Rotary-Wing UAV Camera-Axis Control for Intuitive Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control systems require significant spatial awareness and dexterity from operators, especially when controlling rotary wing UAVs, as they need to manage both the UAV's movement and camera orientation separately, making it complex and difficult for a single operator to control intuitively.
Innovation Solution
A UAV system with a control device that allows operators to input commands directly related to the optical axis of a pivotable camera, enabling the UAV to move in directions dependent on the camera's axis, simplifying control by decoupling the need for spatial reasoning and separate control of the UAV and camera movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the camera is pivotally mounted on the UAV and controlled separately according to a polar coordinate set, then the camera can be steered independently, but the control system becomes complex and requires significant spatial awareness from the operator
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the control of camera panning and UAV yaw movement into a single control input. When the operator moves the joystick laterally, both the camera pans and the UAV yaws simultaneously, eliminating the need for separate controls and reducing the coordinate transformation complexity that burdened operators in the prior art
Solution Approach 2:
The control system is designed so that a single control input (joystick movement) serves multiple functions: it controls both camera orientation and UAV orientation. This multi-functionality reduces the number of controls needed and simplifies the operator's task while maintaining full control over both subsystems
2Measurement precision
If the operator controls both UAV movement and camera angle separately using fundamental controls, then precise control is achieved, but significant dexterity and training are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines camera panning control and UAV yaw control into a single unified control mechanism. Lateral joystick movement simultaneously controls both the camera's pan angle and the UAV's yaw angle, reducing the number of independent controls from two to one while maintaining precise control over both systems
Solution Approach 2:
The control system introduces an intermediary coordinate transformation layer that automatically handles the relationship between camera coordinates and UAV coordinates. This mediator performs the necessary calculations to ensure that a single control input produces the correct coordinated movement of both camera and UAV, eliminating the need for the operator to perform complex spatial reasoning
3Adaptability or versatility
If the camera angle is decoupled from UAV motion controls, then separate control functions are achieved, but the operator must manage multiple independent control systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the previously decoupled control systems into a unified control architecture where lateral joystick movement controls both camera pan and UAV yaw simultaneously. This reduces the number of independent controls from two to one while preserving the ability to independently adjust camera tilt and other UAV functions through other controls
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a~3b
AI summary
Unmanned aerial vehicle system (1) comprising: - a rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3) comprising a body (3a) provided with at least one video camera (11) mounted thereupon, said video camera (11) having an optical axis (29, 29a, 29b) pivotable around at least one pivot axis (13) at a pivot angle with respect to said body (3a), the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3) being adapted to transmit images produced by said video camera (11); - a control device (5) adapted to communicate bidirectionally with the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3), the control device (5) comprising a display unit (23) for displaying images produced by said video camera (11) and a manual control interface (21) for inputting commands for controlling the movement of the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3) and to instruct the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3) to move and said optical axis (29, 29a, 29b) to pivot based on said commands. The UAV system (1) is configured such that said movement instructions are adapted to control movement of the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (3) in a direction dependent on said optical axis (29, 29a, 29b) irrespective of said pivot angle between said optical axis (29, 29a, 29b) and said body (3a).