JP2006082775A - Unmanned air vehicle control system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an unmanned air vehicle control system and method capable of grasping in advance that a problem that may affect stable flight of an unmanned air vehicle has occurred.
An unmanned air vehicle including a flight control system for flying over the sky and an information collection system for collecting predetermined flight state information, and controlling the flight of the unmanned air vehicle, the unmanned flight A control center comprising a flight control / information collection system for acquiring and processing information from the body via a wireless communication network, and based on the flight state information collected by the information collection system of the unmanned air vehicle, Flight state inspection means for inspecting the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle and warning generation means for issuing a warning according to the inspection result of the flight state inspection means.
[Selection] Figure 8

Description

  The present invention relates to an unmanned air vehicle control system and method for controlling the operation of an unmanned air vehicle such as an unmanned helicopter used for photographing a house or a building from the air.

  Conventionally, various unmanned air vehicle control systems that control the operation of an unmanned air vehicle such as an unmanned helicopter have been proposed.

Specifically, for example, in order to perform maintenance and monitoring of overhead power transmission lines (hereinafter referred to as “power transmission lines”) and intakes of dam lakes, the use of GPS is not affected by topography. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-127994 has proposed a radio control helicopter that is controlled by maneuvering.
JP 2003-127994 A

  By the way, unmanned helicopters fly in the air, so if they are unable to fly stably due to some trouble, they are likely to collide with the ground or obstacles and be damaged or wrecked by the impact of the collision. .

  If damage due to collision with the ground or obstacles as described above occurs, it will take a long time to repair the unmanned helicopter to its normal state, and the cost of repair costs There was a problem that the burden would increase.

  An object of the present invention is to detect an occurrence of a problem that may affect stable flight of an unmanned air vehicle in advance, and to prevent a situation where stable flight is impossible from occurring. It is to provide a control system and method.

  The unmanned air vehicle control system of the present invention includes an unmanned air vehicle (10) including a flight control system (20) for flying over the sky and an information collection system (30) for collecting predetermined flight state information. A control center comprising a flight control / information collection system (60) for controlling the flight of the unmanned air vehicle (10) and acquiring and processing information from the unmanned air vehicle (10) via a wireless communication network. (50) and flight state inspection means for inspecting the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) based on the flight state information collected by the information collection system (30) of the unmanned air vehicle (10). 21 or 53) and warning generating means (53) for issuing a warning according to the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21 or 53).

  The information collecting system (30) includes state information collecting means (21 and 40) for collecting flight state information, and the state information collecting means (40) is the engine speed of the unmanned air vehicle (10). The engine speed sensor (41) for detecting the remaining amount of fuel in the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the unmanned air vehicle (10). ), A supply voltage sensor (43) for detecting the supply voltage from the power supply device mounted on the flight state information, a position sensor (44) for detecting the position of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, An altitude sensor (44) that detects the altitude of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and a speed sensor (4) that detects the speed of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information. ), And at least one of the radio wave intensity sensors (46) for detecting the communication state between the unmanned air vehicle (10) and the control center (50) as the flight state information. Good.

  The unmanned air vehicle (10) includes flight state information transmitting means (22) for transmitting the flight state information collected by the information collecting system (30) to a control center (50), and the control center (50 ) Is a flight state information receiving means (61) for receiving the flight state information transmitted by the flight state information transmitting means (22), the flight state inspection means (53), and the warning generating means (53). It may be set as the structure containing these.

  Alternatively, the unmanned air vehicle (10) includes flight state inspection means (21) and inspection result information transmission means (22) for transmitting the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21) to the control center (50). The control center (50) includes inspection result information receiving means (61) for receiving the inspection result information transmitted by the inspection result information transmitting means (22), and the warning generating means (53). It may be said.

  The flight state information collected by the information collection system (30) by the flight state inspection means (21 or 53) satisfies a predetermined safety standard (for example, the safety standard indicated by the safety standard data in FIG. 9). When the warning generation means (53) determines that the flight condition inspection means (21 or 53) does not meet the safety standard, a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied is issued. It may be configured to emit.

