ES2627963A1 - Parking base and drones recharge, lamp that includes said base, and drone control system that uses said bases (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Base of parking and recharge of drones. The base is formed by a recharging body (4), with a platform (7) for landing the drone, a device for holding the drone in rest position, a device for recharging the drone provided on the platform, so that said parking base arranged in the upper area of a pole, tower or street lamp, such as a street lamp. The invention also extends to a streetlight comprising said base. The invention is also extended to a drone control system by using said base in one or more lampposts. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

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Parking base and drone recharge, lamppost comprising said base, and drone control system using said bases

The present invention has as its object a drone recharge device, in general drones of substantially vertical landing and take-off multicopter type, and communication with a control center, which take advantage of existing facilities, such as lampposts, antennas or repeaters, towers of transport of energy, or roofs for the location of these devices.

The advance of drone technology points to an unstoppable activity of these, in terms of surveillance, places, traffic, people, and to allow vision in strategic places, little accessible or circumstantially appropriate, such as a football stadium a match day, or as a place of accident when it has occurred, also before a robbery alarm, etc.

The drones also seem to be the devices destined to make certain deliveries of urgent material, and among them the hospitals on members of amputees, or for transplants, also the collection of material between warehouses and manufacturing lines of light products, etc.

One of the problems that arise in this type of equipment is its limited flight capacity due to the charge of the batteries. A drone can be used a few hours, and in general at a great distance from its base or starting point, when its use takes place especially in surveillance, control or traffic observation tasks, or in places where security must be monitored . The autonomy of these drones, therefore, is limited by the need to leave a certain place and have to move to the area where the corresponding work is performed. These travel times mean that the work entrusted during the journey times is interrupted, and that at the maximum operating times (the energy required to carry them out) the times used in the movement must be subtracted (the energy consumed in said movement).

This can be solved by the use of drones with greater autonomy, which implies batteries with greater load capacity and with greater weight, and this therefore requires a greater power and weight of the drone; This leads to larger devices with larger batteries and obviously much more expensive, so it is not considered an ideal solution.

Another problem is the danger that drones traffic can pose to people in areas where people can travel, if these drones must descend to low altitude for parking or recharging.

The present invention therefore proposes the use of public (or private) installations for lighting or transport of electricity, communications, among others.

A problem with the use of platforms at ground level or at low height is vulnerability to vandal acts. That is why, with the proposed solution, drones are left out of access areas for people without the use of stairs, lifting platforms or the like.

On the other hand, although the drones are precise in their operation and orientation, it is necessary that the areas in which they must make contact with the base are relatively free of obstacles, since wind gusts could produce a certain destabilization of the drone, that this hit against the obstacle, and its deterioration, and eventually the ground to the ground and substantial loss of said drone.

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In addition, the distance between it and the command or control base is relevant in the drone control. Therefore, a nearby control means will determine greater precision in the control of the apparatus.

Thus, in summary, by the object of the present invention it is intended to solve the following problems:

• Drone autonomy; placing the charging base near the area of operation, which makes it practically all the time of operation

• Extension of the radius of action, since the recharge base will be located in an area close to that of operation;

• Drone security; placing the recharge base in an area away from obstacles that make it difficult to land or take off;

• Drone security; placing security fixing systems when the drone is located in the charging base;

• Drone security; placing the charging base in a place inaccessible to people without auxiliary means;

• Use of infrastructure; taking advantage of electrical conduction infrastructures, and particularly those of public lighting or electricity transportation;

• Security for people who can be placed permanently or occasionally in the areas close to the parking lot of the drone.

State of the art

WO 2011/107640 A2 discloses a communications device based on a public lighting network, which includes, among other elements, a set of sockets for recharging vehicles.

ES 2 350 220 describes a battery charging system for electric vehicles using street lighting.

In
http://blogs.okdiario.com/tecnologia/773/recarga-drones can find a platform to charge drones by means of electrical induction.

However, it has been shown that electrical induction systems emit harmful ionizing radiation to people, particularly when they are in positions close to the induction site.

