[0079] In step 310, the thrust command for the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle system is received.

[0080] The following will use an octocopter UAV performing a hovering flight mission as an example to describe the method described in this embodiment in detail. In one embodiment, the flight control system sends thrust commands to the UAV's electric propulsion domain controller via a first communication harness. These thrust commands are high-level commands, and may include, for example, total lift, roll moment, pitch moment, and yaw moment, to instruct the UAV to maintain its current hovering attitude.

[0081] Furthermore, the UAV electric propulsion domain controller receives the aforementioned thrust command through the first communication harness of its communication unit and transmits the command to the main control unit.

[0082] In step 320, real-time operating data of the power unit of the UAV system is acquired during operation.

[0083] In one embodiment, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) electric propulsion domain controller (PDC) can synchronously acquire real-time operating data reported by each power unit through multiple second communication harnesses. The power unit may include eight motor controllers (MCUs), a battery management system (BMS), and a power distribution unit (PDU).

[0084] Specifically, the PDC can acquire real-time operating data reported by each MCU through the second communication harness. This data may include, for example, the three-phase current, motor speed, bus voltage, and winding temperature of each motor. The PDC can also acquire real-time operating data reported by the BMS through the second communication harness, including cell voltage, charging / discharging current, SOC, and cell temperature. After being received by the PDC's communication unit, each piece of real-time operating data is timestamped and transmitted to the main control unit for processing.

[0085] In step 330, the health status of the power unit is determined based on real-time operating data.

[0086] In one embodiment, the PDC's main control unit can invoke a pre-trained health status assessment model, inputting the acquired real-time operating data into the model to obtain the health status of each power unit output by the model. The health status assessment model is a multi-dimensional feature fusion evaluation model trained based on prior operating data. During application, the main control unit can sequentially assess the health status of each motor and battery to obtain the health status evaluation results of all power units. Further, the health status of each power unit can be determined based on the health status evaluation results and a pre-determined mapping table (which includes the correspondence between different health status evaluation results and a first operating power limit and a second operating power limit). The health status of each motor can include the motor's health score and the corresponding first operating power limit; the power supply's health status can include the battery's health score and the corresponding second operating power limit.

[0087] In step 340, the target thrust command for each motor is determined based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit.

[0088] In step 350, the control motor operates according to the target thrust command.

[0089] In another embodiment, the main control unit can determine a first operating power limit for each motor based on its health score. For example, if the health scores of all eight motors in this embodiment are above 0.90, the corresponding first operating power limit can be above 90% of the rated power, meeting the normal thrust distribution requirements. The main control unit can also determine a second operating power limit for the power supply based on the battery's health score. For example, if the battery's state of equilibrium (SOH) is 95% in this embodiment, the corresponding second operating power limit can be Pbat_max = 10000W.

[0090] Under the constraints that each motor meets its first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the main control unit solves the thrust allocation optimization problem based on the thrust command, and then determines the target thrust command for each motor.

[0091] Furthermore, the PDC can synchronously send target thrust commands to each motor based on the synchronization signal module. Each motor drives the propeller to rotate according to the received target thrust command, generating corresponding thrust, and the UAV maintains a stable hovering state.

[0092] Figure 4 This is a flowchart illustrating the process of determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, as provided by the present invention.

[0093] The following will combine Figure 4 The process of determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, as provided by the present invention, is described below.

[0094] In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, combined with Figure 4 It is known that the health status of the power unit includes at least the health status of the motor and the health status of the power supply; determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit may include steps 410 to 440, which will be described in detail below.

[0095] In step 410, the first upper limit of the motor's operating power is determined based on the motor's health status.

[0096] In step 420, a second upper limit for the operating power of the power supply is determined based on the power supply health status.

[0097] In one embodiment, the main control unit can determine the first operating power limit of each motor based on its health status. It can also determine the second operating power limit of each power supply based on its health status. In one example, taking four motors, each with a rated power of 1500W, the first operating power limits for the four motors, based on their health scores, are: Motor 1: 1500W × 0.95 (this weight value can be determined based on the health status) = 1425W, Motor 2: 1500W × 0.93 = 1395W, Motor 3: 1500W × 0.96 = 1440W, and Motor 4: 1500W × 0.94 = 1410W. If the battery SOH = 92%, the current SOC = 80%, and the cell temperature = 35°C, the second operating power limit of the power supply can be determined based on this. If, according to the table calculation, the maximum sustainable discharge current of the battery is 70A, the bus voltage is 48V, and the inverter efficiency is 95% under the current conditions, then the upper limit of the second operating power can be Pbat_max = 48V × 70A × 0.95 = 3192W.

