WO2019109622A1

WO2019109622A1 - Optimizing propeller direction in drone design using onboard network of sensors

Info

Publication number: WO2019109622A1
Application number: PCT/CN2018/091592
Authority: WO
Inventors: Seng Fook LEE
Original assignee: Guangdong Kang Yun Technologies Limited
Priority date: 2017-12-06
Filing date: 2018-06-15
Publication date: 2019-06-13
Also published as: CN108341050A

Abstract

A drone (100) includes one or more rotatable propellers (104a, 104b) and one or more fixed propellers (104c, 104d, 104e) powered by one or more battery powered electric motors for providing upward and forward thrust to the drone (100) during upward and forward movement of the drone (100) respectively. The drone (100) includes a set of sensors, so as to align the rotatable propellers (104a, 104b) in the direction of the movement of the drone (100) based on sensed data.

Description

OPTIMIZING PROPELLER DIRECTION IN DRONE DESIGN USING ONBOARD NETWORK OF SENSORS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to drone based systems, and more specifically to optimizing propeller direction in drone design using an onboard network of sensors.

BACKGROUND

A drone corresponds to a flying object of a shape such as a plane or a helicopter flying by a control signal of a radio wave while not carrying a human. They may carry various items such as cameras, sensors, and communications equipment. Drones can vary greatly in terms of size and complexity. Typically, a drone includes a propulsion system, a power source for powering the propulsion system, a steering mechanism, a controller including a remote communication system, and a frame maintaining all other components.

The small-sized drones include multiple propellers or rotors to reduce an overall footprint of the drone while increasing lift, each propeller provided with an electric motor. Examples of rotors include, but are not limited to banana-type twin-rotors, counter-rotating coaxial rotors, quadcopter and quadrotors.

However, existing drones are not able to achieve very high flying heights and also not able to stay in air for a long time, because of limited battery available. Small drones typically employ battery-powered electric motors, and it is not possible to increase the size of battery as it may affect the overall weight of the drone.

In light of the above, a need exists for increasing the flying time of a drone without increasing the size of the battery.

SUMMARY

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a drone that includes a set of rotatable and fixed propellers powered by one or more battery powered electric motor for providing upward/forward thrust to the drone during upward/forward movement of the drone respectively.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, the rotatable propellers are rotatable from 0-90 degrees according to the direction of movement of the drone.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the rotatable propellers are disposed in a plane parallel to the wings of the drone, during the upward movement of the drone, they provide an upward thrust to the drone, facilitating the drone to lift higher and remain in the air for a longer duration, thereby increasing the flying time of the drone, and optimizing the battery usage.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the first and second rotatable propellers and are in a plane perpendicular to the wings during the forward movement of the drone, they provide a forward thrust to the drone, facilitating the drone to remain in the air for a longer duration, thereby increasing the flying time of the drone, and optimizing the battery usage.

It will be appreciated that features of the present disclosure are susceptible to being combined in various combinations without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form only in order to avoid obscuring the invention.

The present invention, in accordance with one or more various embodiments, is described in detail with reference to the following figures. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and merely depict exemplary embodiments of the invention. These drawings are provided to facilitate the reader’s understanding of the invention and shall not be considered limiting of the breadth, scope, or applicability of the invention. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration these drawings are not necessarily made to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates a drone moving in an upward direction, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.2 illustrates a drone moving in a forward direction, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a camera of the drone, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearance of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

Moreover, although the following description contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, anyone skilled in the art will appreciate that many variations and/or alterations to said details are within the scope of the present invention. Similarly, although many of the features of the present invention are described in terms of each other, or in conjunction with each other, one skilled in the art will appreciate that many of these features can be provided independently of other features. Accordingly, this description of the invention is set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a drone 100 moving in an upward direction, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The drone 100 is a shape of an aircraft with wings 102, first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b, and first, second and third fixed propellers 104c, 104d (not shown) and 104e (hereinafter collectively referred to as propellers 104). It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that further propellers 104 may be added to the drone 100, without limiting the scope of the disclosure.

The propellers 104 may be powered by one or more battery powered electric motors (not shown) and provide necessary upward/forward thrust to the drone 100 during upward/forward movement of the drone 100 respectively.

In an embodiment, the drone 100 may be remotely controlled by a remote control device using RF technology. In another embodiment, the drone 100 includes a processor so that it can be remotely controlled using an application executing on a smart phone of the user.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the first rotatable propeller 104a is fixedly attached to a first attachment 108a that is rotatably attached to a front end of a first hanger 110a. Similarly, the second rotatable propeller 104b is fixedly attached to a second attachment 108b that is rotatably attached to a front end of a second hanger 110a. The first and second attachments 108a and 108b are rotatable so as to rotate the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b from 0-90 degrees according to the direction of movement of the drone 100.