Description of the invention

Thus, the proposed invention aims at a device for temporary parking of drones that solves the problems set forth above. According to a first aspect of the invention, said device consists of a platform attached to the top of an electricity transport tower or to a public (or private) street lamp or to a communications pole or antenna. Said platform is normally located at the maximum height of said tower, lamppost or pole, and is provided with:

• A drone support base;

• A recharge circuit for drone batteries by induction in the support base;

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• A lateral flange of the support base;

• A drone holding device in parked position

• An electrical outlet connection of the electricity transport installation, of the lighting installation or of the communications installation;

• A communications circuit with an operation and control base through the electrical network, said electrical network being the transport of electricity, lighting, or communications; either by wireless means or by means of a specific communications connection;

• A communications circuit with the drone;

in which the drone is in turn provided with a communications circuit with the platform, and is also provided with an induction recharge circuit on the support base.

It is optionally provided that the platform is provided with a battery of power of the communications circuit for the eventuality that the installation will be without power, either due to an accidental circumstance, or by a maintenance of the corresponding line, so that allow connection between base and drone for return to parking position.

The installation of communications between the drone and the platform, and between the platform and the operating base allows the data or images that the drone obtains in its surveillance work to be transmitted.

Although, according to one option, each drone is associated with a loading platform, this is not necessarily asl, since a drone will be commanded by any of the platforms and can go to any of them for parking and / or recharge.

Obviously, within the scope of the invention it is provided that a single tower, lamppost, antenna, etc. It is provided with more than one platform, which will be conveniently identified to allow more than one drone to park in said tower, lamppost or antenna.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the invention consists of a tower, antenna pole or the like provided with the platforms described above.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a specific post or support for supporting a parking platform and drone recharge is described, with the characteristics described in the first aspect. It is also planned, in this case, that the platform is provided with energy collection systems (wind, solar) for recharging batteries with which to power the communications circuits, and / or recharge the drone.

It is evident that the described platforms can constitute a temporary parking lot so that the drones return to a base, or permanent, to which the drones return after completing the corresponding task.

The corresponding towers can be provided with video surveillance in prevention of possible aggressions.

In addition, according to one option, each base has or may have a "proprietary" drone, that is, a drone associated with that base, and this base results in a charge of that drone for a certain time; economic criteria can be established, both for the rest in non-use time, as for the loading time, so that there is also a warning of "busy" or "free" place for the purpose of a new load.

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Brief description of the drawings

In order to illustrate the explanation that will follow, we attach to the present specification three sheets of drawings, in which four figures represent, by way of example and without limitation, the essence of the present invention, and in the that:

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of a conventional streetlight lamp;

Figure 2 shows a schematic view of the parking and recharging base according to an example of the invention;

Figure 3 shows a view of a streetlight with the base of the invention, with a drone in the landing phase; Y

Figure 4 shows a view similar to Figure 3, in which the drone is already parked and in recharge conditions.

In these figures the following reference numbers can be observed:

1 post

2 luminaire bracket

3 luminaire

4 recharge body

5 anchor

6 perimeter edge

7 drone landing platform

8 recharge surface

9 drone

10 communications antenna

Description of preferred realization modes

The present invention consists of a parking and recharge base for drones, which also has a control and governance management function of one or more drones. More generally, it refers to a drone control and recharge system using vertical lighting or communications elements.

In particular, a charging base for drones is described which is normally located above or next to street lighting luminaires, but possibly also, within the scope of the invention, in other inaccessible places such as roofs, repeater posts, electricity poles. and other similar supports whose use is different from the one of the present invention, but that combining both a synergistic effect is obtained which, with a reduced cost and utilization of intelligent lighting networks, also allows an exhaustive control of a drone or a set of drones , increasing the efficiency in the use of said drones.

Thus, on the pole (1) of a lamppost, which may or may not be provided with a support (2) for a luminaire (3), a recharge body (4) is provided which is substantially formed by a platform (7) drone landing (9).

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Four. Five

The platform (7) is attached to the post or the like by means of an anchor (5), being able to be arranged laterally to the post, in the upper part, centered on said post, or superiorly in the luminaire support.