[0098] In step 430, if the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of each motor is determined based on the thrust command.

[0099] In step 440, target thrust commands for each motor are generated based on the target thrust of each motor.

[0100] In one embodiment, the main control unit solves the thrust allocation problem based on thrust commands, under the constraints that each motor meets a first operating power limit and the power supply meets a second operating power limit.

[0101] In one example, if the total lift should be evenly distributed among the motors in the hovering state, the target thrust requirement for each motor is 4000N / 4 = 1000N. The main control unit verifies that the power requirements corresponding to the target thrust of all four motors are lower than their respective first operating power limits (1000N corresponds to approximately 1000W, all lower than the motor's power limit of 1395W-1440W); the total power requirement is approximately 4000W, which is higher than the power supply's second operating power limit of 3192W, thus failing to meet the constraints. Therefore, the main control unit re-solves the optimization problem, limiting the total power requirement to within 3192W while keeping the total lift at 4000N unchanged. After optimization, the target thrust of each motor can be adjusted as follows: Motor 1 1020N (corresponding to approximately 1020W power), Motor 2 980N (corresponding to approximately 980W power), Motor 3 1020N (corresponding to approximately 1020W power), Motor 4 980N (corresponding to approximately 980W power), with a total power requirement of approximately 4000W (actual power consumption is approximately 3190W after considering motor efficiency and losses), which meets the constraint of the second operating power limit of 3192W for the power supply.

[0102] Furthermore, the target thrust value of each motor is converted into a corresponding PWM throttle command, which serves as the target thrust command for each motor.

[0103] In this embodiment, a dual power constraint is constructed by determining a first operating power limit based on the motor's health status and a second operating power limit based on the power supply's health status, thus establishing a dual power constraint on both the motor and power supply sides. The generation of thrust commands is strictly executed within these dual constraints, ensuring that the target thrust of each motor is within its actual health capability and that the total power demand does not exceed the current power supply capacity. This fundamentally avoids issuing out-of-bounds commands to degraded motors or the risk of over-discharge and overcurrent due to insufficient power supply capacity.

[0104] Figure 5 An example is a schematic diagram of the physical structure of an electronic device, such as... Figure 5 As shown, the electronic device may include: a processor 510, a communication interface 520, a memory 530, and a communication bus 540, wherein the processor 510, the communication interface 520, and the memory 530 communicate with each other through the communication bus 540. The processor 510 can call logical instructions in the memory 530 to execute a UAV power control method. The method is applied to any of the UAV power control systems described above, and the method includes: receiving thrust commands from the UAV system; acquiring real-time operating data of the power unit during the operation of the UAV system; determining the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data; determining target thrust commands for each motor based on the thrust commands and the health status of the power unit; and controlling the motors to operate according to the target thrust commands.

[0105] Furthermore, the logical instructions in the aforementioned memory 530 can be implemented as software functional units and, when sold or used as independent products, can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0106] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program that can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer can execute the UAV power control method provided by the above methods. The method is applied to any of the UAV power control systems described above. The method includes: receiving a thrust command for the operation of the UAV system; acquiring real-time operating data of the power unit during the operation of the UAV system; determining the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data; determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit; and controlling the motors to operate according to the target thrust command.

[0107] In another aspect, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the UAV power control method provided by the above methods. The method is applied to any of the UAV power control systems described above, and the method includes: receiving a thrust command for the operation of the UAV system; acquiring real-time operating data of the power unit during the operation of the UAV system; determining the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data; determining a target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit; and controlling the motors to operate according to the target thrust command.

[0108] The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the modules can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs. Those skilled in the art can understand and implement this without any creative effort.

[0109] Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware platforms, and of course, it can also be implemented by hardware. Based on this understanding, the above technical solutions, in essence or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the various embodiments or some parts of the embodiments.

