Shovel and autonomous aerial vehicle flying around shovel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11492783-B2
Application number	US-202016990237-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 11, 2020
Priority date	Jan 29, 2016
Publication date	Nov 8, 2022
Grant date	Nov 8, 2022

Abstract

A shovel includes a lower traveling body, an upper turning body mounted on the lower traveling body; and a receiver, a direction detecting device, a controller, and a display device mounted on the upper turning body, wherein the receiver is configured to receive an image captured by a camera-mounted autonomous aerial vehicle, the direction detecting device is configured to detect a direction of the shovel, the controller is configured to generate information related to a target rotation angle of the camera-mounted autonomous aerial vehicle based on the direction of the shovel, and the display device is configured to display the captured image in a same direction as a direction of an image that is captured when the camera-mounted autonomous aerial vehicle rotates by the target rotation angle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A shovel comprising:
a lower traveling body;
an upper turning body mounted on the lower traveling body;
a transmitter and a receiver mounted on the upper turning body; and
a controller mounted on the upper turning body and configured to generate information related to a target flight position of an autonomous aerial vehicle based on position information of the autonomous aerial vehicle received via the receiver and position information of the shovel,
wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit a command with respect to the target flight position from the controller to the autonomous aerial vehicle so as to cause the autonomous aerial vehicle to fly in accordance with a movement of the shovel.

2. The shovel as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the receiver is configured to receive information from the autonomous aerial vehicle.

3. The shovel as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a power feeder configured to feed power to the autonomous aerial vehicle.

4. A shovel comprising:
a lower traveling body;
an upper turning body mounted on the lower traveling body;
a transmitter, a receiver, and a display device mounted on the upper turning body; and
a controller mounted on the upper turning body and configured to generate information related to a target flight position of an autonomous aerial vehicle based on position information of the autonomous aerial vehicle received via the receiver and position information of the shovel,
wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the information related to the target flight position to the autonomous aerial vehicle so as to cause the autonomous aerial vehicle to fly in accordance with a movement of the shovel, and
the target flight position is a position that is higher by a predetermined height relative to a predetermined point on the shovel and is away by a predetermined distance relative to the predetermined point.

5. The shovel as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the information related to the target flight position is either information related to a position of the shovel or a combination of the information related to the position of the shovel and information related to an orientation of the shovel.

6. The shovel as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the autonomous aerial vehicle includes an image capturing device.

7. An autonomous aerial vehicle comprising:
an image capturing device configured to capture an image of a shovel;
a transmitter configured to transmit the image captured by the image capturing device; and
a controller configured to obtain a position of the shovel based on the image.

8. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the controller is further configured to obtain position information of the autonomous aerial vehicle.

9. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the position information to the shovel.

10. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit identification information of the autonomous aerial vehicle to the shovel.

11. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising:
a receiver configured to receive information related to a target flight position, the information being generated by the shovel based on information related to the position of the shovel or a combination of the information related to the position of the shovel and information related to an orientation of the shovel.

12. An autonomous aerial vehicle comprising:
a receiver configured to receive information generated by a shovel; and
a controller configured to determine a target flight position based on the information generated by the shovel,
wherein the target flight position is a position that is higher by a predetermined height relative to a predetermined point on the shovel and is away by a predetermined distance relative to the predetermined point.

13. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 12 , further comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit position information of the autonomous aerial vehicle to the shovel.

14. The autonomous aerial vehicle as claimed in claim 12 , further comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit identification information of the autonomous aerial vehicle to the shovel.

Assignees

• Sumitomo S H L Construction Machinery Co Ltd
• Sumitomo Shi Constr Mach Co

Inventors

• Nishi Takashi
• Sakuta Sou
• Morimoto Takaaki
• Izumikawa Takeya

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

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

• B64U2201/20

  Remote controls · CPC title

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• B64U2101/30

  for imaging, photography or videography · CPC title

• H04N7/185

  from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control · CPC title