According to a preferred embodiment, the platform (7) (and also the drone in a complementary manner) is provided with a drone retention system, so that during the recharge or rest phase the drone is safe on the platform recharge, without wind gusts or unwanted movements of the lamppost body can cause the parked drone to fall. Possibly the platform is provided with a perimeter edge (6) that facilitates lateral retention during landing, for example in windy conditions.

The platform (7) is provided with a recharge zone. Said recharge zone may be by contact or induction. It is known that induction is harmful to people when they are located in positions very close to the source of induction. However, since in this case the induction zone is oriented upwards and located several meters high, and especially in relatively unpopulated areas where people do not usually stay but are in transit, the use of a recharge device Drones through electrical induction, as defined, do not pose any risk to people's health.

It is expected that the drone platforms or the posts that support them are provided with a communications antenna (10), and especially communications with the drone commanded.

The use of the communications network (wired or wireless) of public lighting is planned to establish a connection between the control post and the drone recharge platform, which in turn, wirelessly, communicates with the drone in question.

In the event that there is a plurality of drones and a set of platforms, each platform can communicate with more than one drone, and each drone with more than one platform. A certain drone can be directed to a specific platform manually or automatically. The location of the platform by the drone can take place by means of a global positioning system, for example, without other options such as radiofrequency triangulation being outside the scope of the invention.

In this way, a control center (manually or automatically) sends through the lighting network a signal to a certain drone that is parked on a certain platform, to perform a certain flight, given that after the parking period their Batteries will be fully charged. The signal is sent to the drone through one or more parking bases.

The flight will have so! a maximum autonomy from the takeoff position, which will be as close as possible to that of operation.

When a drone must return to a recharge base, manually or automatically, the control center will determine which one it should land on, from those within its area of operation.

Once the landing position has been reached, the drone lands on the platform, and activates a drone anchoring and clamping system, and the recharge of the device's batteries is activated, either by means of contact terminals, or by means of a system of electric induction, the drone being ready to restart the operation.

What is indicated for a single drone is also applicable for a set of drones, the control center must determine which drone must land on each platform, and in the same way control the availability of platforms.

It has advantages in the minimization of resources for the control of the devices, by using the existing intelligent lighting networks, and increasing the area of operation by allowing the device to be approximated to the areas of operation.

Even though the invention has been described as a platform coupled to a lamppost or the like, it obviously extends in the same way to a lamppost or the like provided at the origin of said platform regardless of its design.

Obviously, any reference to lampposts should also be understood as any vertical pole, structure for transporting electric current, and others, capable of accommodating or understanding the platform of the invention, even if they are not specifically for lighting.

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Claims (10)

5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 1. - Base of parking and recharge of drones, characterized by being formed by the following elements: • A recharge body (4), with: • A drone landing platform (7); • A drone holding device in rest position; • A drone recharge device provided on the platform; said parking base being arranged in the upper area of a pole, tower or lamppost, such as a streetlamp. 2. - Base of parking and recharge of drones, according to claim 1, characterized in that it also comprises a communications system of the recharging body (4) with a control center. 3. - Base for parking and recharge of drones, according to any of claims 1 to 2, characterized in that it also comprises a communications system of the recharge body (4) with one or more drones. 4. - Drone parking and recharge base, according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the recharge platform (7) is provided with a perimeter retention edge (6). 5. - Drone parking and charging base, according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the charging platform (7) is provided with an electric induction surface in accordance with the lower base of the drone. 6. - Drone parking and recharge base, according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the charging platform (7) is provided with a connection system by terminals with corresponding contacts existing in the drone body. 7. - Parking base and drone recharge, according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the recharge platform is provided with a communications antenna. 8. - Base for parking and recharge of drones, according to any of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it also comprises a connection with the lighting system's communications system. 9. - Lamppost comprising at least one of the bases for parking and recharge of drones of claims 1 to 8. 10. - Drone control system using the drone parking bases of one or more of claims 1 to 9, characterized by comprising a set of bases arranged in respective lampposts connected with at least one control center, housing one or more drones.