阅读说明：本技术 无人飞行器 (Unmanned aerial vehicle ) 是由 和气千大 柳下洋 于 2019-03-26 设计创作，主要内容包括：提供在检测到成为功能障碍的主要原因的现象时能够设为不能使用的电池以及无人飞行器。该电池具有：具有电池单元的电池组(11)；检测对电池组(11)的功能造成障碍的现象的传感器(12、13)；存储传感器的检测信号的存储器(14)；以及通过检测信号切断电池组(11)的输出的切断电路(15、16)。该无人飞行器具有该电池和飞行器侧传感器(23、24),通过飞行器侧传感器的检测信号,使电池(1)所具有的切断电路工作。(Provided are a battery and an unmanned aerial vehicle which can be rendered unusable when a phenomenon that is a factor causing malfunction is detected. The battery has: a battery pack (11) having battery cells; sensors (12, 13) for detecting a phenomenon that causes a malfunction of the battery pack (11); a memory (14) for storing the detection signal of the sensor; and a cutoff circuit (15, 16) that cuts off the output of the battery pack (11) by the detection signal. The unmanned aerial vehicle is provided with the battery and vehicle side sensors (23, 24), and a disconnection circuit provided in the battery (1) is operated by a detection signal of the vehicle side sensor.)

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle is driven by an electric motor,

the unmanned aerial vehicle is provided with a plurality of batteries as a driving power source of the electric motor,

the plurality of batteries are connected in parallel and have a monitoring section that detects abnormality or deterioration of each battery,

when the monitoring unit outputs a detection signal, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation.

2. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1,

the battery is composed of 2 batteries in pairs.

3. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 or 2,

each of the batteries has a cutting unit that cuts off an output of the battery when the battery outputs the detection signal.

4. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 3,

when one of the pair of batteries is in a state in which the output is cut off by the cutting section, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation based on the power supply from the other battery.

5. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 4,

the emergency retreat action comprises emergency return, emergency landing and emergency stop according to the sequence of the emergency from low to high.

6. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1,

each of the batteries has a stored-electricity amount detection unit that detects a stored-electricity amount of the battery at each battery, and the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation when the stored-electricity amount of each battery obtained by the stored-electricity amount detection unit of each battery falls below a predetermined amount.

7. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 2,

each of the pair of batteries has a charge amount detection unit that detects a charge amount of the battery of each battery, and the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation when the charge amount detected by the charge amount detection unit of one battery falls below a predetermined amount.

8. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 7,

when the amount of electricity stored by the electricity storage amount detection unit of one battery falls below a predetermined amount, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation according to the amount of electricity stored by the electricity storage amount detection unit of the other battery.

9. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 8,

the emergency evacuation operation sequentially performs an emergency return, an emergency landing, and an emergency stop in accordance with a decrease in the amount of electricity stored by the electricity storage amount detection unit of the other battery.

10. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 9,

the emergency return is performed through a power saving mode.

11. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 10,

the power saving mode is executed by limiting or relaxing a part of the attitude control.

12. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11,

the power saving mode restricts control of the yaw direction.

13. The unmanned aerial vehicle of any of claims 10-12,

the unmanned aerial vehicle is further provided with:

a medicine tank for storing the medicine to be broadcast; and

a medicine nozzle for ejecting the medicine,

the unmanned aerial vehicle flies while ejecting the chemical in the power saving mode.

14. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 6,

each battery has a monitoring unit that monitors the operation of the stored electricity amount detection unit of each battery, and the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation when the monitoring unit of each battery detects that the operation of the stored electricity amount detection unit is abnormal.

15. An unmanned aerial vehicle having:

a plurality of rotary wings;

a plurality of electric motors that rotationally drive the respective rotary blades;

a battery that is a power supply source for each of the electric motors;

a distributor that adjusts the electric power from the battery to an appropriate voltage and distributes the electric power to the electric motors; and

the flight controller controls the power distribution machine according to the instruction and enables the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly according to the instruction,

the distributor is composed of 2 distributors in pairs,

the flight controller monitors the actions of the 2 power distribution machines, and when at least one power distribution machine is abnormal, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency retreat action.

16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15,

the emergency back-off action in the case where an abnormality occurs in only one of the 2 power distribution machines is emergency return.

17. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15,

the emergency retreat operation in the case of abnormality of both of the 2 power distributors is emergency landing or emergency stop.

18. An unmanned aerial vehicle having:

a plurality of rotary wings;

a plurality of electric motors that rotationally drive the respective rotary blades;

a battery that is a power supply source for each of the electric motors;

a distributor that adjusts the electric power from the battery to an appropriate voltage and distributes the electric power to the electric motors; and

the flight controller controls the power distribution machine according to the instruction and enables the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly according to the instruction,

the flight controller is composed of 2 flight controllers in pairs,

the 2 flight controllers monitor each other or an external monitor that monitors the flight controllers, and the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation when an abnormality occurs in at least one of the flight controllers.

19. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 18,

the emergency retreat operation in the case where only one of the 2 flight controllers is abnormal is an emergency return.

20. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 18 or 19,

the emergency retreat operation in the case where an abnormality occurs in both of the 2 flight controllers is an emergency landing or an emergency stop.

