JP7038421B2 - Flying object - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an air vehicle and relates to an air vehicle having a cylindrical main body portion.

In recent years, attempts have been made to deliver packages using flying objects (hereinafter collectively referred to as "flying objects") such as drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Patent Document 1 discloses a delivery system using an air vehicle (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The delivery system forms a shipping list for delivering the cargo to be delivered to the delivery destination autonomously by the flying object (drone).

U.S. Patent Publication 2015-01200 94 A1

On the other hand, in recent years, the needs for indoor flying objects have been increasing. However, the flying object of Patent Document 1 is not suitable for indoor use. In addition, when operating such an aircraft, a controller (proportional, etc.) is often used, but it is not realistic when used indoors, and operation requires experience and familiarity. , It is difficult to operate intuitively.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an air vehicle that can be easily operated and flown indoors.

According to the present invention
A cylindrical main body having an outer peripheral portion and an inner peripheral portion,
A lift generating portion provided inside the main body portion for generating at least an air flow from the upper side to the lower side of the main body portion.
A flap portion that is displaceably provided at the bottom of the main body portion and
By displacing the flap portion and changing the direction of the air flow, a flying object including a control unit for controlling the moving direction can be obtained.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an air vehicle that can be easily operated and flown indoors.

It is a perspective view which looked at the flying body by embodiment of this invention from the upper surface. It is a perspective view which looked at the flying body by embodiment of this invention from the upper surface. It is a top view of the flying object according to the embodiment of this invention. It is a bottom view of the flying object according to the embodiment of this invention. It is a side sectional view of the flying object according to embodiment of this invention. It is another side sectional view of the flying object according to the embodiment of this invention. It is a side sectional view which shows the flight state of the flying object by embodiment of this invention. It is a side sectional view which shows the flight state of the flying object by embodiment of this invention. It is a side sectional view showing the flight state of the flying object according to another embodiment of this invention. It is a side sectional view showing the flight state of the flying object according to another embodiment of this invention.

The contents of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in a list. The flying object according to the embodiment of the present invention has the following configurations.
[Item 1]
A cylindrical main body having an outer peripheral portion and an inner peripheral portion,
A lift generating portion provided inside the main body portion for generating at least an air flow from the upper side to the lower side of the main body portion.
A flap portion that is displaceably provided at the bottom of the main body portion and
An air vehicle including a control unit that controls a moving direction by displacing the flap portion and changing the direction of the air flow.
[Item 2]
The flying object according to claim 1.
An omnidirectional camera is provided at least above or below the main body.
Flying body.
[Item 3]
The flying object according to claim 2.
The spherical camera is provided in the center or substantially center of the upper part of the main body and in the center or substantially center of the lower part.
Flying body.
[Item 4]
The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
A display unit for providing information is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the main body portion.
Flying body.
[Item 5]
The flying object according to claim 4.
The display unit is an organic EL display provided on substantially the entire surface of the outer peripheral portion.
Flying body.
[Item 6]
The flying object according to claim 4 or 5.
It also has an image acquisition unit,
The control unit manages a specific gesture in association with a specific operation, displays information about one gesture on the display unit, and the user's behavior acquired by the image acquisition unit is the one gesture. If it is determined to be the same as, the flying object is controlled to perform the specific operation.
Flying body.
[Item 7]
The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
One or more depth sensors are provided on the outer peripheral portion.
Flying body.
[Item 8]
The flying object according to claim 7.
The depth sensors are provided at intervals of 120 degrees when the outer circumference is viewed from information.
Flying body.
[Item 9]
The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
The upper surface and the lower surface of the main body are formed in a mesh shape.
Flying body.

<Details of the embodiment>
Hereinafter, the flying object according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Structure of flying object>
FIG. 1 is a top view of the flying object 10 according to the present embodiment. As shown, the flying object 10 has a main body 100, a flap 110, and an omnidirectional camera 150T (150B).

The above-mentioned air vehicle is called a drone (Drone), a multicopter (Multicopter), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an RPS (remote piloted aircraft systems), or a UAS (Unmance). There are times.