  The warning generation means (53) displays a warning display (for example, the display shown in FIG. 10) on the warning display device (54), for example, as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

  The warning generating means (53), for example, causes a warning sound output device (for example, a speaker) to output a warning sound as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

  The unmanned air vehicle control method of the present invention collects predetermined flight state information using the state information collecting means (21 and 40) mounted on the unmanned air vehicle (10) (for example, steps S101 to S106), Based on the collected flight state information, the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) is inspected (for example, step S202), the flight of the unmanned air vehicle (10) is controlled and the unmanned air vehicle (10). Warning generation means (53) provided in the control center (50) that acquires and processes information from the wireless communication network issues a warning according to the result of the inspection (for example, steps S203 and S205). It is characterized by.

  The state information collecting means (40) detects an engine speed of the engine included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the fuel remaining in the unmanned air vehicle (10). A fuel remaining amount sensor (42) for detecting the amount as the flight state information, a supply voltage sensor (43) for detecting a supply voltage from a power supply device mounted on the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, A position sensor (44) for detecting the position of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, an altitude sensor (44) for detecting the altitude of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the unmanned air vehicle A speed sensor (44) that detects the speed of (10) as the flight state information, and a communication state between the unmanned air vehicle (10) and the control center (50) is the flight state information. Of radio field intensity sensor (46) for detecting and may be configured to include at least one.

  The flight state information transmitting means (22) included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) transmits the collected flight state information to the control center (50) (for example, step S107), and the flight included in the control center (50). State information receiving means (61) receives the flight state information transmitted by the flight state information transmitting means (22) (for example, step S201), and the flight received by the flight state information receiving means (61). Based on the state information, the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) may be inspected.

  A flight state inspection means (21) included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) inspects the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) based on the collected flight state information, and the unmanned air vehicle (10). The inspection result information transmission means (22) included in the transmission transmits the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21) to the control center (50), and the inspection result information reception means (61) included in the control center (50). The inspection result information transmitted by the inspection result information transmitting means (22) is received, and the warning generating means (53) responds to the inspection result information received by the inspection result information receiving means (61). And may be configured to issue a warning.

  The flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) is inspected by determining whether or not the flight state information collected by the state information collecting means (21 and 40) satisfies a predetermined safety standard. When it is determined that the safety standard is not satisfied, the warning generation means (53) may be configured to issue a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

  The warning generation means (53) may be configured to display a warning display (for example, a display shown in FIG. 10) as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

  The warning generation means (53) may be configured to output a warning sound (for example, a siren) as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

The unmanned air vehicle control system and method of the present invention have the following effects.
(1) It is possible to grasp in advance the occurrence of a problem that may affect the stable flight of the unmanned air vehicle, and it is possible to prevent a situation where stable flight is impossible.
(2) The system can be inspected and repaired in advance before a malfunction that may affect the stable flight of the unmanned air vehicle occurs and the unmanned air vehicle is damaged or severely damaged. The rate can be improved and the repair cost can be prevented from increasing.

  The purpose of detecting the occurrence of problems that may affect the stable flight of unmanned air vehicles in advance and preventing the occurrence of situations where stable flight is impossible is to This was realized by collecting predetermined flight state information using various sensors such as sensors and inspecting the safety of unmanned aerial vehicles based on the collected flight state information.

Embodiments of an unmanned air vehicle control system and method for controlling an unmanned air vehicle according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic overall configuration of an unmanned air vehicle control system 1 for controlling an unmanned air vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the unmanned air vehicle control system 1 according to the present embodiment controls a radio control helicopter 10 (hereinafter referred to as “radio control helicopter 10”) as an unmanned air vehicle, and the flight of the radio control helicopter 10. And a control center 50 including a host computer 53 that manages and acquires flight state information from the radio controlled helicopter 10.

