JP4499600B2 - Unmanned helicopter image transmission device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image transmission device of an unmanned helicopter that transmits image data of a camera mounted on an airframe to the ground side.

  The unmanned helicopter is used for spraying chemicals such as agricultural chemicals (for example, Patent Document 1) or for taking aerial photographs. This unmanned helicopter can be remotely operated according to the flight state while the user looks at the aircraft from the ground with a remote controller. Furthermore, in such an unmanned helicopter, autonomous flight control is performed in which optimal flight control is automatically performed according to the operating state of the engine. When autonomous flight control is performed, detection data of the driving state is sent from the aircraft side to the ground station as a digital signal, and a command signal necessary for autonomous flight is sent from the ground station side to the aircraft side as a digital signal. The airframe is equipped with an antenna for controlling flight data for autonomous flight.

  On the other hand, an unmanned helicopter equipped with a camera transmits analog data or digital data of a captured image to the ground station. For this image data communication, an image communication device for image data and an image antenna are provided in the machine body.

  A stabilizer composed of a filter circuit or the like is used to remove high-frequency components such as fine engine vibration and noise from an image data signal photographed by a camera to improve the image quality (for example, Sakae Video Stabilizer Co., Ltd.). By passing the image data signal from the camera through the stabilizer, the high frequency vibration component is removed, and the image is stably improved in image quality.

  When the camera is mounted on the aircraft and the camera image data is transmitted to the ground station, if the transmitted image data signal contains vibrations or noises of high frequency components, it affects the communication status and these high frequency components There is a risk of image degradation on the ground side due to amplification. Therefore, when transmitting the image data signal from the aircraft side to the ground station, the stabilizer is not provided on the ground side, but it is mounted on the aircraft and stabilized by removing high-frequency vibration components in the aircraft. It is desirable to transmit the image signal to the ground station.

  On the other hand, an image dividing apparatus that combines a plurality of image data signals to create one image signal and divides a plurality of images on one screen by the image signal and displays them (for example, has been put into practical use). (Daiweindustri Co., Ltd. quadrant image device). The output image signal from such an image dividing device can display a plurality of images on a divided screen, and can select one of the plurality of images and display it on the entire screen. Further, the image dividing apparatus can display characters by overlaying them on the screen.

  When an image data signal is transmitted from the aircraft side to the ground station, there is a restriction on the amount of radio waves transmitted to the ground station through the image antenna on the aircraft side, so the number of image signals is reduced as much as possible to one image data signal. It is desirable to do. Therefore, when a plurality of cameras are mounted on the aircraft and there are a plurality of image data signals from the plurality of cameras, an image dividing device is mounted on the aircraft to form one image output signal from the plurality of image data inputs. The image signal is transmitted from the aircraft side to the ground station.

  When such an image dividing device is mounted on the aircraft together with the above-described stabilizer, the mounting weight must be made as light as possible in order to reduce the payload load on the aircraft.

JP 2002-166893 A

  The present invention takes the above-described conventional technology into consideration, and in the case where a plurality of cameras are mounted on a fuselage and a plurality of image data is transmitted to the ground side, an unmanned helicopter image transmission device that reduces the weight of the installation The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is directed to an unmanned helicopter body that can be operated by a command from the ground side, a switching device that can be connected to a plurality of cameras, and any one of the switching devices via the switching device. A stabilizer connected to one camera to improve the image quality of that camera, and the image signal of the camera passed through the stabilizer and the image signal of the remaining camera are combined to output one image signal. A camera connected to the stabilizer by operating the switching device from the ground side, and an image communication device for transmitting to the ground side one image signal output through the image dividing device An unmanned helicopter image transmission device is provided that can be switched by selecting.

  The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, image signals from all cameras connected to the switching device can be input to the image dividing device without passing through the stabilizer. To do.

