Power saving control method for aircraft, control system, flight device and storage medium
By acquiring the flight mode in real time and activating the tail thruster control strategy, adjusting the power output weight ratio and rotation direction, the problem of power consumption during mode transitions in compound wing aircraft is solved, and power-saving control of the aircraft is achieved.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- WO · WO
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- AUTOFLIGHT (KUNSHAN) CO LTD
- Filing Date
- 2025-12-16
- Publication Date
- 2026-06-25
AI Technical Summary
Existing compound wing aircraft consume too much power during mode transitions, making it impossible to achieve energy-saving effects.
By acquiring the flight mode in real time and activating the tail thruster control strategy, the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel is adjusted, and the rotation direction of the tail thruster is controlled to reduce the flight speed and shorten the flight range for mode switching.
This effectively reduces the energy consumption of the aircraft during mode switching, achieving energy-saving control of the aircraft.
Smart Images
Figure CN2025142925_25062026_PF_FP_ABST
Abstract
Description
Power-saving control methods, control systems, flight equipment and storage media for aircraft Technical Field
[0001] This application relates to the field of aircraft technology, and in particular to an aircraft power-saving control method, control system, flight equipment and storage medium. Background Technology
[0002] Existing aircraft technologies mainly categorize them into fixed-wing aircraft, multi-rotor aircraft, and compound-wing aircraft. In practical applications, fixed-wing and compound-wing aircraft each have their advantages and disadvantages. Fixed-wing aircraft are characterized by long endurance and high-altitude flight, and are widely used in surveying, geology, petroleum, agriculture, and forestry. Compound-wing aircraft, on the other hand, can take off and land vertically and hover, making them primarily suitable for low-altitude, low-speed operations requiring vertical takeoff and landing and hovering.
[0003] While existing compound-wing aircraft possess both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and fixed-wing flight modes, the transition between modes (from cruise to VTOL) results in excessive energy consumption due to their longer flight range, thus failing to achieve energy conservation. Summary of the Invention
[0004] This application provides a power-saving control method for an aircraft, the aircraft including at least one tail thrust motor, the method including: acquiring the flight mode of the aircraft in real time, and activating the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor according to the flight mode, so as to realize the active deceleration of the aircraft and shorten the flight range.
[0005] Preferably, the flight modes include vertical takeoff and landing mode, cruise mode, and conversion mode, wherein the conversion mode is specifically the process of switching from cruise mode to vertical takeoff and landing mode.
[0006] Preferably, the flight mode activates the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor, specifically including: if it is determined that the flight mode has entered a switching mode, the aircraft activates the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor.
[0007] Preferably, the tail thrust control strategy includes: adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel according to the aircraft's flight mode.
[0008] Preferably, the aircraft control channels include at least an aircraft yaw control channel, an aircraft roll control channel, an aircraft pitch control channel, and an aircraft flight speed control channel.
[0009] Preferably, adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel specifically includes adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft in the flight speed control channel.
[0010] Preferably, the tail thrust control strategy for activating the tail thrust motor includes: controlling the rotation direction of the at least one tail thrust motor to reduce the flight speed of the aircraft, thereby shortening the flight distance of the transition after the aircraft enters the transition mode.
[0011] This application also provides an aircraft power-saving control system, the aircraft including at least one tail thrust motor, characterized in that it includes: a flight mode detection module for determining the current flight mode of the aircraft; a power distribution module for adjusting the power output weight ratio on each control channel of the aircraft; and a tail thrust motor control module for adjusting the steering of the at least one tail thrust motor according to the current flight mode.
[0012] This application also provides a flight device, characterized in that it includes: a power-saving control system as described in claim 8, at least one processor, and a memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor, wherein the memory is executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to execute the power-saving control method as described in any one of claims 1-7.