The main body 100 has a cylindrical shape having an outer peripheral portion and an inner peripheral portion. As shown in the figure, the flying object 10 is configured to open in the vertical direction (Z direction) in the initial state (initial position: landing state).

The outer peripheral portion in the present embodiment is a side surface portion 102 capable of displaying a predetermined upper portion as a display. For the side surface portion 102, for example, an organic EL display or the like can be used, but the present invention is not limited to this.

On the side surface portion 102, for example, the state of the flying object 10, the display of contents such as moving images, and the real-time display of still images or moving images captured by the spherical cameras 150T and 150B can be displayed. Further, in particular, the traveling direction of the flying object 10 such as up / down / left / right / front / back, which is difficult to grasp due to the cylindrical shape, may be displayed. In this case, for example, a display indicating the traveling direction (color, blinking display, etc.) or a display indicating left and right may be displayed.

As is well shown in FIG. 5, the flying object 10 according to the present embodiment is provided inside the main body 100, and is a propeller (lift generating portion) for generating at least an air flow from the upper side to the lower side of the main body 100. Has 120. In the present embodiment, the propeller 120 uses a contra-rotating propeller.

In the flying object 10 according to the present embodiment, the rotation speed is reduced by increasing the diameter of the propeller 120, and as a result, the sound due to the rotation of the propeller 120 can be reduced.

Further, by forming the main body 100 into a cylindrical shape, the airflow generated from the tip of the propeller can be rectified downward (rear in the traveling direction), and energy efficiency can be improved and noise can be suppressed at the same time.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the upper part 101 and the lower part 103 of the main body 100 have a mesh structure, and the airflow by the propeller 120 is efficiently discharged.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, a flap 110 is provided at the lower end of the side surface portion 102. The flaps 110 are provided at intervals of 120 degrees. The flap 110 is provided so as to be displaceable toward the inside and outside (that is, in the normal direction of the side surface 102). The control unit (not shown) of the air vehicle 10 controls the movement direction by displacing the flap unit 110 to change the direction of the air flow. The direction of movement will be described later.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, spherical cameras 150T and 150B are provided at the centers of the upper 101 and the lower 103 of the main body 100.

A depth sensor 130 is provided on the side surface portion 102. Depth sensors 130 are provided at intervals of 120 degrees with respect to the side surface 102.

In the present embodiment, the spherical cameras 150T and 150B acquire the gesture of the user and perform the operation associated with the gesture. At this time, information on whether or not the gesture is correctly recognized and the operation performed when the gesture is correctly recognized is displayed on the display on the side surface 102.

Subsequently, the flight state will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. As shown, when the flap portion 110 is tilted, the flying object 10 rotates about the center of gravity G in the XZ plane. At this time, by returning the flap portion 110 to the original direction when the flying object 10 is tilted to the state shown in FIG. 7, a force having a component in the horizontal direction from the resultant force with the gravity g and the lift (thrust) P. F will work on the flying object 10.

In the structure shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a force in the yaw direction (rotational direction with the Z axis as the axis of rotation) cannot be generated only by the flap portion 120. In this case, the counter-rotating propeller 120 can be rotated in the desired yaw direction by changing the vertical rotation speed (by making the propeller 120 different).

By providing three flap portions 110, it is possible to move in all directions by the resultant force.

Subsequently, a modified example of the flap portion 110 will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. As shown, one of the three flap portions 110 according to the present embodiment (of which two flap portions 110 are not shown) is provided in the center of the lower part of the flying object 10. Also in this case, when the flap portion 110 is tilted, the flying object 10 rotates in the XZ plane about the center of gravity G. At this time, by returning the flap portion 110 to the original direction when the flying object 10 is tilted to the state shown in FIG. 9, it is horizontal from the resultant force with the gravity g and the lift (thrust) P as in FIG. A force F having a component in the direction acts on the flying object 10.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, two of the three flap portions 110 according to the present embodiment (of which one flap portion 110 is not shown) are located at the lower part of the flying object 10 in the y direction. They are arranged adjacent to each other along. The flying object 10 rotates (in the yaw direction) in the XY plane by alternately tilting the front flap portion 110f and the rear flap portion 110b in the y direction. In this case, the propeller 120 may be one (that is, it does not have to be a counter-rotating propeller).