  “Flight status information”, which will be described in detail later, is information collected to grasp the flight status of the radio control helicopter 10 on the management center 50 side, and whether or not the radio control helicopter 10 is stably flying. Means information used to determine

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a configuration example of a radio control helicopter.
As shown in FIG. 2, the radio control helicopter 10 includes a communication antenna 11 that transmits and receives various types of information by wireless communication with the control center 50, and a GPS (Global Positioning System) artificial satellite 100 for detecting the position of the radio control helicopter 10 ( GPS antenna 12 that receives signals from (see FIG. 1), ambient monitoring camera 13, information collecting camera 14, distance sensor 15, direction operating device 16, observation sensor 17, and parachute device (safety device). 18 and a control box 19.

  As the surrounding monitoring camera 13, for example, three types of cameras that photograph the three directions of the front and left and right sides are used in order to monitor the surrounding situation.

  The information collecting camera 14 is a camera for photographing a desired object such as a house, a building, or a steel tower.

  The distance sensor 15 is a sensor for measuring a distance from a desired photographing target. The direction operating device 16 is a device for operating the direction in which the information collecting camera 14 and the distance sensor 15 are directed by rotating the storage case 16a for storing the information collecting camera 14 and the distance sensor 15 about two axes in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. It is.

  The observation sensor 17 is a sensor that is fixed to the lower part of the storage case 16 a and performs environmental measurement around the radio controlled helicopter 10. For example, a concentration sensor that detects the concentration of toxic gas or the like is used as the observation sensor 17. Although not shown in FIG. 2, the radio control helicopter 10 is equipped with various sensors used for collecting flight state information in addition to the distance sensor 15 and the observation sensor 17 (see FIG. 4). .

  The parachute device (safety device) 18 is a device for reducing the descent speed of the radio controlled helicopter 10 main body by starting in an emergency and expanding the parachute.

  The control box 19 includes a radio control helicopter 10 body, a communication antenna 11, a GPS antenna 12, a monitoring camera 13, an information collecting camera 14, a direction operation device 16, various sensors such as a distance sensor 15 and an observation sensor 17, and a parachute device 18. Is a housing in which a computer 21 (see FIG. 3) for overall control is stored.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a flight control system included in the radio control helicopter.
As shown in FIG. 3, the radio controlled helicopter 10 includes, as a flight control system 20, a computer 21, a GPS unit 26 connected to the computer 21, a distance sensor 15, a control sensor 27, an infrared sensor 28, and a switch mechanism 24 ( (Hereinafter referred to as “SW / Mixer unit 24”), a modem 23 and a servo control unit 25 connected to the SW / Mixer unit 24, a data transmitter / receiver 22 connected to the modem 23, and a surrounding monitoring camera 13 And an image transmitter 29 connected to the surrounding monitoring camera 13.

  The radio controlled helicopter 10 can automatically fly to a desired position while autonomously flying according to control by the flight control system 20.

  The SW / Mixer unit 24 switches between automatic flight, semi-automatic flight or manual flight and flight control of the radio controlled helicopter 10 according to control information transmitted from the control center 50 via the data transceiver 22 and the modem 23. Is for doing.

  Further, the servo control unit 25 is configured so that each part of the main body of the radio control helicopter 10 is based on a control signal from the control center 50 or a control signal from the computer 21 via the data transmitter / receiver 22 and the modem 23 according to the switching of the SW / Mixer unit 24. Controls the drive of the servo motor that makes 10 ′ function.

Here, the autonomous flight realized by the control of the flight control system 20 will be described.
In this example, the radio controlled helicopter 10 uses, for example, data for autonomous flight including movement point data (basic movement point data, normal movement point data, and interpolation movement point data) based on the trajectory derived in advance by the control center 50. It is acquired by receiving from the control center 50 on the ground before, and is held in a storage medium provided for itself.

  The computer 21 provided in the radio controlled helicopter 10 performs the autonomous flight of the radio controlled helicopter 10 by performing drive control of the servo motor according to the autonomous flight data ().

  Note that the “basic moving point” is a teaching point for performing work in accordance with a command from the control center 50, such as a destination (for example, a position around the building when taking an image of the building). means. When the radio control helicopter 10 reaches the basic reference point, the radio control helicopter 10 once enters a hovering state and waits for a command from the control center 50.

  “Normal moving point” means a normal teaching point. When the radio control helicopter 10 reaches the normal movement point, it starts moving to the next set movement point.

