Take-off system and method for unmanned aerial vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9868548-B2
Application number	US-201514955945-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2015
Priority date	Dec 16, 2014
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicles take-off system may include at least one winch, at least one towline, at least one dolly on which at least one aircraft is mounted, and at least one battery of the at least one winch. At least one micro-controller unit is connected to the at least one winch, wherein the at least one microcontroller unit is configured to control the activation/deactivation of the at least one winch. An unmanned aerial vehicle take-off method is also disclosed that includes operating the at least one winch by means of at least one microcontroller unit connected to said at least one winch.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. Take-off system for an unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
a winch having an activation mode and a deactivation mode;
a towline coupled to the winch;
a dolly coupled to the towline;
an aircraft mounted on the dolly;
a microcontroller unit operably coupled to the winch and configured to control the activation and deactivation modes of the winch; and
a radio receiver unit communicatively coupled to the microcontroller unit, wherein the radio receiver unit detects a first radio signal such that microcontroller unit controls the winch to operate in the activation mode based on receipt of the first radio signal, wherein the radio receiver unit detects a second radio signal comprising a lift-up command produced by a pilot of the unmanned aerial vehicle operating an elevator channel of the dolly in a nose-up direction to rotate the unmanned aerial vehicle for take-off, and wherein the microcontroller unit controls the winch to operate in the deactivation mode based on receipt of the second radio signal.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a display configured to show performance parameters of the winch.

3. The system of claim 1 , in which the winch further includes at least one encoder operably coupled to the microcontroller unit.

4. The system of claim 3 , in which the microcontroller unit is further configured to count the number of roll-up cycles performed by the winch based on signals sent from the encoder.

5. The system of claim 3 , in which the microcontroller unit is further configured to count a deployment distance of the towline based on signals sent from the encoder.

6. The system of claim 3 , in which the microcontroller unit is further configured to count a remaining take-off run available for the dolly based on signals sent from the encoder.

7. The system of claim 3 , in which the microcontroller unit is further configured to measure a rolling-up speed and/or acceleration of the towline based on signals sent from the encoder.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one alarm indicator operably coupled to the winch and configured to activate in response to winch safety parameters outside of permitted limits.

9. A method for an unmanned aerial vehicle take-off system having a dolly on which an aircraft is mounted, a towline coupled between the dolly and a winch, a battery operatively coupled to the winch and having a battery status level, and an encoder operatively coupled to both the winch and a microcontroller unit, the method comprising:
initializing the take-off system;
checking the battery status level;
checking a number of roll-up cycles performed by the winch;
deploying the towline from the winch;
incrementing a count of deployed towline distance;
incrementing a take-off run count based on the deployed towline distance;
arming the unmanned aerial vehicle take-off system for take-off;
detecting, with a radio receiver unit communicatively coupled to the microcontroller unit, a first radio signal comprising a take-off command, the first radio signal being sent from a radio transmitter;
operating the winch in an activation mode based on receipt of the first radio signal;
initiating a take-off sequence;
checking a rolling-up speed and/or acceleration of the towline;
checking a remaining take-off run available for the dolly;
operating an elevator channel of the dolly in a nose-up direction to rotate the aircraft;
transmitting a second radio signal in response to operating the elevator channel in the nose-up direction;
detecting, with the radio receiver unit, the second radio signal comprising a lift-up command, the second radio signal sent from the radio transmitter;
operating the winch in a deactivation mode based on receipt of the second radio signal; and
ending the take-off sequence.

10. The method of claim 9 , in which the method finishes without starting the take-off sequence if, after checking battery status level, the battery status level is determined to be under a predetermined battery status limit.

11. The method of claim 9 , in which the method finishes without starting the take-off sequence if, after checking the number of roll-up cycles performed by the winch, the number of roll-up cycles performed by the winch is determined to be above a predetermined cycle limit.

12. The method of claim 9 , in which the unmanned aerial vehicle system further includes at least one alarm indicator configured to indicate that the battery status level is under a predetermined battery status limit and/or to indicate that the number of roll-up cycles performed by the winch is above a predetermined cycle limit.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising switching the winch to deactivation mode and aborting the aircraft take-off sequence if, after checking the rolling-up acceleration of the towline, the rolling-up acceleration of the towline is outside of a predetermined range of acceleration values.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising switching the winch to deactivation mode and aborting the aircraft take-off sequence if, after checking the remaining take-off run available for the dolly, the remaining take-off run available for the dolly is under a predetermined distance value.

15. The method of claim 9 , in which the method finishes after a predetermined period of time from detecting the second radio signal comprising a lift-up command.

16. The method of claim 9 , in which the method returns to the step of checking the rolling-up acceleration of the towline if no second radio signal comprising a lift-up command is detected by the radio receiver unit.

17. The method of claim 9 , further comprising switching the winch to the deactivation mode to abort the aircraft take-off sequence if a stop command is detected by the radio receiver unit.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Serrot Hauke Enrique Emilio
• Ferreyra Eduardo Gabriel
• Lemus Jose Luis
• Blanco Del Alamo Jose Antonio
• Lapena Rey Nieves

Classifications

• B64F1/08 Primary

  using winches · CPC title

• B64C39/024

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

• B64C2201/08

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B64U70/70

  Launching or landing using catapults, tracks or rails (launching from storage containers B64U70/50) · CPC title