UAV Flight Control for Visual Range Boundary Enforcement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) lack the ability to autonomously control their flight within a range that ensures the operator can always visually recognize them, leading to potential safety and theft issues, as they cannot maintain flight within a predetermined range without visual oversight.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a flight control system that includes a flight unit, an acquiring unit for user information, and a flight control unit that adjusts flight parameters to keep the UAV within a range where the operator can visually recognize it, using image-capturing units and a server to estimate the operator's visual recognition and adjust flight accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the UAV is allowed to fly autonomously without visual oversight, then the flight range and productivity are improved, but the safety and reliability deteriorate due to potential theft and unauthorized flight
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the UAV's position using GPS coordinates and compares it against the predetermined safe range defined by latitude and longitude boundaries. This feedback mechanism enables real-time detection of position deviations and triggers appropriate control actions to maintain safety while allowing autonomous operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The flight control unit acts as an intermediary between the autonomous flight system and safety requirements. It receives position information, determines whether the UAV is within the safe range, and generates appropriate control signals (normal flight control or return-to-home commands) based on the position assessment, thereby mediating between autonomous operation and safety constraints.
2Length of stationary object
If the UAV operates beyond visual range, then the flight range is expanded, but the ability to maintain visual contact and control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces the mechanical/visual method of range limitation with an electronic information-based system. Instead of relying on the operator's visual contact, the patent uses GPS position information, electronic boundaries, and automated control algorithms to manage flight range, enabling the UAV to operate beyond visual range while maintaining safety through electronic monitoring and control.
3Reliability
If the flight control system continuously monitors position to maintain visual range, then the safety is improved, but the complexity of the control system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system defines the safe flight range using specific parameters (latitude and longitude boundaries) that create a clear, quantifiable predetermined range. By establishing position determination based on these geographic coordinates, the system transforms the complex problem of visual range assessment into a straightforward parameter comparison task, simplifying the control logic while maintaining safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A flying device includes a flight unit; and a flight control unit that performs, in a case where a flight position by the flight unit is out of a predetermined range, a control that is different from a control in a case where the flight position is within the predetermined range.