  The “interpolated moving point” means a virtual moving point obtained by calculation at the control center 50. When reaching the interpolation movement point, the radio control helicopter 10 starts moving to the next set movement point.

  Whether or not the movement to the moving point is completed depends on whether or not the current position and the current altitude calculated based on the signal from the GPS artificial satellite 100 match the position and altitude indicated by the moving point, for example. To be judged.

  When the computer 21 included in the radio control helicopter 10 starts moving to the moving point, the computer 21 calculates a direction in which the nose is directed based on the moving point data indicating the moving destination and the current position (for example, the reference direction (for example, the north direction) ) To calculate the rotation angle in the target direction), and drive control of the servo motor is executed according to the calculation result. By repeating such processing until reaching the basic moving point, autonomous flight along the trajectory is performed in advance.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the information collection system 30 included in the radio control helicopter 10.
As shown in FIG. 4, the radio controlled helicopter 10 includes an information collecting camera 14, a VTR (Video Tape Recorder) 31 for recording images taken by the information collecting camera 14, and an observation sensor as an information collecting system 30. 17, a high compression / parallel processing unit 32, an image transmitter 29, a servo control unit 36, a flight state information collection unit 40, a computer 21, a modem 23, and a flight recorder 47.

  The high compression / parallel processing unit 32 has a function of encoding and compressing a captured image from the information collecting camera 14 in parallel with recording / recording to the VTR 31.

  The image transmitter 29 has a function of transmitting the captured image compressed by the high compression / parallel processing unit 32 and measurement data from the observation sensor 17 to the control center 50.

  The servo control unit 36 has a function of controlling the drive of the servo motor that operates the direction operation device 16 based on a control signal received from the control center 50 via the data transceiver 22.

  Note that the information collecting camera 14 is not limited to a normal photographing camera, and may be a visible camera equipped with a special lens such as a high magnification, wide angle or fisheye lens when photographing a desired image. An infrared camera or an ultraviolet camera may be used to perform analysis or to observe corona discharge.

  Further, when transmitting the measurement data from the observation sensor 17, the image transmitter 29 can superimpose on the captured image from the high compression / parallel processing unit 32 or can transmit both of them simultaneously. It has become.

  The flight state information collection unit 40 includes a plurality of sensors for collecting flight state information. Each sensor included in the flight state information collecting unit 40 may be a switch, a measuring instrument, a measuring instrument, or the like as long as it is a device from which data to be collected can be obtained.

  In the present embodiment, the flight state information collecting unit 40 includes an engine speed sensor 41, a fuel remaining amount sensor 42, a voltage sensor 43, a position / altitude / speed sensor 44, a GPS capture number sensor 45, and a radio wave intensity. Sensor 46.

  The engine speed sensor 41 is a sensor for detecting the speed of the engine mounted on the radio controlled helicopter 10. The remaining fuel sensor 42 is a sensor that detects the remaining amount of fuel (for example, mixed fuel including gasoline) in the radio controlled helicopter 10.

  The voltage sensor 43 is a sensor for detecting a voltage supplied to each part of the radio control helicopter 10 from a power supply device mounted on the radio control helicopter 10.

  The position / altitude / speed sensor 44 is a sensor for detecting the current position, altitude, and speed of the radio controlled helicopter 10. That is, the position / altitude / speed sensor 44 includes a position sensor that detects the current position of the radio control helicopter 10, an altitude sensor that detects the current altitude, and a speed sensor that detects the speed.

  The GPS capture number sensor 45 is a sensor for detecting the number of GPS signals that can be normally received (the number of valid GPS artificial satellites 100).

  The radio wave intensity sensor 46 is a sensor for detecting, for example, the electric field intensity in order to check whether or not the radio wave condition is such that data communication between the radio controlled helicopter 10 and the control center 50 can be normally performed. .

