Rotorcraft and automatic landing system and method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10392128-B2
Application number	US-201715431079-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2017
Priority date	Oct 27, 2014
Publication date	Aug 27, 2019
Grant date	Aug 27, 2019

Abstract

A rotorcraft and an automatic landing system and method thereof are provided in the present disclosure. The automatic landing system of the rotorcraft includes a controller, a laser emitter, a camera, an electronic governor and a motor configured to drive a propeller of the rotorcraft to rotate. The laser emitter and the camera are both locate in a bottom portion of an airframe of the rotorcraft. The laser emitter has two emission heads, laser beams emitted from the two emission heads respectively are symmetrical about a central axis, the central axis is perpendicular to a horizontal plane of a ground, and an angle between each laser beam and the central axis is an acute angle. Simply with an operation of the laser emitter, the camera and the controller, the flight speed and displacement of the rotorcraft can be controlled to realize automatic landing in the present disclosure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An automatic landing system of a rotorcraft, comprising:
a motor configured to drive a propeller of the rotorcraft to rotate;
an electronic governor communicatively connected with the motor and configured to regulate a rotational speed of the motor;
a laser emitter having a first emission head and a second emission head, wherein the first emission head and the second emission head respectively emit laser beams symmetrically about a central axis of the airframe of the rotorcraft, wherein the central axis is perpendicular to a horizontal plane of the ground at the location of a landing pattern, wherein a predetermined angle is formed between each laser beam and the central axis, and wherein the laser beams emitted from the first emission head and the second emission head respectively create projections on the ground;
a photographic device disposed at a bottom portion of the airframe of the rotorcraft, wherein the photographic device is configured to photograph a landing target image and a distance image of the projections; and
a controller configured to read and analyze the landing target image and the distance image so as to obtain real-time image data, identify a landing target pattern according to the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image, obtain a spatial distance between a current position of the rotorcraft and the landing target pattern according to the predetermined angle and the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image and the distance image, and control the electronic governor according to the spatial distance so as to make the rotorcraft land on the landing target pattern.

2. The automatic landing system according to claim 1 , wherein the spatial distance comprises an elevation of the rotorcraft and a plane coordinate of the rotorcraft with respect to the landing target pattern,
wherein the controller calculates the elevation of the rotorcraft according to the predetermined angle and the real-time image data corresponding to the distance image, and calculates the plane coordinate of the rotorcraft with respect to the landing target pattern according to the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image and the distance image.

3. The automatic landing system according to claim 2 , wherein when the controller identifies the landing target pattern according to the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image, and wherein the controller controls the electronic governor according to the plane coordinate of the rotorcraft with respect to the landing target pattern so as to maintain a current elevation of the rotorcraft while moving the rotorcraft to a position right above the landing target pattern.

4. The automatic landing system according to claim 3 , wherein when the rotorcraft moves to the position right above the landing target pattern, the controller controls the electronic governor according to the current elevation of the rotorcraft so as to make the rotorcraft land on the landing target pattern.

5. The automatic landing method according to claim 4 , wherein the predetermined angle is configured to be an acute angle.

6. The automatic landing system according to claim 3 , wherein the predetermined angle is configured to be an acute angle.

7. The automatic landing system according to claim 2 , wherein the predetermined angle is configured to be an acute angle.

8. The automatic landing system according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined angle is configured to be an acute angle.

9. The automatic landing system according to claim 8 , wherein the laser emitter is configured to be an infrared laser emitter.

10. The automatic landing system according to claim 8 , wherein the motor is configured to be a DC brushless motor.

11. The automatic landing system according to claim 8 , wherein the photographic device is disposed at a central position of the bottom portion of the airframe.

12. The automatic landing system according to claim 1 , wherein the laser emitter is disposed at the bottom portion of the airframe.

13. The automatic landing system according to claim 1 , wherein the first emission head and the second emission head of the laser emitter are disposed to terminal ends of two symmetric arms of the rotorcraft respectively.

14. A rotorcraft, comprising an automatic landing system, wherein the automatic landing system comprises:
a motor configured to drive a propeller of the rotorcraft to rotate;
an electronic governor communicatively connected with the motor and configured to regulate a rotational speed of the motor;
a laser emitter having a first emission head and a second emission head, wherein the first emission head and the second emission head respectively emit laser beams symmetrically about a central axis of the airframe of the rotorcraft, wherein the central axis is perpendicular to a horizontal plane of the ground at the location of a landing pattern, wherein a predetermined angle is formed between each laser beam and the central axis, and wherein the laser beams emitted from the first emission head and the second emission head respectively create projections on the ground;
a photographic device disposed at a bottom portion of the airframe of the rotorcraft, wherein the photographic device is configured to photograph a landing target image and a distance image of the projections; and
a controller configured to read and analyze the landing target image and the distance image so as to obtain real-time image data, identify a landing target pattern according to the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image, obtain a spatial distance between a current position of the rotorcraft and the landing target pattern according to the predetermined angle and the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image and the distance image, and control the electronic governor according to the spatial distance so as to make the rotorcraft land on the landing target pattern.

15. A automatic landing method of a rotorcraft, wherein the rotorcraft includes an automatic landing system of the rotorcraft comprising a motor configured to drive a propeller of the rotorcraft to rotate, an electronic governor communicatively connected with the motor and configured to regulate a rotational speed of the motor, a laser emitter and a photographic device, wherein the photographic device is disposed at a bottom portion of the airframe of the rotorcraft, wherein the laser emitter has a first emission head and a second emission head, wherein the first emission head and the second emission head respectively emit laser beams symmetrically about a central axis of the airframe, wherein the central axis is perpendicular to a horizontal plane of the ground at the location of a landing pattern, wherein a predetermined angle is formed between each laser beam and the central axis, and wherein the laser beams emitted from the first emission head and the second emission head respectively create projections on the ground, wherein the method comprises steps:
photographing a landing target image and a distance image of the projections by means of the photographic device;
reading and analyzing the landing target image and the distance image so as to obtain real-time image data,
identifying a landing target pattern according to the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image,
obtaining a spatial distance between a current position of the rotorcraft and the landing target pattern according to the predetermined angle and the real-time image data corresponding to the landing target image and the distanc

Assignees

• Guangzhou Xaircraft Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Peng Bin
• Chen Yousheng

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

  autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS] · CPC title

• B64C27/12

  Rotor drives · CPC title

• B64C39/024

  of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV · CPC title

• B64D45/08 Primary

  optical · CPC title

• B64C2201/024

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic