Rotary Wing Drone FPV Camera Orientation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Operators of rotary wing drones face decreased situational awareness due to the need to simultaneously control the drone and maintain a camera focus, leading to reduced efficiency and increased risk, especially when flying directions are not aligned with the drone's roll axis.
Innovation Solution
A method that allows remote piloting of rotary wing drones from a First Person View (FPV) perspective by using a flight camera mounted on the drone, which rotates to maintain focus on the flight direction, utilizing sensors like GPS, magnetometers, accelerometers, and gyros to compute and adjust the camera's angle, ensuring the operator's view aligns with the drone's flight path regardless of yaw.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the operator simultaneously controls the drone and maintains camera focus, then the documentation task is completed, but the operator's situational awareness decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (automatic camera control mechanism with sensors and processors) that mediates between the operator's flight control inputs and the camera's orientation. This intermediary automatically adjusts the camera angle based on drone motion data, freeing the operator from manual camera control while maintaining documentation quality and situational awareness
Solution Approach 2:
The camera system performs self-service by automatically tracking and orienting itself according to the drone's flight path and motion. The system uses onboard sensors to detect drone orientation and velocity, then autonomously adjusts the camera angle without requiring operator intervention, enabling the operator to focus solely on flight control
2Loss of information
If the operator looks up to the sky to watch the drone, then the drone position is monitored, but the operator's attention and concentration levels decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by providing the operator with a first-person view video feed from the drone's camera. This allows the operator to monitor the drone's position and surroundings through the video feed rather than visually tracking the physical drone in the sky, maintaining situational awareness while preserving attention and concentration
3Device complexity
If the camera is attached to the drone pointing in the direction of the roll axis, then the camera structure is simple, but the operator cannot maintain focus on the documented subject when flying in directions not aligned with the roll axis
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static camera attachment into a dynamic system that can actively adjust its orientation. The camera is mounted on a rotatable mechanism that changes its pointing direction in real-time based on the drone's flight path and the operator's documentation requirements, enabling the simple attachment structure to achieve versatile focus capability
Solution Approach 2:
The camera system achieves multi-functionality by combining a simple mounting structure with automatic orientation control. The same basic camera attachment can serve both simple forward-facing documentation and complex tracking of moving subjects by dynamically adjusting the camera angle based on drone motion and operator commands
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed herein is a method and system for flying rotary wing drone. An add on flight camera that is free to rotate around the vehicle's yaw axis is attached to the drone. The flight camera is automatically looking in the direction of its flight. The video from the flight camera is streamed to the operator's display. Thus the rotary wing drone can fly in any direction with respect to its structure, giving the operator a first person view along the flight path, thus keeping high level of situational awareness to the operator. The information required for controlling the camera orientation is derived from sensors, such as GPS, magnetometers, gyros and accelerometer. As a backup mode the information can be derived from propeller commands or tilt sensors.