  The flight recorder 47 is constituted by a storage medium that can retain the stored contents even when power supply is interrupted, such as Compact Flash (registered trademark). The flight recorder 47 stores various states of the radio control helicopter 10. Specifically, the flight recorder 47 includes, for example, data indicating a flight trajectory, flight state information, control execution data (control content by the computer 21), servo output data (control content by the servo control units 25 and 36), GPS signal reception data and the like are stored and held. The flight recorder 47 has a capacity capable of storing, for example, about 10 hours of data.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a flight control / information collection system provided in the control center.
As shown in FIG. 5, the control center 50 includes a host computer 53, an operation panel 65 connected to the host computer 53, an information monitor 54 connected to the host computer 53, as a flight control / information collection system 60, A navigation system 63 (which constitutes a destination setting means, an obstacle setting means, and a route determination means) connected to the host computer 53 and the information monitor 54, and the radio control helicopter 10 via the communication antenna 51 (see FIG. 1) A data transmitter / receiver 61 that transmits and receives various types of information, a modem 62 connected between the data transmitter / receiver 61 and the host computer 53, an image receiver 64, a safety monitoring monitor 55, an image receiver 64, and Connected between the collected video monitor 56 connected to the host computer 53 and the host computer 53. And a storage device 81.

  The image receiver 64 receives the monitoring video information of the surrounding monitoring camera 13 and the video information of the information collecting camera 14 simultaneously sent from the radio controlled helicopter 10 via the parabolic antenna 52 (see FIG. 1), and decodes / Has the function of extending.

  The safety monitoring monitor 55 is a display device that displays the monitoring video of the surrounding monitoring camera 13 input from the image receiver 64.

  The collected video monitor 56 delivers the information collected video of the information collecting camera 14 and the measurement data of the observation sensor 17 to the host computer 53 and analyzes the video etc. from the host computer 53 and analyzes the video of interest. Is returned and superimposed on the information collection video.

  The modem 62 performs A / D conversion or D / A conversion so that various types of information processed by the host computer 53 can be exchanged with the data transceiver 61. The storage device 81 stores various data such as acquired flight state information and safety reference data described later.

Next, the operation of the unmanned air vehicle control system 1 of this example will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flight state information collection process.
The flight state information collection process is executed by the computer 21 included in the radio control helicopter 10. That is, the computer 21 is an example of a flight state information collecting unit that executes a flight state information collection process. Note that the flight state information collecting means may be configured to include each sensor for collecting the flight state information. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of collected flight state information. Here, description will be made assuming that the flight state information as shown in FIG. 7 is detected by each sensor constituting the flight state information collection unit 40.

  In the flight state information collection process, the computer 21 acquires engine speed data indicating the speed of the engine mounted on the radio controlled helicopter 10 from the engine speed sensor 41 (step S101). Here, it is assumed that “2000 [rotations / minute]” is acquired as the engine speed data.

  Further, the computer 21 obtains fuel remaining amount data indicating the remaining amount of fuel in the radio control helicopter 10 from the fuel remaining amount sensor 42 (step S102), and supplies indicating the supply voltage of the power supply device mounted on the radio control helicopter 10. Voltage data is acquired from the voltage sensor 43 (step S103). Here, “20 [l]” is acquired as the remaining fuel amount data, and “100 [V]” is detected as the supply voltage data.

  Further, the computer 21 acquires position data indicating the current position of the radio controlled helicopter 10, altitude data indicating the current altitude, and speed data indicating the current speed from the position / altitude / speed sensor 44 (step S104). Here, the latitude and longitude values calculated from the GPS signal are acquired as position data, the value “25 [m]” calculated from the GPS signal is acquired as altitude data, and “30 [km / h” is acquired as the speed data. ] ”Is acquired.

  Further, the computer 21 acquires GPS capture number data indicating the number of GPS signals that can be normally received from the GPS capture number sensor 45 (step S105), and receives radio wave intensity data indicating the communication environment state with the control center 50. Obtained from the radio wave intensity sensor 46 (step S106). Here, it is assumed that “5” is acquired as the GPS capture number data, and “electric field strength: ○ Δ [V / m]” is acquired as the radio wave intensity data.

  Then, the computer 21 transmits the collected flight state information to the management center 50 (step S107).