According to the invention of claim 1, when a plurality of cameras are mounted, the image data of one camera is selectively input to the stabilizer via the switching device without providing a stabilizer for each camera. The image data selected by the above-mentioned image data is removed to improve the image quality, and the image data passed through the stabilizer and the remaining image data of the camera are input to the image dividing device and synthesized as one image data signal. Can be sent to the ground side. Accordingly, when a plurality of cameras are mounted, the mounting weight can be reduced by minimizing the number of stabilizers. In this case, even if a stabilizer is not provided for all cameras, when viewing an image on the screen on the ground side, it is possible to select the image of the required camera and pass it through the stabilizer. Even if the image does not pass through the stabilizer, there is no problem in monitoring the screen.
Note that the present invention is applicable even when only one camera is mounted.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, since all the cameras can be connected to the image dividing device without passing through the stabilizer, the image dividing device avoids the stabilizer when an abnormality such as image data deterioration occurs in the stabilizer. The image data can be protected by directly inputting the image data into the.

  1 to 3 are a side view, a top view, and a front view, respectively, of an unmanned helicopter according to the present invention. In this example, in order to explain the configuration of the unmanned helicopter airframe, only one camera is mounted on the lower surface of the airframe, but two or more cameras are provided on the lower surface of the airframe. It may be.

  The unmanned helicopter 1 includes an airframe 4 including a main body 2 and a tail body 3. A main rotor 5 is provided at the top of the main body 2, and a tail rotor 6 is provided at the rear of the tail body 3. A radiator 7 is provided at the front portion of the main body 2, and thereafter, the engine, the intake system, the main rotor shaft, and the fuel tank are accommodated in the main body 2 in this order. A large-capacity fuel tank is accommodated near the center of the fuselage to eliminate the need for an external sub fuel tank. Skids 9 are provided on the left and right lower parts of the main body 2 in the substantially central part of the airframe 4 via support legs 8. A muffler 61 provided in an exhaust pipe 60 connected to an engine (not shown) in the fuselage is disposed at the lower part of the fuselage above the front end of the skid 9.

  A control panel 10 is provided on the rear upper side of the main body 2, and an indicator lamp 11 is provided on the lower side. The control panel 10 displays check points before flight, self-check results, and the like. The display on the control panel 10 can also be confirmed at the ground station. The indicator lamp 11 displays a GPS control state, an abnormality warning of the aircraft, and the like.

  A camera device 12 accommodating an infrared camera (or a CCD camera) is attached to the lower side of the front part of the main body 2 via a camera head 13. The camera device 12 rotates about a pan axis (vertical axis) with respect to the camera head 13 and an internal camera (not shown) can rotate about a tilt axis (horizontal axis). Thereby, the camera can photograph all directions on the ground from the sky through the front window 14.

  An autonomous control box 15 is mounted on the left side of the main body 2. The autonomous control box 15 accommodates a GPS control device necessary for autonomous control, a data communication device and an image communication device communicating with the ground, a control board incorporating a control program, and the like. Autonomous control is based on flight data such as the position and speed of the aircraft, aircraft data such as the attitude and orientation of the aircraft, and operating state data such as engine speed and throttle opening, etc. Is selected automatically or in response to a command from the ground station, and optimal steering control is performed according to the driving state.

  The unmanned helicopter 1 can fly by such autonomous control and can be manually operated by a remote controller based on various flight state data transmitted from the flight state and the aircraft while visually confirming the flight state. It is.

  An antenna support frame 16 is attached to the lower surface side of the main body 2. An inclined stay 17 is attached to the antenna support frame 16. A steering data antenna 18 for transmitting / receiving steering data (digital data) such as driving state data and flight command data necessary for the above-described autonomous control to and from the ground station is attached to the stay 17. The stay 17 is further provided with an image data antenna 19 for transmitting image data (analog data) captured by the camera device 12 to the ground station.

  An azimuth angle sensor 20 based on geomagnetism or the like is provided on the lower surface side of the tail body 3. The azimuth sensor 20 detects the orientation of the aircraft (east, west, south, and north). The main body 2 is further provided with a posture angle sensor (not shown) composed of a gyro device.