[0013] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, which are used to cause a processor to execute the power-saving control method according to any one of claims 1-7. Attached Figure Description
[0014] Figure 1 shows a flowchart of the power-saving control method for an aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0015] Figure 2 shows another flowchart of the power-saving control method for an aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0016] Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0017] Figure 4 shows a rear view of the aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0018] Figure 5 shows a structural schematic diagram of another type of aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0019] Figure 6 shows a rear view of another type of aircraft according to the first embodiment of this application;
[0020] Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of the power-saving control system of the aircraft according to the second embodiment of this application;
[0021] Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the flight equipment according to the third embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation
[0022] The following embodiments further illustrate the technical solutions of this application. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely for explaining this application. Furthermore, it should be noted that, for ease of description, only the parts relevant to this application are shown in the accompanying drawings, not all of them.
[0023] The terms used in this specification to describe the various embodiments are to be understood not only in their commonly defined meanings, but also, by their specific definitions in this specification, to include structures, materials, or actions that extend beyond their commonly defined meanings. Therefore, if an element is to be understood in the context of this specification to include more than one meaning, its use in the claims must be understood to apply universally to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by its own terminology.
[0024] The term "aircraft" is defined as an air transport system of any size having at least one lift propeller as its propulsion source. The term "aircraft" can include both "manned" and "unmanned" air transport systems. A manned aircraft can mean an air transport system carrying one or more human passengers, none of whom have control over the aircraft. A manned aircraft can also mean an air transport system carrying one or more human passengers, some of whom, or one of whom, has partial or full control over the aircraft. An unmanned aircraft can mean an air transport system that does not carry any human passengers and flies autonomously or is remotely controlled by someone at a distance.
[0025] The term "compound wing aircraft" is defined as an air transport system of any size that has at least one propeller as its propulsion source. The term "compound wing aircraft" can include both "manned" and "unmanned" air transport systems. A manned compound wing aircraft can refer to an air transport system carrying one or more human passengers, none of whom have control over the compound wing aircraft. A manned compound wing aircraft can also refer to an air transport system carrying one or more human passengers, some of whom, or one of whom, has partial or full control over the compound wing aircraft. An unmanned compound wing aircraft can refer to an air transport system that does not carry any human passengers and flies autonomously or is remotely controlled by someone at a distance.
[0026] The first embodiment of this application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG1, the first embodiment of this application discloses an aircraft power-saving control method. The aircraft includes at least one tail thrust motor. The aircraft power-saving control method includes:
[0027] The flight mode of the aircraft is acquired in real time, and the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor 20 is activated according to the flight mode to achieve active speed reduction of the aircraft and shorten the flight range.
[0028] Aircraft often employ distributed electric propulsion, and their flight modes include vertical takeoff and landing mode, cruise mode, and switching mode. In the embodiments of this application, the aircraft uses multiple rotor motors and at least one tail thrust motor. The rotor motors can be, for example, 8, 10, or more, and the tail thrust motors can be, for example, 2, 3, or more. The rotor motors are used to provide lift, yaw control, roll, and pitch control in multi-rotor mode, while the tail thrust motors are used to control airspeed and altitude in fixed-wing mode.
[0029] In this embodiment, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, there are two tail thrust motors 20. Of course, in other embodiments, there may be one, three, or four tail thrust motors 20; this application does not impose specific limitations on this. Specifically, the tail thrust control strategy for activating the tail thrust motors 20 in flight mode includes: if it is determined that the flight mode has entered a transition mode, the aircraft activates the tail thrust control strategy for the tail thrust motors 20. This control strategy can be manually activated by ground control station personnel, or it can be activated automatically by the system's artificial intelligence. The transition mode can be a forward transition mode or a reverse transition mode. A forward transition mode refers to the process of the aircraft transitioning from vertical takeoff and landing mode to cruise mode, while a reverse transition mode refers to the process of cruise mode transitioning to vertical takeoff and landing mode. In this embodiment, the aircraft's transition mode specifically refers to the process of transitioning from cruise mode to vertical takeoff and landing mode.
