ION SPRAYING APPARATUS, ION SPRAYING SYSTEM, AND ION SPRAYING METHOD

• US 20150290348A1
• Filed: 03/24/2015
• Published: 10/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TAOKA, HIROKI, KAYAMA, HIROYUKI, TAKEI, ICHIRO
• Granted Patent: US 10,149,916 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2/14 Plasma, i.e. ionised gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2202/16 Mobile applications, e.g. portable devices, trailers, devices mounted on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 9/22 Ionisation
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/13 Flying platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/19 using electrically powered motors
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target

Abstract

A communication unit receives spraying target information indicating a spray target. A spraying target detector detects the spray target indicated in the spraying target information in space. A spray control unit is a unit that performs ion-spraying processing on the spray target at a predetermined frequency. In the ion-spraying processing, the spray control unit determines a moving direction of an ion spraying apparatus from a current location to the detected spray target, and sprays ions on the spray target when a distance between the spray target and the ion spraying apparatus is within a first threshold value. A flight control unit controls a flight of the ion spraying apparatus in the moving direction.

Claims

1. An ion spraying apparatus comprising:

a receiver that receives spraying target information indicating a spray target;

a spraying target detector that detects the spray target;

a spray controller that has the ion spraying apparatus move toward the detected spray target and performs ion-spraying when a distance between the spray target and the ion spraying apparatus is within a first threshold value; and

a flight controller that controls a flight of the ion spraying apparatus.

2. The ion spraying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spray controller performs the ion-spraying when a person is not present in a vicinity of the detected spray target.

3. The ion spraying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spray controller performs the ion-spraying when the detected spray target is not set as an object to be excluded from the ion-spraying.

4. The ion spraying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spraying target information is one of image information that indicates the spray target and location information that indicates a location of the spray target.

5. An ion spraying system comprising:

an ion spraying apparatus; and

a control apparatus,

wherein the control apparatus comprises;

a recognition unit that recognizes objects contacted by a person;

a measurement unit that measures a number of contacts made by the person for each of the recognized objects;

a spraying target determination unit that determines a spray target that is an object on which the ion spraying apparatus performs ion-spraying from among the recognized objects based on the measured number of contacts, and generates spraying target information that specifies the spray target; and

a first communication unit that sends the spraying target information to the ion spraying apparatus,

wherein the ion spraying apparatus comprises;

a second communication unit that receives the spraying target information from the control apparatus;

a spraying target detector that detects the spray target indicated in the spraying target information;

a spray control unit that determines a moving direction of the ion spraying apparatus based on location information on the detected spray target, and performs ion-spraying when a distance between the spray target and the ion spraying apparatus is within a first threshold value; and

a flight control unit that controls a flight of the ion spraying apparatus.

6. The ion spraying system according to claim 5, wherein the spraying target determination unit determines an object having the measured number of contacts that exceeds a second threshold value during a predetermined time period as the spray target.

7. The ion spraying system according to claim 5, wherein the recognition unit recognizes a registered specific person in advance, and recognizes an object contacted by the specific person.

8. The ion spraying system according to claim 5, wherein the spraying target information is one of image information that indicates the spray target and location information that indicates a location of the spray target.

9. The ion spraying system according to claim 5, wherein

the control apparatus further comprises a dust generation detector that detects an event and location of dust generation,

the spraying target determination unit determines, from among the spray targets, each of the objects that is around the location where the event of the dust generation is detected as each of the spray targets having high priority, and generates priority information including information that specifies each of the spray targets having high priority,

the first communication unit sends the priority information to the ion spraying apparatus,

the second communication unit receives the priority information from the control apparatus, and

the spraying target detector detects with priority, from among the spray targets specified by the spraying target information, each of the spray targets having high priority specified by the priority information.

10. An ion spraying method comprising:

receiving spraying target information that specifies a spray target;

detecting location information on the spray target indicated in the spraying target information;

determining a moving direction of an ion spraying apparatus to the detected spray target based on the location information on the detected spray target;

controlling a flight of the ion spraying apparatus; and

spraying ions on the spray target when a distance between the spray target and the ion spraying apparatus is within a first threshold value.