A main GPS antenna 21 and a sub GPS antenna 22 are provided on the upper surface side of the tail body 3. A remote control receiving antenna 23 for receiving a command signal from the remote control pilot is provided at the rear end of the tail body 3.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an unmanned helicopter according to the present invention.
Four camera devices 12 are mounted on the airframe. Each camera device 12 includes an infrared camera (or CCD camera) 24 mounted on the camera head 13.

  In the autonomous control box 15, an image control device 25 that receives video data from the camera 24, an image communication device 26 that transmits image data to the ground station, and data necessary for autonomous control are transmitted and received between the ground station. A data communication device 27, a control board 28 including a microcomputer storing an autonomous control program, a main GPS receiver 29 connected to the main GPS antenna 21, and a sub-GPS connected to the sub-GPS antenna 22. The receiver 30 is accommodated.

  The body 4 includes an image data antenna 19 for sending analog image data to the ground station and control data for sending and receiving digital control data to and from the ground station from the image communication device 26 and the data communication device 27 in the autonomous control box 15, respectively. The antenna 18 is provided on the lower surface side of the main body 2 (FIG. 1) as described above. The direction sensor 20 is connected to the control board 28 in the autonomous control box 15. In the body 4, an attitude sensor 31 composed of a gyro device or the like is provided and connected to a control box 32. The control box 32 drives the five servo motors 33 in data communication with the control board 28 in the autonomous control box 15. The three servo motors 33 control the main rotor to control the movement of the airframe in the front-rear, left-right, and vertical directions together with the servo motor for engine control, and the servo motor for tail rotor control controls the rotation of the airframe.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the ground station.
The ground station 53 that communicates with the unmanned helicopter 1 includes a GPS antenna 34 that receives signals from GPS satellites, a communication antenna 35 that performs data communication with the unmanned helicopter 1, and image data from the unmanned helicopter 1. The three image receiving antennas 36 are installed on the ground.
The ground station 53 includes a data processing unit 37, a monitoring operation unit 38, and a power supply unit 39.

The data processing unit 37 includes a GPS receiver 40, a data communication device 41, an image communication device 42, and a communication board 43 connected to these communication devices 40, 41, 42.

The monitoring operation unit 38 includes a manual controller (remote control pilot machine) 44, a base controller 45 for operating a camera and controlling the aircraft, a backup power source 46, a personal computer 47 connected to the base controller 45, and a personal computer. Monitor 48 and an image monitor 49 connected to the base controller 45 for displaying image data.

  The power supply unit 39 includes a generator 50 and a backup battery 52 connected to the generator 50 via a battery booster 51. The backup battery 52 is connected to the fuselage and supplies a voltage of 12 V when the generator 50 is not operating, such as during a check before flight. During the flight, a voltage of 100 V is supplied from the generator 50 to the data processing unit 37 and the monitoring operation unit 38.

  The image data reflected on the image monitor 49 of the ground station 53 is transmitted to the remote monitoring room 54 via the DV recorder 55 and can be viewed in the remote monitoring room 54.

FIG. 6 is an overall block diagram of the image transmission apparatus according to the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 6, each of the four cameras 101 to 104 is connected to the switching device 105 via cables 101a to 101d. The switching device 105 selects any one of the four cameras 101 and connects it to the stabilizer 106. The stabilizer 106 is connected to the quartering device 107. The remaining three cameras that are not connected to the stabilizer 106 are directly connected to the quadrant 107 through the switching device 105.

The stabilizer 106 removes high-frequency component vibration and noise from the input image data signal of the camera to improve the image quality.
The four-dividing device 107 creates one image signal 108 in response to a command from the four input image data signals (one through the stabilizer) and outputs it. The image signal 108 can divide and display four images from four cameras on one screen. In this case, four images can be displayed on the four-divided screen, or two images can be selected and displayed on the two-divided screen. The quadrant can also display one selected image on the full screen. Further, the quadrant 107 creates overlay character information for displaying, for example, overlaying characters that convey information such as the orientation of the aircraft, the orientation of the camera, the shooting date and time, the weather, and the like on the screen and outputs them together with the image signal. Such overlay character information is transmitted to the ground station together with the image signal, and is displayed together with the image on the ground monitor screen.