[0030] Specifically, the tail thrust control strategy for the tail thrust motor 20 includes controlling the direction of the tail thrust motor 20. When there is only one tail thrust motor 20, it initially rotates forward. Upon entering the transition mode, the tail thrust motor 20 then reverses direction, thus achieving active speed reduction. When there are two tail thrust motors 20, one rotates forward while the other rotates in the opposite direction, also achieving active speed reduction. Activating the tail thrust control strategy for the tail thrust motor 20 can, on the one hand, actively reduce speed to shorten the flight range during the transition mode, and on the other hand, achieve energy saving.
[0031] In some embodiments, there are three tail thrust motors 20. Three tail thrust motors 20 increase the redundancy of the control vector. The flight speed control channel required by the system is handled by three tail thrust motors 20, which can reduce the power output burden of each tail thrust motor 20 and also cope with the situation where one of the motors may fail.
[0032] Specifically, in this embodiment, the tail thrust control strategy includes: adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel according to the aircraft's flight mode.
[0033] Specifically, the aircraft control channels include at least the aircraft yaw control channel, the aircraft roll control channel, the aircraft pitch control channel, and the aircraft flight speed control channel. Adjusting the power output weighting ratio of the aircraft control channels specifically includes adjusting the power output weighting ratio of the aircraft in the flight speed control channel.
[0034] By reducing the power output weight ratio on a certain control channel of the aircraft, the system allocates the remaining power output to the aircraft roll control channel, pitch control channel, and yaw control channel, etc., to prevent power shortage due to motor failure, thereby improving the aircraft's handling performance and ensuring flight safety. In one embodiment, the aircraft outputs no power at all on the yaw control channel.
[0035] The tail thrust control strategy for activating the tail thrust motor includes controlling the rotation direction of at least one tail thrust motor to reduce the aircraft's flight speed, thereby shortening the transition flight distance after the aircraft enters the transition mode.
[0036] The second embodiment of this application discloses an aircraft power-saving control system, the aircraft including at least one tail thrust motor. The aircraft also includes: a flight mode detection module for determining the current flight mode of the aircraft; a power distribution module for adjusting the power output weight ratio on each control channel of the aircraft; and a tail thrust motor control module for adjusting the direction of at least one tail thrust motor according to the current flight mode.
[0037] The third embodiment of this application discloses a flight device, including the power-saving control system of the above embodiments, at least one processor, and a memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor, wherein the memory is executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to execute the power-saving control method of the above embodiments.
[0038] In one embodiment, FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a flight device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The device in this embodiment is illustrated using a computer as an example. As shown in FIG8, the flight device provided by this embodiment includes: a data monitoring system 310, a processor 320, a memory 330, an input device 340, and an output device 350. The processor 320 in this flight device can be one or more; FIG8 uses one processor 320 as an example. The processor 320, memory 330, input device 340, and output device 350 in the flight device can be connected via a bus or other means; FIG8 uses a bus connection as an example.
[0039] The memory 330 in the flight device serves as a computer-readable storage medium, capable of storing one or more programs. These programs can be software programs, computer-executable programs, and modules, such as the program instructions / modules corresponding to the embodiments of this invention or the provided data monitoring method. The processor 320 executes various functional applications and data processing of the cloud server by running the software programs, instructions, and modules stored in the memory 330, thereby implementing the data monitoring method described in the above method embodiments.
[0040] The memory 330 may include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store the operating system and applications required for at least one function; the data storage area may store data created based on the use of the device, etc. Furthermore, the memory 330 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device, flash memory device, or other non-volatile solid-state storage device. In some instances, the memory 330 may further include memory remotely located relative to the processor 320, which can be connected to the device via a network. Examples of such networks include, but are not limited to, the Internet, corporate intranets, local area networks, mobile communication networks, and combinations thereof.
[0041] Input device 340 can be used to receive numeric or character information input by the user to generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the terminal device. Output device 350 may include display devices such as a display screen.
