AU2019101130A4 - An unmanned aerial vehicle for short distance delivery - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a civilian unmanned aerial vehicle for short-range transportation of goods. The UAV mainly includes the following equipment: processor, laser sensor, ultrasonic sensor, camera, mechanical claw, network module, touch screen, etc. The UVA has a GPS module and processor(2) inside. The UVA has propellers(1) at each end. The lower end of the UAV is equipped with a mechanical clamp(5) and four supporting legs(6). A "detected ball"(3) is mounted on one side of the UAV. The upper end of the UAV is equipped with a touch screen(4). After receiving the instruction to transport the goods, the UAV will take off and fly to the side of the goods to scan the qr code on the packaging of the goods and obtain the detailed information of the goods and orders. 1 Figure 1 1

Description

Figure 1

TITLE

An unmanned aerial vehicle for short distance delivery

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention is in the field of short-distance transportation and used for

city express service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are known as aerial robot, which is a

power-driven, unmanned, reusable aircraft. It is mainly composed of

UAV carrier, ground station equipment (radio control, mission control,

launch recovery and other landing equipment) and payload. We can

divide UAVS into different types basing in their structure, flight time,

flight distance and mission nature. In terms of overall structure, UAV can

be divided into fixed wing, vertical rotor, inclined rotor and rotor/fixed

wing. And according to the radius of activity and endurance, UAV can be

roughly divided into four categories: short range, medium range and

long range. Finally, according to the purpose, we can divide the UAV into

military and civilian categories. Civilian UAVS are widely used,

including aerial photography, agriculture, plant protection, photograph,

express delivery, disaster relief, observation of wild animals, monitoring

of infectious diseases, mapping, news reports, power inspection, disaster

relief, film and television filming, etc.

Our invention is the use of UAVS in city express. First of all, express

delivery has a great impact on some enterprises or vendors who need

express services in the same city. A more efficient, convenient and safe

way of express delivery can strongly increase the competitiveness of their

enterprises and vendors, enabling them to win in the fierce market

competition. The application of UAVS in express delivery can greatly

save transportation costs and improve transportation efficiency, which can

well meet the needs of enterprises or vendors for express delivery in the

same city. Therefore, we believe that the use of UAVS for express

delivery will become the mainstream way of express delivery in the city

in the future.

But the usual pattern now is for the shippers to place the cargo in a

special vehicle, such as a trawl under the UAV, and then fly it to the

unloading point. When the UAV arrives at the unloading site, workers

operate the UAV to land on the ground, and removing the cargo.In the

whole process, UAV is only played for short in the air transport

advantages, in the beginning and end of the transportation need personnel

for unloading and loading , still take up many human. In addition, in

order to avoid damaging UAV or making work injuries caused by the

wrong operation in the process of unloading and loading, workers often

need to have certain knowledge and experience. On the other hand, the

amount of goods that need to be transported greatly affects the time that workers spend to load and unload. In some situation, a large number of goods are required to be deal with in a short period of time, during the holidays, for example, UAV will need to wait for a long time until shippers finish their work, even they need to queue for being loaded and unloaded. This is bound to make the overall transport efficiency greatly affected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a new civilian UAV, whose body is cruciform.

Processors, GPS, batteries and other devices are set inside the UAV body.

Each end of the UAV body is provided with circular protective bars, in

which a motor is installed in the heart. The lower end of the motor is

connected with the UAV body, and the upper end of the motor is

equipped with a propeller. The lower end of the UAV body is evenly

arranged with four supporting legs, which are connected with the

supporting feet. A mechanical grabber is arranged in the middle of the

lower end face of the UAV body. The UAV body is equipped with a

"detected ball" on the side, and the inside is equipped with laser sensor,

camera, ultrasonic sensor and other devices.

The UAV is activated after receiving the boot command, and the laser

sensor determines the height from the ground so that it can take off and

hover at a certain height steadily. The UAV can fly to the goods through indoor positioning, scan the qr code on the package with a camera to get information about the goods, grab the goods with mechanical grabbers and start to transport the goods. The UAV 's processor matches the destination address with an electronic map to create a flight path and fly along it. GPS is used to locate and navigate during flight, and obstacles are detected and avoided by ultrasonic wave. After reaching the air above the designated drop point, the laser sensor measures the height from the ground to enable the UAV to hover steadily at the specified height, release the mechanical grabber and drop the goods.

This UAV can achieve the hover function. First, the UAV needs to

measure its height from the ground. The laser sensor at the lower end of

the UAV can emit laser signals to the ground and send signals to the

processor at the same time. When it receives signals reflected from the

ground, it also sends a signal to the processor. The processor will

calculate the height of the ground based on the time difference between

receiving the signal. After the UAV 's processor acquires the appropriate

hover altitude, the UAV speeds up or down and calculates the current

altitude from the laser transmitter and receiver. When the UAV moves to

a certain distance from the target height, it begins to slow down. When it

reaches the target height, PID algorithm will be used to control the

propeller speed and make the UAV hover at the corresponding height.

