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Rotary-wing drone comprising autonomous means for determining a position in an absolute coordinate system linked to the ground

  • US 9,387,927 B2
  • Filed: 07/03/2014
  • Issued: 07/12/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2013
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A rotary-wing drone (10) with multiple rotors (12) driven by respective motors selectively controlled by application of differentiated motor commands to pilot the drone in altitude and speed, comprising:

  • plurality of sensors adapted to deliver respective drone-state signals, such sensors comprising;

    vertical-view camera (16, 132) pointing downward, adapted to pick up images of a scene of the ground (20) overflown by the drone and used to produce a horizontal speed signal, derived from an analysis of the displacement of the picked-up scene from one image to the following;

    gyrometer (102), magnetometer (116) and accelerometer (114) sensors, adapted to deliver linear and rotational acceleration signals; and

    an altimeter (22, 152-158), adapted to deliver a signal of drone altitude relative to the overflown ground; and

    a predictive-filter estimator incorporating a representation of a dynamic model of the drone, this filter being adapted to perform a prediction of at least one state value of the drone based on the motor commands and to periodically readjust this prediction as a function of the signals delivered by the sensors,wherein the drone further comprises navigation means adapted to determine position coordinates of the drone in an absolute coordinate system (NED) linked to the ground, and in that these navigation means;

    are autonomous means adapted to operate without reception of signals external to the drone;

    comprise image analysis means (160), adapted to derive a position signal from an analysis of known predetermined patterns (210), present in the scene picked up by the camera, wherein the image analysis means configured to analyze the known predetermined patterns, present in the scene picked up by the camera comprise;

    prefiltering means, adapted to extract from the image delivered by the camera the pixels corresponding to the edges of the patterns (210) and of sub-patterns (212a-212d), and to deliver the position thereof and the orientation of the contour (214, 216) of each pattern and sub-pattern;

    colorimetric means, adapted to determine the proper color of each sub-pattern;

    recognition means, adapted to identify each pattern based on the proper colors of each of the its sub-patterns; and

    position determination means, adapted to determine the position coordinates (XNED, YNED, ZNED) of the drone in the absolute coordinate system (NED) linked to the ground as a function of the patterns identified by the recognition means;

    implement the predictive-filter estimator (172) at the input of which are applied;

    the position signal;

    the horizontal speed signal;

    the linear and rotational acceleration signals; and

    the altitude signal.

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