UAV Damage Avoidance System Using Descent Energy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become unstable and may cause damage if multiple propellers lose power or become damaged, or if the navigation system fails, leading to uncontrolled flight and potential impact with objects.
Innovation Solution
A damage avoidance system that includes a safety monitoring system to detect risks of impact and activates a protection system, such as reorientation and parachute deployment, to reduce or prevent damage to both the UAV and objects upon impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the UAV continues flight after propeller damage or navigation failure, then the UAV can maintain operational capability, but the risk of uncontrolled impact and damage to objects increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of flight risks (propeller damage, navigation failure) and activates protection elements (parachute, foam) before impact occurs. This allows the UAV to maintain operational capability while preparing damage mitigation measures in advance, resolving the contradiction between continued flight and impact risk reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system deploys protective elements such as parachutes and foam materials before the UAV impacts objects. This beforehand cushioning reduces the harmful impact forces while allowing the UAV to continue flying, thus maintaining reliability while reducing damage risk to objects.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If protection elements like parachutes are deployed to reduce impact damage, then damage to objects and UAV is minimized, but the UAV's flight stability and control are affected
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the deployment state of protection elements based on real-time flight conditions and risk assessment. The parachute and foam elements can be deployed partially or fully depending on the severity of the situation, allowing the UAV to maintain flight stability while still providing damage protection when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The UAV's own kinetic energy from descent is utilized to deploy the protection elements without requiring additional power sources. The system automatically activates protection mechanisms based on detected flight risks, maintaining stability while providing self-protective capability.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the UAV uses stored energy from descent to activate protection elements, then the system can operate without additional power consumption, but the energy availability is limited by the descent rate
Solution Approach 1:
The system converts the harmful kinetic energy from uncontrolled descent into useful energy for deploying protection elements. By capturing energy that would otherwise be wasted during descent, the system can activate parachutes and foam materials without additional power consumption, resolving the contradiction between energy efficiency and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The UAV uses its own descent energy to power the protection system, making the system self-sufficient without requiring external power sources. This converts the descent process itself into the activation mechanism, ensuring energy availability matches the actual need for protection deployment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively reduces or prevents damage to objects and UAVs by deploying protection elements like parachutes before impact, ensuring controlled descent and minimizing collision forces.
Implementation Method 1
the propellers are allowed to freely rotate in response to the uncontrolled descent of the UAV, and the rotation of the propellers generates electrical energy that is stored in a capacitor
Implementation Method 2
deploying a parachute slows the rate of descent of the UAV
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) and system that may perform one or more techniques for protecting objects from damage resulting from an unintended or uncontrolled impact by a UAV. As described herein, various implementations utilize a damage avoidance system that detects a risk of damage to an object caused by an impact from a UAV that has lost control and takes steps to reduce or eliminate that risk. For example, the damage avoidance system may detect that the UAV has lost power and/or is falling at a rapid rate of descent such that, upon impact, there is a risk of damage to an object with which the UAV may collide. Upon detecting the risk of damage and prior to impact, the damage avoidance system activates a damage avoidance system having one or more protection elements that work in concert to reduce or prevent damage to the object upon impact by the UAV.