The UAV uses the global positioning system (GPS) for flight navigation,

enabling the aircraft to fly along optimal routes and transport cargo.

During the flight, the UAV uses various sensors and GPS navigation

system to obtain real-time information such as the flight direction,

position and speed of the UAV, and send these information to the

processor. After the calculation and deduction of parameters by the

processor, the UAV will control the rotation speed of each propeller

through the autopilot, and adjust the attitude and channel of the UAV in

time to make the UAV fly in accordance with the prescribed route.

The UAV is equipped with networking equipment. The camera scans the

qr code or bar code on the packaging of the goods, and the UAV obtains

the details of the goods and orders in the cloud through the built-in

software, and matches the information of the transportation destination

and location with the map to calculate the optimal transportation route

and generate the route.

The center of the lower end face of this UAV is equipped with a

mechanical grabber. After grasping the handle on the package, the

mechanical grabber determines whether it has grasped the goods through

the pressure sensor. After capturing the cargo, the legs of the UAV will be

lowered and secured to prevent the cargo from leaving the UAV in transit.

Upon reaching the destination and landing at a certain altitude, the UAV retract the leg and release the mechanical grabber to drop the cargo.

Ultrasonic sensors are installed on the side of the flight direction of the

UAV. During the flight, if the ultrasonic sensor detects an obstacle ahead,

it will slow down and make a lateral roll to avoid the obstacle. After

dodging, the processor will re-plan the flight path and fly along the new

route according to the positioning information provided by the GPS.

The upper end of the UAV is equipped with a touch screen, which can

display the current working status, GPS positioning, power and other

information of the UAV. The relevant staff can directly control the UAV

through the touch screen, including starting up, shutting down, landing

and modifying the order of goods. The device is designed to allow

workers to control the UAV from a touch screen if it is not under external

control in special circumstances.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended drawings are only for the purpose of description and

explanation but not for limitation, wherein:

Fig.1 is an overall view of the present invention.

Figs.2 is a drawing of the mechanical structure of the present invention.

Figs.3 is a drawing of the mechanical structure of "detected ball"

mounted on the side of the present invention.

Fig.4 is a block diagram showing the major components and their

relations, according to the present invention.

Fig.5 is a schematic diagram of laser ranging.

Fig.6 is a schematic diagram of ultrasonic positioning.

Fig.7 is a schematic diagram of GPS.

Fig.8 is a structure drawing of mechanical grabber.

Fig.9 is is a front view of mechanical grabber.

Figs.10 is a schematic diagram of supporting rod.

Fig.11 is a picture illustrating the position of the support rod when the

UAV is on the ground.

Fig.12 is a picture illustrating the position of the support rod when the

UAV is flying without cargo.

Fig.13 is a picture illustrating the position of the support rod when the

UAV is flying with cargo.

Fig.14 is a flow chart showing the working process of controlling flight

altitude, according to the present invention.

Fig.15 is a flow chart showing the working process of using GPS for

navigation, according to the present invention.

Fig.16 is a flow chart showing the working process of using ultrasonic sensors to detect and avoiding obstacles, according to the present invention.

Fig.17 is a flow chart showing the working process of grabbing cargo by

using mechanical grabber, according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to Figs.2, 1 is one of the quad-rotor wings; 2 is the fuselage; 3

is the detected ball; 4 is the interactive tablet; 5 is the mechanical grabber;

5.1 is the clamps; 5.2 is the telescopic rod; 6 is the fixed rod.

Referring to Figs.3, 1 is the protect shell; 2 is the support platform; 3 is

the webcam; 4 is the ultrasonic detected module; 5 is the laser ranging

module; 6 is the main control chip; 7 is the electric circuit.

The overall relations of the major components are shown in Fig.4.The

probe board and motion board are connected, which allows them to

transmit information to each other. The probe board is installed inside the

"detected ball" and connected to laser sensors, ultrasonic sensors and

webcam, which allow the probe board to receive its own height, distance

from obstacle to itself and image information took by the webcam. The

motion board is attached to the fuselage of the UAV and connected to the

motors that control the propeller mechanical clamp, supporting posts,

propeller and network modules, which allow the motion motherboard to

control the UAV's movements and use GPS to navigate, receive and send information over the network(as show in the figure 4).

In order to make the UAV hover at a certain height automatically and

without manual adjustment, we install a laser sensor on the lower end

face of the UAV body and set the height control system in the processor.

