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Method for piloting a rotary wing drone for taking an exposure through an onboard camera with minimization of the disturbing movements

  • US 9,563,200 B2
  • Filed: 01/03/2013
  • Issued: 02/07/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2012
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for piloting, by means of a remote control apparatus, a rotary wing drone with multiple rotors driven by respective motors that can be controlled in a differentiated manner to pilot the drone attitude-wise and speed-wise, wherein horizontal displacements of said drone result from angular tilting movements about roll and pitch axes, said drone comprising a processing subsystem for piloting the drone attitude-wise and speed-wise by servocontrols, said servocontrols including a horizontal speed control including a closed-loop, the drone further comprising an onboard video camera suitable for picking up a sequence of images of a target seen from the drone and for transmitting this sequence to the apparatus, characterized by the following steps:

  • selection by the user of a predetermined exposure mode, defined by a set of parameters describing a translational trajectory to be transmitted to the drone, these parameters comprising;

    exposure mode in displacement;

    a constant, non-zero speed of displacement;

    direction of displacement;

    orientation of displacement;

    duration of displacement; and

    exposure altitude;

    generation of setpoint values from said set of parameters, and application of these setpoints to said processing subsystem for controlling the motors of the drone; and

    once the drone is stabilized on a translational trajectory conforming to said parameters, activation of the exposure by the video camera, wherein said activation of the exposure by said video camera includes activation of a trajectory-stabilization mode including a selective modification of said servocontrols as a function of said predetermined exposure mode selected by the user, said modification including a deactivation of said closed-loop of said horizontal speed control once said constant, non-zero speed of displacement has been reached, whereby minimizing stray oscillations resulting from said angular tilting movements about roll and pitch axes.

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