  One image signal 108 including the overlay character information output from the quadrant 107 is input to the image communication device 26 (FIG. 4) in the autonomous box 15. The image communication device 26 transmits an image signal to the ground station 53 (FIG. 5) via the image data antenna 19.

  The switching device 105 and the quadrant 107 are connected to the control board 28 in the autonomous box. The control board 28 communicates with the ground station via the steering data antenna 18. The control board 28 drives the switching device 105 according to a command from the ground station and connects the image data signal from the designated camera to the stabilizer 106. In addition, the control board 28 displays, on the screen of the image monitor 49 (FIG. 5) on the ground side, a quadrant or two-part split screen or a full screen on the screen of the quadrant 107 according to a command from the ground station. And a command signal indicating which camera image is to be displayed. This changes the image data of the image signal sent to the ground station. Further, the control board 28 designates character information to be overlaid on the screen in response to a command from the ground station.

  The switching device 105 to which the cables from the four cameras are connected is accommodated in the autonomous box 15, for example. The stabilizer 106 and the quartering device 107 are mounted in the autonomous box 15 or the body 4.

  The present invention is applicable to an unmanned helicopter equipped with a plurality of cameras. Note that the present invention can also be applied when only one camera is installed.

The side view of the unmanned helicopter concerning the present invention. The top view of the unmanned helicopter of FIG. The front view of the unmanned helicopter of FIG. The block block diagram of the unmanned helicopter concerning this invention. The block block diagram of a ground station. 1 is a block diagram of an image transmission apparatus according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: Unmanned helicopter, 2: Main body, 3: Tail body, 4: Airframe, 5: Main rotor, 6: Tail rotor, 7: Radiator, 8: Support leg, 9: Skid, 10: Control panel, 11: Display Light: 12: Camera device, 13: Head, 14: Window, 15: Autonomous control box, 16: Antenna support frame, 17: Stay, 18: Steering data antenna, 19: Image data antenna, 20: Azimuth angle sensor, 21: Main GPS antenna, 22: Sub GPS antenna, 23: Remote control receiving antenna, 24: Camera, 25: Image control device, 26: Image communication device, 27: Data communication device, 28: Control board, 29: Main GPS reception 30: Sub GPS receiver, 31: Attitude angle sensor, 32: Control box, 33: Servo motor, 34: GPS antenna, 5: Communication antenna, 36: Image receiving antenna, 37: Data processing unit, 38: Monitoring operation unit, 39: Power supply unit, 40: GPS receiver, 41: Data communication device, 42: Image communication device, 43: Communication board 44: Remote controller 45: Base controller 46: Backup power supply 47: Personal computer 48: Monitor 49: Image monitor 50: Generator 51: Battery booster 52: Backup battery 53: Ground station 54: Remote monitoring room, 55: DV recorder, 56: Stay support frame, 57: Cushion material, 58, 59: Bracket, 101-104: Camera, 101a-101d: Cable, 105: Switching device, 106: Stabilizer, 107 : Quadrant device, 108: Image signal.

Claims (2)

A switching device that can be connected to multiple cameras on an unmanned helicopter aircraft that can be maneuvered by commands from the ground side,
A stabilizer connected to any one of the cameras via the switching device for improving the image quality of the one camera;
An image dividing device for combining the image signal of the camera passed through the stabilizer and the image signal of the remaining camera and outputting one image signal;
An image communication device for transmitting one image signal output through the image dividing device to the ground side,
An image transmission device for an unmanned helicopter, wherein the switching device is operated from the ground side and a camera connected to the stabilizer is selected and switched. 2. The image transmission device for an unmanned helicopter according to claim 1, wherein image signals from all cameras connected to the switching device can be input to the image dividing device without passing through the stabilizer.

Images