  Note that the flight state information collection process is executed, for example, periodically (for example, every second, every minute). However, the timing at which information is collected may be varied depending on the sensors constituting the flight state information collection unit 40.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flight state information analysis process.
The flight state information analysis process is executed by the host computer 53 provided in the management center 50. That is, the host computer 53 is an example of flight state information analysis means (means including flight state inspection means and warning generation means) for executing flight state information analysis processing (processing including flight state inspection processing and warning generation processing). It is. The flight state information analysis process is executed every time flight state information from the radio control helicopter 10 is received. Here, description will be made assuming that flight state information as shown in FIG. 7 is transmitted from the radio control helicopter 10.

  When the flight state information from the radio control helicopter 10 is received (step S201), the host computer 53 performs a process of comparing the received flight state information with predetermined safety standard data (step S202).

  The “safety standard data” means data indicating a range of values of each flight state information that is recognized as being able to continue the safe flight of the radio controlled helicopter 10, and is determined in advance and stored in the storage device 81.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of safety standard data.
As shown in FIG. 9, in the safety standard data, a value indicating a range satisfying the safety standard is set for each piece of flight state information. Note that the values shown in FIG. 9 are merely examples, and may be other values. In addition, the safety standard indicated by the safety standard data is not a value indicating the range satisfying the safety standard, but a symbol indicating the range satisfying the safety standard (for example, the range of the value indicated by the flight state information is divided into a plurality of levels and divided. When indicating which level is the safety level, it may be expressed by a symbol indicating the safety level. Furthermore, the safety standard indicated by the safety standard data is a ratio compared to the normal value (for example, more than 1/4 of the full fuel state (normal value) and 40% of the normal state (3500 rpm) for the engine speed. It may be expressed by a range from a decrease to a 40% increase).

  As a result of the comparison between the received flight state information and the safety standard data, the host computer 53 determines whether or not all the flight state information satisfies the safety standard (step S203).

  If all the flight state information satisfies the safety standard, the host computer 53 displays the received flight state information on the information monitor 54 (step S204). Note that not only the flight status information received this time, but also flight status information received in the past may be displayed at the same time. In addition, a display indicating that all the flight state information satisfies the safety standard (safety display: display such as “the flight state of the helicopter is in good order”) may be performed.

  If any of the flight state information does not satisfy the safety standard, the host computer 53 displays a warning on the information monitor 54 for the operator (step S205).

  FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a warning display. For example, when the engine speed exceeds the reference value, a warning message such as “the engine speed exceeds the reference value” is displayed as shown in FIG. Although not shown in FIG. 10, it is desirable to simultaneously display the flight status information received this time and the flight status information received in the past (for example, information obtained in the past 10 minutes) together with a warning display. .

  In addition to the warning display, for example, a warning sound may be generated by a speaker or a buzzer, or a warning lamp such as a red light may be lit. In this case, in step S205, the host computer 53 may issue a sound output instruction to the speaker or a lighting instruction to the warning lamp.

  The operator grasps the malfunction that has occurred in the radio controlled helicopter 10 by the warning display, and according to the malfunction, the flight of the radio controlled helicopter 10 is continued, returned, landed on the spot, or dropped on the spot. (In this case, use the parachute device 18 to cause the aircraft to drop and minimize the effects of deterioration and damage to the aircraft, and the influence on the surroundings.) put out.

  The host computer 53 also selects a countermeasure, such as whether to continue the flight of the radio controlled helicopter 10, return it, or land on the spot, and presents a countermeasure (or a proposal for the countermeasure) along with a warning display. You may make it display. In this case, a countermeasure may be determined according to the type of flight state information that does not satisfy the safety standard, the degree that the safety standard is not satisfied, or both. Specifically, for example, if the remaining amount of fuel is 2 liters or more, “return” is instructed, and if it is less than 2 liters, “landing” is instructed. In such a case (the determination can be made by comparing the flight state information received in the past and the flight state information received this time), “drop” may be instructed.

  As described above, the operator of the control center 50 grasps in advance that a problem that may affect the stable flight of the unmanned air vehicle has occurred based on the warning display displayed on the information monitor 54. Since it is possible to take measures such as a return instruction from an unmanned air vehicle before stable flight becomes impossible, it is possible to prevent a situation where stable flight is impossible. .