As illustrated in FIG.1, during the upward movement of the drone 100, the first and second attachments 108a and 108b may be rotated either manually or automatically so as to set the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b in a plane parallel to the wings 102. When the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b are disposed in a plane parallel to the wings 102 during the upward movement of the drone 100, they provide an upward thrust to the drone 100, facilitating the drone 100 to lift higher and remain in the air for a longer duration, thereby increasing the flying time of the drone 100, and optimizing the battery usage.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the drone 100 includes one or more on-board sensors (not shown) such as wind direction sensor, speed sensor, thermos sensor, drone direction sensor, so as to automatically/manually align the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b in the direction of the movement of the drone 100.

In an embodiment, the drone 100 carries a camera 112 that may be used to do aerial scanning of the outdoor environment, wherein the aerial scanning results in two-dimensional/three dimensional view of the outdoor environment. It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that further cameras, RGB cameras, sensors may be added to the drone 100, without limiting the scope of the disclosure.

FIG.2 illustrates the drone 100 moving in a forward direction, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

During the forward movement of the drone 100, the first and second attachments 108a and 108b may be rotated either manually or automatically so as to set the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b in a plane perpendicular to the wings 102. When the first and second rotatable propellers 104a and 104b are in a plane perpendicular to the wings 102 during the forward movement of the drone 100, they provide a forward thrust to the drone 100, facilitating the drone 100 to remain in the air for a longer duration, thereby increasing the flying time of the drone 100, and optimizing the battery usage.

FIG.3 illustrates an inbuilt camera 114 embedded in the drone 100 for performing an aerial scanning of the outdoor environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

It will be further apparent to a person skilled in the art that the drone 100 may be used for applications other than capturing videos/images, without limiting the scope of the disclosure. For example, the drone 100 may be used for remote sensing applications, delivery applications, commercial aerial surveillance, commercial and motion picture filmmaking, oil, gas and mineral exploration, disaster relief, real estate and construction, and recreational use.

Numerous specific details may be set forth herein to provide a thorough understanding of a number of possible embodiments of a drone incorporating the present disclosure. It will be understood by those skilled in the art, however, that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments. It can be appreciated that the specific structural and functional details disclosed herein may be representative and do not necessarily limit the scope of the embodiments.

Although the invention is described above in terms of various exemplary embodiments and implementations, it should be understood that the various features, aspects and functionality described in one or more of the individual embodiments are not limited in their applicability to the particular embodiment with which they are described, but instead can be applied, alone or in various combinations, to one or more of the other embodiments of the invention, whether or not such embodiments are described and whether or not such features are presented as being a part of a described embodiment. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.

Terms and phrases used in this document, and variations thereof, unless otherwise expressly stated, should be construed as open ended as opposed to limiting. As examples of the foregoing: the term “including” should be read as meaning “including, without limitation” or the like; the term “example” is used to provide exemplary instances of the item in discussion, not an exhaustive or limiting list thereof; the terms “a” or “an” should be read as meaning “at least one,” “one or more” or the like; and adjectives such as “conventional,” “traditional,” “normal,” “standard,” “known” and terms of similar meaning should not be construed as limiting the item described to a given time period or to an item available as of a given time, but instead should be read to encompass conventional, traditional, normal, or standard technologies that may be available or known now or at any time in the future. Likewise, where this document refers to technologies that would be apparent or known to one of ordinary skill in the art, such technologies encompass those apparent or known to the skilled artisan now or at any time in the future.

Claims

A drone, comprising:

a plurality of fixed propellers;

a plurality of rotatable propellers, wherein each rotatable propeller is configured to rotate in a range of 0 to 90 degrees in accordance with a direction of the movement of the drone; and

a set of sensors for aligning the plurality of rotatable propellers in the direction of the movement of the drone based on sensed data.,
The drone as claimed in claim 1, where the drone is remotely controlled by a remote control device using RF technology.
The drone as claimed in claim 1, where the drone includes a processor so that it is remotely controlled using an application executing on a smart phone of a user.
The drone as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the upward movement of the drone, each rotatable propeller may be rotated either manually or automatically so as to set each rotatable propeller parallel to wings of the drone.
The drone as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the forward movement of the drone, each rotatable propeller may be rotated either manually or automatically so as to set each rotatable propeller perpendicular to wings of the drone.
The drone as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a camera embedded therein for performing an aerial scanning of outdoor environment.