In any of the above cases, if there are at least three flap portions 110, the flying object 10 can move in all directions.

The above-mentioned rotary wing aircraft mainly refers to those that move in the air, but also includes rotary wing aircraft having a function that combines applications such as land use and underwater use.

The rotorcraft described above may be composed of hardware such as a flight controller, a memory, a transmission / reception unit, a motor, an ESC, a propeller, a battery, and various sensors.

The flight controller can have one or more processors such as a programmable processor (eg, central processing unit (CPU)).

The flight controller has a memory (not shown) and can access the memory. The memory stores the logic, code, and / or program instructions that the flight controller can execute to perform one or more steps.

The memory may include, for example, a separable medium such as an SD card or random access memory (RAM) or an external storage device. The data acquired from the cameras and sensors may be directly transmitted and stored in the memory. For example, still image / moving image data taken by a camera or the like is recorded in the built-in memory or an external memory.

The flight controller includes a control module configured to control the state of the rotorcraft. For example, the control module adjusts the spatial arrangement, velocity, and / or acceleration of a rotorcraft with 6 degrees of freedom (translation x, y and z, and rotational motion θ _x , θ _y and θ _z ). Controls the propulsion mechanism (motor, etc.) of the rotorcraft. The control module can control one or more of the states of the mounting unit and the sensors.

The flight controller is capable of communicating with a transmitter / receiver configured to transmit and / or receive data from one or more external devices (eg, terminals, display devices, or other remote controls). The transceiver can use any suitable communication means such as wired communication or wireless communication.

For example, the transmitter / receiver uses one or more of a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), infrared, wireless, WiFi, point-to-point (P2P) network, telecommunications network, cloud communication, and the like. be able to.

The transmitter / receiver can transmit and / or receive one or more of data acquired by sensors, processing results generated by a flight controller, predetermined control data, user commands from a terminal or a remote controller, and the like. ..

The sensors according to the present embodiment include inertial sensors (acceleration sensors, gyro sensors), GPS sensors, proximity sensors (eg, riders), vision / image sensors (eg, cameras) and other physical sensors, depending on the application. Can include. Further, a chemical sensor such as an ion sensor, a bioaffinity sensor, a gas sensor, another electrochemical sensor, or an optical sensor may be included.

The embodiments described above are merely examples for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the interpretation of the present invention. It goes without saying that the present invention can be modified and improved without departing from the spirit thereof, and the present invention includes its equivalents.

10, 10', 10'' Flying object 100 Main body 101 Upper 102 Side 103 Lower 110 Flap 120 Propeller 150T, 150B Spherical camera

Claims (9)

A main body having an outer peripheral portion and an inner peripheral portion,
A lift generating portion provided inside the main body portion for generating at least an air flow from the upper side to the lower side of the main body portion.
A flap portion provided at the lower end of the side surface of the main body portion so as to be displaceable in the normal direction of the side surface and support the main body portion in a landing state, and a flap portion.
An air vehicle including a control unit that controls the displacement of the flap unit to change the direction of the air flow. The flying object according to claim 1.
An omnidirectional camera is provided at least above or below the main body.
Flying body. The flying object according to claim 2.
The spherical camera is provided in the center or substantially center of the upper part of the main body and in the center or substantially center of the lower part.
Flying body. The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
A display portion whose longitudinal direction is along the circumferential direction is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the main body portion.
Flying body. The flying object according to claim 4.
The display unit is an organic EL display provided on substantially the entire surface of the outer peripheral portion.
Flying body. The flying object according to claim 4 or 5.
It also has an image acquisition unit,
The control unit manages a specific gesture in association with a specific operation, displays information about one gesture on the display unit, and the user's behavior acquired by the image acquisition unit is the one gesture. If it is determined to be the same as, the flying object is controlled to perform the specific operation.
Flying body. The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
One or more depth sensors are provided on the outer peripheral portion.
Flying body. The flying object according to claim 7.
The depth sensors are provided at intervals of 120 degrees when the outer peripheral portion is viewed from above.
Flying body. The flying object according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
The upper surface and the lower surface of the main body are formed in a mesh shape.
Flying body.

Images