  In addition, as described above, the operator of the control center 50 grasps in advance that a problem that may affect the stable flight of the unmanned air vehicle has occurred based on the warning display displayed on the information monitor 54. The unmanned aerial vehicle can be returned before it becomes impossible for stable flight, and it can be inspected and repaired. Before the inspection and repair can be performed in advance, the operating rate of the system can be improved, and the increase in the repair cost can be prevented.

  In the above description, the flight state information analysis process is executed by the host computer 53 of the control center 50. However, a part of the flight state information analysis process (flight state inspection process: the process of step S202) is performed by the radio control helicopter 10. The computer 21 is configured to execute, and the comparison result (analysis result (inspection result)) in step S202 is transmitted to the control center 50 via the image transmitter 29 and the data transceiver 22, and the analysis result received by the host computer 53. Based on the above, a safety display or warning display (warning generation processing: steps S203 and S205) may be performed on the information monitor 54. That is, the radio control helicopter 10 is equipped with a self-diagnosis function (flight state inspecting means) for inspecting whether or not a problem that may affect the stable flight of the radio control helicopter 10 occurs, and the diagnosis result is displayed in the control center 50 It is good also as a structure to alert | report.

  In addition, each sensor included in the flight state information collection unit 40 is an example, and any sensor can be used as long as it can find a defect that may affect the stable flight of the radio controlled helicopter 10. Well, for example, an attitude sensor that detects the inclination of the radio control helicopter 10, a wind sensor that detects wind power around the radio control helicopter 10, a temperature sensor that detects the temperature inside the radio control helicopter 10 and the temperature around the radio control helicopter 10, It is good also as a structure containing other sensors, such as a vibration sensor which detects a vibration state.

  Further, although the radio control helicopter 10 is configured to automatically fly from the control center 50, the radio control helicopter 10 may be caused to perform semi-automatic flight or manual flight using the flight control / information collecting system 60 of the control center 50.

  Further, although the radio control helicopter 10 (unmanned helicopter) is used as an unmanned aerial vehicle, an unpopular sphere, an unmanned airship, an unmanned airplane, or the like may be used.

  As described above, the unmanned air vehicle control system and method of the present invention can be used to grasp that a problem that may affect the stable flight of the unmanned air vehicle has occurred.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a figure which shows the schematic whole structure of the unmanned air vehicle control system by Example 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the radio controlled helicopter shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the flight control system of the radio controlled helicopter shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the information collection system of the radio controlled helicopter shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the flight control and information collection system of the control center shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the flight state information collection process which the computer shown in FIG. 4 performs. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the flight state information acquired by the flight state information collection process. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the flight state information analysis process which the host computer shown in FIG. 5 performs. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of safety standard data. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a warning display.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Radio control helicopter 20 Flight control system 21 Computer 30 Information collection system 40 Flight state information collection part 47 Flight recorder 50 Control center 53 Host computer 60 Flight control and information collection system

Claims (14)