[0042] Furthermore, when one or more programs included in the aforementioned flight equipment are executed by one or more processors 320, the programs perform the following operations: acquire the current vibration data of the target flight equipment in real time; determine the abnormal protection strategy of the target flight equipment based on the current vibration data; and control the target flight equipment to perform corresponding operations according to the abnormal protection strategy.
[0043] This embodiment also discloses a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions that are used to cause a processor to implement the power-saving control method of the above embodiment when executed.
[0044] The computer storage medium of this invention can be any combination of one or more computer-readable media. A computer-readable medium can be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. For example, a computer-readable storage medium can be, but is not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof. More specific examples of computer-readable storage media (a non-exhaustive list) include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage device, magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. In this document, a computer-readable storage medium can be any tangible medium that contains or stores a program that can be used by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
[0045] Computer-readable signal media may include data signals propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, carrying computer-readable program code. Such propagated data signals may take various forms, including but not limited to electromagnetic signals, optical signals, or any suitable combination thereof. Computer-readable signal media may also be any computer-readable medium other than computer-readable storage media, capable of sending, propagating, or transmitting programs for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
[0046] Program code contained on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any suitable medium, including but not limited to wireless, wire, optical fiber, RF, etc., or any suitable combination thereof.
[0047] Computer program code for performing the operations of this invention can be written in one or more programming languages or a combination thereof. Programming languages include object-oriented programming languages such as Java, Smalltalk, and C++, as well as conventional procedural programming languages such as C or similar languages. The program code can be executed entirely on the user's computer, partially on the user's computer, as a standalone software package, partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server. In cases involving remote computers, the remote computer can be connected to the user's computer via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or it can be connected to an external computer (e.g., via the Internet using an Internet service provider).
[0048] The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and effects of this application. Any person skilled in the art can modify or alter the above embodiments without departing from the purpose of this application. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or alterations made by those skilled in the art without departing from the purpose disclosed in this application should still be covered by the claims of this application.
Claims
1. A power-saving control method for an aircraft, the aircraft comprising at least one tail thruster motor, characterized in that, The method includes: acquiring the flight mode of the aircraft in real time, and activating the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor according to the flight mode, so as to realize the active deceleration of the aircraft and shorten the flight range.
2. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The flight modes include vertical takeoff and landing mode, cruise mode, and transition mode. The transition mode is specifically the process of switching from cruise mode to vertical takeoff and landing mode.
3. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The flight mode activates the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor, specifically including: if it is determined that the flight mode has entered a switching mode, the aircraft activates the tail thrust control strategy of the tail thrust motor.
4. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The tail thrust control strategy includes adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel according to the aircraft's flight mode.
5. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The aircraft control channels include at least the aircraft yaw control channel, the aircraft roll control channel, the aircraft pitch control channel, and the aircraft flight speed control channel.
6. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 5, characterized in that, The adjustment of the power output weight ratio of the aircraft control channel specifically includes: adjusting the power output weight ratio of the aircraft in the flight speed control channel.
7. The aircraft power-saving control method according to claim 6, characterized in that, The tail thrust control strategy for activating the tail thrust motor includes: controlling the rotation direction of the at least one tail thrust motor to reduce the flight speed of the aircraft, thereby shortening the flight distance of the transition after the aircraft enters the transition mode.
8. An energy-saving control system for an aircraft, the aircraft comprising at least one tail thruster motor, characterized in that, include: The flight mode detection module is used to determine the current flight mode of the aircraft. A power distribution module is used to adjust the power output weight ratio on each of the control channels of the aircraft. A tail thruster control module is used to adjust the direction of at least one tail thruster according to the current flight mode.
9. A flight device, characterized in that, include: The power-saving control system of claim 8 includes at least one processor and a memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor, wherein the memory is executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to execute the power-saving control method of any one of claims 1-7.
10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions that cause a processor to execute the power-saving control method according to any one of claims 1-7.