[0110] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, and not to limit them; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that modifications can still be made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent substitutions can be made to some of the technical features; and these modifications or substitutions do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A power control system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), characterized in that, The system includes: Flight control system An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) electric propulsion domain controller includes at least a communication unit, wherein the communication unit includes a first communication harness and a plurality of second communication harnesses, the first communication harness being used to communicate between the flight control system and the UAV electric propulsion domain controller, and each of the second communication harnesses being used to communicate between the UAV electric propulsion domain controller and each power unit respectively; The system includes multiple power units, each comprising multiple motor controllers, a battery management system, and a power distribution unit within the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. The motor controllers are connected to the motors in the UAV system, and the battery management system and the power distribution unit are respectively connected to the power source of the UAV system.

2. The UAV power control system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The UAV electric propulsion domain controller also includes a main control unit, wherein... The flight control system is used to send thrust commands for the operation of the UAV system to the UAV electric propulsion domain controller based on the first communication harness; The UAV electric propulsion domain controller is used to receive real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the UAV system based on multiple second communication harnesses, and to call the main control unit to determine the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operating data, and to determine the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit, and to send the target thrust command to each motor. The motor receives the target thrust command through the second communication harness and operates according to the target thrust command.

3. The UAV power control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The health status of the power unit includes at least the motor health status and the power supply health status; the main control unit determines the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit in the following manner: Based on the motor's health status, a first upper limit for the motor's operating power is determined; Based on the power supply health status, a second upper limit for the power supply's operating power is determined; If the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of each motor is determined based on the thrust command. Based on the target thrust of each motor, a target thrust command for each motor is generated.

4. The UAV power control system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The main control unit determines the target thrust of each motor based on the thrust command, provided that the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit: In response to a motor health status indicating that the motor has failed, the motor corresponding to the motor health status is designated as the failed motor. When the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of the effective motor is determined based on the thrust command, wherein the effective motor is any motor other than the failed motor; The generation of target thrust commands for each motor based on the target thrust of each motor is achieved in the following manner: Based on the target thrust of each effective motor, a target thrust command for each effective motor is generated.

5. The UAV power control system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The UAV electric propulsion domain controller further includes a storage unit, wherein the storage unit stores the prior operational data reported by the power unit during the prior operation of the UAV system; the main control unit uses the following method to determine the health status of the power unit based on the real-time operational data: A pre-trained health status assessment model is invoked, wherein the health status assessment model is pre-trained using a training dataset and is used to determine the health status of the power unit based on real-time operating data; the training dataset is constructed based on the prior operating data. The real-time operating data is input into the trained health status judgment model to obtain the health status of the power unit output by the health status judgment model.

6. The UAV power control system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The main control unit is also used for: In response to the fact that the health status of the power unit does not meet the preset requirements, an alarm reminder is issued to the user, wherein the alarm reminder is used to indicate to the user that the health status of the power unit is abnormal.

7. The UAV power control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The UAV electric propulsion domain controller also includes a synchronization signal module; the UAV electric propulsion domain controller sends the target thrust command to each motor in the following manner: Based on the synchronization signal module, the target thrust command is synchronously sent to each motor.

8. The UAV power control system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The storage unit is also used for: The system stores the real-time operating data reported by the power unit during the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle system, and uses the real-time operating data as the prior operating data of the power unit in the later operating period.

9. A method for controlling the power of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), characterized in that, The method is applied to the UAV power control system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, and the method includes: Receive thrust commands from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. Acquire real-time operating data of the power unit during the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle system; The health status of the power unit is determined based on the real-time operating data. The target thrust command for each motor is determined based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit. The control motor operates according to the target thrust command.

10. The UAV power control method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The health status of the power unit includes at least the motor health status and the power supply health status; determining the target thrust command for each motor based on the thrust command and the health status of the power unit includes: Based on the motor's health status, determine the motor's first operating power limit; Based on the power supply health status, determine the second upper limit of the power supply's operating power; If the motor meets the first operating power limit and the power supply meets the second operating power limit, the target thrust of each motor is determined based on the thrust command. Based on the target thrust of each motor, a target thrust command for each motor is generated.

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