21. The unmanned aerial vehicle of any of claims 18-20,

the unmanned aerial vehicle is also provided with a plurality of CANs,

the 2 flight controllers are connected with at least 1 CAN respectively.

22. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 21,

and under the condition that at least 1 of the CAN is abnormal, the unmanned aerial vehicle is switched to any one of emergency retreat actions of emergency return, emergency landing and emergency stop.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle with improved safety.

Background

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (hereinafter also referred to as "drones") is being propelled. As one of important fields of use of unmanned aerial vehicles, there is a pesticide, liquid fertilizer, and other chemical application in agricultural fields, i.e., farms (see, for example, patent document 1). In japan where the farmland is narrow, unmanned planes are often suitable for use rather than manned airplanes or helicopters, as compared with europe and america.

By utilizing technologies such as quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS) or RTK-GPS, the unmanned aerial vehicle can accurately know the absolute position of the unmanned aerial vehicle in centimeter units in flight. Therefore, in japan, even in a farmland typically having a narrow and complicated terrain, it is possible to reduce the number of man-handed operations and to efficiently and accurately distribute a chemical by autonomous flight.

On the other hand, in an autonomous flying type drone used for, for example, chemical distribution for agriculture, consideration is required for safety. Since the weight of the unmanned aerial vehicle loaded with the chemical is several tens of kilograms, serious results may be caused in the event of an accident such as falling to a human body. In addition, since the operator of the drone is not a professional related to the drone, a mechanism for preventing a malfunction, which is ensured even if it is a non-professional safety, is required. There has been a safety technique of an unmanned aerial vehicle based on human manipulation (for example, see patent document 2), but there is no technique for dealing with a safety problem unique to an autonomous flight type unmanned aerial vehicle for medicine distribution, particularly for agricultural use.

An unmanned aerial vehicle generally uses a motor as a driving source and is equipped with a battery as a power source for driving the motor. Therefore, in the unmanned aerial vehicle which is strictly required to have safety as described above, it is required to be able to safely retreat even when a battery fails or when the amount of stored electricity decreases.

The unmanned aerial vehicle is equipped with devices for performing various controls such as a flight direction, a flight speed, a flight altitude, a posture, and others, and wiring for connecting the devices. When an abnormality occurs in these devices or wiring, there is a possibility that a normal operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle cannot be ensured, but it is required that the unmanned aerial vehicle can safely retreat even if such an abnormality occurs.

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

The present invention aims to provide an unmanned aerial vehicle which can ensure safety by making a battery and an internal circuit of a machine body have redundancy and performing emergency retreat operation even if an abnormality occurs in the battery and the internal circuit of the machine body.

Means for solving the problems

The unmanned aerial vehicle related to the invention is an unmanned aerial vehicle driven by an electric motor, and is characterized in that,

a plurality of batteries are provided as a driving power source of the electric motor,

the plurality of batteries are connected in parallel and have a monitoring section that detects abnormality or deterioration of each battery,

when the monitoring unit outputs a detection signal, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency evacuation operation.

Further, the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention is characterized in that,

comprising: a plurality of propellers; a plurality of electric motors for driving the propellers to rotate, respectively; a battery as a power supply source to the electric motors; a distributor that adjusts the electric power from the battery to an appropriate voltage and distributes the electric power to the electric motors; and a flight controller for controlling the distribution motor according to the instruction and making the unmanned aerial vehicle fly according to the instruction,

the distributor is composed of 2 distributors in pairs,

the flight controller monitors the actions of the 2 power distribution machines, and when at least one power distribution machine is abnormal, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency retreat action.

Further, the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention is characterized in that,

comprising: a plurality of propellers; a plurality of electric motors for driving the propellers to rotate, respectively; a battery as a power supply source to the electric motors; a distributor that adjusts the electric power from the battery to an appropriate voltage and distributes the electric power to the electric motors; and a flight controller for controlling the distribution motor according to the instruction and making the unmanned aerial vehicle fly according to the instruction,

the flight controller is composed of 2 flight controllers in pairs,

the power distribution machine monitors the actions of the 2 flight controllers, and when at least one flight controller is abnormal, the unmanned aerial vehicle switches to an emergency retreat action.

Effects of the invention

According to the unmanned aerial vehicle of the present invention, even if one battery is abnormal, the other batteries are replenished. In addition, even if an abnormality occurs in the internal circuit of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the other internal circuits are supplemented. When an abnormality occurs in the battery or the internal circuit, the operation is switched to the emergency evacuation operation, and the safety is prevented from being impaired.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of an unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the first embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the third embodiment of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the fourth embodiment of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the fifth embodiment of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the reduced pressure distributor in each of the above embodiments.

Fig. 9 is a diagram showing an electrical control system of the unmanned aerial vehicle as the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 10 is a plan view showing an example of the external appearance of the above-described unmanned aerial vehicle.

Fig. 11 is a front view showing an example of the appearance of the above-described unmanned aerial vehicle.

Fig. 12 is a right side view showing an example of the appearance of the above-described unmanned aerial vehicle.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an unmanned aerial vehicle, that is, an unmanned aerial vehicle according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The illustrated embodiment contemplates an example of a drone for agricultural use, but the use of a drone is not limited thereto.