This allows the UAV to fly automatically to the right height and grab the

cargo with simple mechanical grabbers, and to drop the cargo to a safe

height without breaking it. The laser sensor can measure the altitude of

UAV from the ground in real time. The altitude control system can

control the altitude of UAV in real time and use PID algorithm to make

the UAV hover at a certain height. The built-in light source of the laser

sensor continuously emits laser to the ground, and the laser is reflected by

the ground and received by the sensor. Among them, the laser sensor

modulates the light intensity of the emitted light wave with a modulated

signal, so that the emitted laser light intensity and the received laser light

intensity produce phase difference (as shown in the figure 5 ), and

indirectly by phase difference measurement time lag between transmitting

and receiving laser, again through the following formula: 2 L = # *(c*T) /

2 PI measure the height of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the

ground. In the height control system, the processor input the information

from the laser sensor into the PID control algorithm and calculated the

corresponding UAV propeller speed, and then adjust the power of the

motor to make the propeller speed close to the value obtained by the PID control algorithm, so as to control the flight height of the UAV (as shown in the figure 14 ).

When the UAV flies over the city, it is easy for the UAV to hit the

buildings due to the different height of buildings in the city, and the

difference of the height of buildings is more than 10 meters. Therefore,

the flying height of the UAV is stipulated to be more than 30 meters.

Therefore, the UAV only needs to consider avoiding buildings that are too

high when creating a flight path. In most cases, it can fly directly to the

destination in a straight line. Unmanned aircraft in flight will use GPS

for navigation, through multiple satellites and UAV signals between

sending and receiving and to calculate the distance between them that

UAV position in the city (as shown in the figure 6), through the moment

before and after the position of the UAV than can draw their own speed,

direction and at the same time, record its movement. As a result, the UAV

can use GPS to adjust its flight direction in time or to recreate a

predetermined flight path if it deviates significantly from its original

course. (as shown in the figure 15)

The UAV can detect obstacles through ultrasonic sensors while flying (as

shown in the figure7). When the distance from the obstacle is more than

5m, the UAV still follows the original route of GPS. When the distance

from the obstacle is less than 5m, the UAV will control the propeller speed to swing from side to side and pan for a certain distance, and avoid the obstacle before hitting it. When the obstacle is successfully avoided, the processor replans the route according to the positioning information provided by the GPS, and the UAV follows the route at the specified speed (as shown in the figure6).

The mechanical grabber of this UAV is composed of two pairs of clamps,

each pair of clamps has grooves and bumps that match each other (the

grooves are lcm apart from the bumps) (as shown in the figure 8), which

is intended to facilitate the clamps to clip the cargo handle, and can grip

the cargo firmly in the aerial transport, reducing the accidents of cargo

falling in the process of transport. Two pairs of clamps are connected to

the telescopic rod by the movable rod and fixed on the fixed rod outside

the telescopic rod ((as shown in the figure 9). The tail of the telescopic

rod is fixed on one side of a gear, which can be driven by a motor. The

specific performance is that when the motor operates, the part of the gear

connected with telescopic rod drops, driving the telescopic rod to drop,

thus the clip opens; The part connected with the telescopic rod on the

gear rises and drives the telescopic rod up, thus tightening the clamp.

When necessary, the gear can be stuck so that the clamp of the

mechanical grabber cannot move.

There are four groups of supporting legs of this UAV, and each group is composed of three parts (a large supporting rod with inner groove, a medium supporting rod and a small supporting rod). The three supporting rods are connected by movable shafts, and each shaft is attached with a small steering engine (which can rotate 0~180 ) (as shown in the figure

10). The UAV operates in three main modes: in the first mode, the UAV

does not fly and lands on the ground (the "ground" is flat). The

supporting rods A forms a 450 angle with the ground and its lower end

faces the outside of the UAV; the supporting rods B form a certain

inclination angle with the ground; and the supporting rods C sticks to the

ground (as shown in the figure 11). In the second mode, UAV flies

without cargo. The supporting rod C is parallel to the supporting rod B,

and the two rods are included in the supporting rod A together, and the

supporting rods A is included in the groove of the UAV shell (as shown in

the figure 12). In the third mode, UAV flies with cargo. The supporting

rod is gathered towards the center of the UAV to form A shape similar to

the "cage", where the supporting rods C forms the bottom of the "cage",

and the supporting rods B and the supporting rods A form the cage body

of the "cage" (as shown in the figure 13).