An unmanned air vehicle (10) comprising a flight control system (20) for flying over the sky and an information collection system (30) for collecting predetermined flight state information;
A control center including a flight control / information collection system (60) for controlling the flight of the unmanned air vehicle (10) and acquiring and processing information from the unmanned air vehicle (10) via a wireless communication network. 50),
Flight state inspection means (21 or 53) for inspecting the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) based on the flight state information collected by the information collection system (30) of the unmanned air vehicle (10) ,
An unmanned aerial vehicle control system comprising warning generation means (53) for issuing a warning in accordance with the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21 or 53). The information collecting system (30) includes state information collecting means (21 and 40) for collecting the flight state information,
The state information collecting means (40) includes an engine speed sensor (41) that detects an engine speed of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and fuel remaining in the unmanned air vehicle (10). A fuel remaining amount sensor (42) for detecting the amount as the flight state information, a supply voltage sensor (43) for detecting a supply voltage from a power supply device mounted on the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, A position sensor (44) for detecting the position of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, an altitude sensor (44) for detecting the altitude of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the unmanned air vehicle A speed sensor (44) for detecting the speed of (10) as the flight state information, and a communication state between the unmanned air vehicle (10) and the control center (50) as the flight state information. Of radio field intensity sensor for detecting (46) Te, unmanned air vehicle control system, characterized, according to claim 1 wherein in that it comprises at least one. The unmanned air vehicle (10) includes flight state information transmitting means (22) for transmitting the flight state information collected by the information collection system (30) to a control center (50),
The control center (50) includes a flight state information receiving unit (61) for receiving the flight state information transmitted by the flight state information transmitting unit (22), the flight state inspection unit (53), and the warning. 3. The unmanned air vehicle control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises generating means (53). The unmanned aerial vehicle (10) includes flight state inspection means (21) and inspection result information transmission means (22) for transmitting the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21) to the control center (50),
The control center (50) includes inspection result information receiving means (61) for receiving the inspection result information transmitted by the inspection result information transmitting means (22), and the warning generating means (53). The unmanned air vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the unmanned air vehicle control system is provided. The flight state inspection means (21 or 53) determines whether or not the flight state information collected by the information collection system (30) satisfies a predetermined safety standard,
The warning generation means (53) issues a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied when the flight state inspection means (21 or 53) determines that the safety standard is not satisfied. Item 5. The unmanned air vehicle control system according to any one of Items 1 to 4. 6. The unmanned air vehicle control system according to claim 5, wherein the warning generation means (53) displays a warning display on a warning display device (54) as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied. The unmanned air vehicle control system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the warning generation means (53) causes the warning sound output device to output a warning sound as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied. . Collecting predetermined flight state information using state information collecting means (21 and 40) mounted on the unmanned air vehicle (10),
Based on the collected flight state information, the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) is inspected,
Warning generating means (53) provided in the control center (50) for controlling the flight of the unmanned air vehicle (10) and acquiring and processing information from the unmanned air vehicle (10) via a wireless communication network. Issue a warning according to the result of the inspection, the unmanned air vehicle control method. The state information collecting means (40) detects an engine speed of the engine included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the fuel remaining in the unmanned air vehicle (10). A fuel remaining amount sensor (42) for detecting the amount as the flight state information, a supply voltage sensor (43) for detecting a supply voltage from a power supply device mounted on the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, A position sensor (44) for detecting the position of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, an altitude sensor (44) for detecting the altitude of the unmanned air vehicle (10) as the flight state information, and the unmanned air vehicle A speed sensor (44) that detects the speed of (10) as the flight state information, and a communication state between the unmanned air vehicle (10) and the control center (50) is the flight state information. Radio wave intensity sensor (46) out of, characterized in that it comprises at least one, unmanned air vehicle control method according to claim 8 for detecting and. Flight state information transmitting means (22) included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) transmits the collected flight state information to the control center (50),
The flight status information receiving means (61) provided in the control center (50) receives the flight status information transmitted by the flight status information transmitting means (22),
Inspecting the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) based on the flight state information received by the flight state information receiving means (61).
The unmanned aerial vehicle control method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized by the above. The flight state inspection means (21) included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) inspects the flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) based on the collected flight state information,
The inspection result information transmitting means (22) included in the unmanned air vehicle (10) transmits the inspection result of the flight state inspection means (21) to the control center (50),
The inspection result information receiving means (61) provided in the control center (50) receives the inspection result information transmitted by the inspection result information transmitting means (22),
The warning generation means (53) issues a warning according to the inspection result information received by the inspection result information receiving means (61).
The unmanned aerial vehicle control method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized by the above. The flight state of the unmanned air vehicle (10) is inspected by determining whether or not the flight state information collected by the state information collecting means (21 and 40) satisfies a predetermined safety standard. And
When it is determined that the safety standard is not satisfied, the warning generation means (53) issues a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.
The unmanned air vehicle control method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein 13. The unmanned air vehicle control method according to claim 12, wherein the warning generation means (53) displays a warning display as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied. 14. The unmanned air vehicle control method according to claim 12, wherein the warning generation means (53) outputs a warning sound as a warning that the safety standard is not satisfied.

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