The UAV in identifying and fetching goods, is located in the unmanned

aerial vehicle (UAV) in front of an external camera scan qr code and

obtain goods information, after scanning the qr code, the UAV will fly to

the upper part of the goods, using its bottom to install the laser sensor measures the distance of UAV with the goods in the flight to specified height when loosen the mechanical paw, and decreased after a short distance to tighten mechanical grabbers to grab the handle (the outer packing of the goods is designed to be installed with the handle). After capturing the cargo, the UAV lowers its support legs to form a "cage" shape and wraps around the cargo to prevent it from falling during transit

(as shown in the figure17). UAV mechanical grabber when equipped with

a pressure sensor, after the clip tightening, UAV will slightly increases the

rotational speed of propeller, the aircraft rises, because of the weight of

goods, machinery in pressure sensor can feel pressure changes, when the

return value of the pressure sensor arrived at a certain critical value, the

UAV built-in system will determine success picking up the goods.

EXAMPLE A

This UAV can install indoor positioning system and wireless charging

module to realize automatic working mode. First of all, the UAV takes off

in the room after receiving the starting order, and uses the laser sensor

and PID height control system to hover at a certain height and retract the

supporting legs, and then uses the indoor positioning system to fly to the

cargo storage area. Have a goods need to be transport, no chance to use

the camera scans the qr code on the outer packing of the goods, goods

itself and the order of detailed information (considering the only city with a large number of goods transport demand will use the UAV, goods that there will always be here waiting for transportation, so the UAV is almost always in working state). UAV in order to get the goods need to be transported to the site, the site info match the electronic maps, and automatically calculate the route (UAV flight level can be more than most of the buildings on the ground, so the course only need to avoid some high buildings, in most cases, a predetermined route is a straight line.).

After scanning the qr code, UAV flight to the upper part of the goods,

using its bottom to install the laser sensor measures the distance of UAV

with the goods in the flight to specified height when loosen the

mechanical paw, and decreased after a short distance to tighten

mechanical grabbers to grab the handle (the outer packing of the goods is

designed to be installed with the handle). The mechanical grabber of the

UAV is equipped with a pressure sensor. If the pressure measured by the

pressure sensor changes during the rising process after grasping the goods,

the mechanical grabber will seize the goods, otherwise it will seize the

goods again. After capturing the cargo, the UAV lowers its support legs to

form a "cage" shape and wraps around the cargo to prevent it from falling

during transit. After capturing the cargo, the UAV will fly out of the room

to the outside, rise more than 30 meters above the ground, and begin to

transport the cargo along the calculated flight route according to the

navigation of the GPS. During the flight, turn off the laser sensor, and the ultrasonic sensor will conduct real-time detection. If the obstacle in the flight direction is detected to be less than or equal to 5 meters from the

UAV, the UAV will pan to the left or right for a certain distance, and

avoid the obstacle before hitting it. When the obstacle is successfully

avoided, the processor redirects the flight path based on the positioning

information provided by the GPS, and the UAV continues to fly along the

new route. When it arrives at its destination, the UAV will use GPS

information to determine whether it has actually reached the destination.

If the UAV receives an order that requires the goods to be delivered

directly to the recipient, the UAV sends a notification message to the

recipient's phone upon arrival at the destination. After confirm the

delivery of the recipient on the phone to send information, UAV using

laser sensor and the height of the PID control system will be able to slow

down to plane, at the same time will tend to support the legs from the

collapsed state to support the status of the pressure sensor in mechanical

grabber to confirm the goods are no longer adding to pressure on the

mechanical paw (the goods completely on the ground), after the UAV will

loosen the mechanical paw on the goods. The processor then calculates

the return route, along which the UAV will return. If the UAV receives an

order for goods that requires it to be delivered to a centralized depot, the

UAV will descend to a certain height and fly indoors and place the goods

in a designated location through the interior. While the UAV is in action, it sends orders, GPS locations and electricity to an associated computer over the network in real time. In cargo station, using the UAV wireless charging device can be placed in UAV with low power or electricity can't support a transport tasks, when using unmanned aircraft can fly through the indoor positioning system to wireless charging equipment above, using laser sensor and the height of the PID control system can be stable landing charge on wireless charging equipment. According to the above description, this UAV has completed a complete automatic cargo transportation task and can realize the function of automatic charging.

Besides, it can also monitor the status of the UAV remotely by computer,

so it can achieve the goal of automatic and uninterrupted cargo

transportation 24 hours a day.

Claims (1)

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle for short distance delivery,

which is designed to automate the transportation of goods

between two locations; wherein the UAV can be connected

to a network and is fitted with processors, sensors and

mechanical claws; it can autonomously adjust its flight

altitude; automatically search for and grab goods indoors;

automatically generate a navigation route and fly along the

route; avoid obstacles automatically; UAV can receive

their own positioning information, orders for goods and

information in orders through the network; and it can send

information about its location, speed and power to

computers that monitor the drone remotely.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Network module 2019101130

webcam

probe board motion board

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 14

Wait for 1s

Figure 15

Wait for0.5s

Wait for 1s

Figure 16

Figure 17