7 core technologies supporting the rapid development of drones

The drone is referred to as the "UAV", abbreviated as "UAV", and is a non-manned aircraft operated by radio remote control equipment and its own program control device.

At present, the market size of drones is expanding at an incredible speed. Entrepreneurs are entering the scene like birds, and competition in the industry is becoming increasingly hot. However, drones may not be a good business now. In the short term, most of drone companies value supply chain integration and marketing. But in the long run, technology is king.

Although the blue ocean of the drone market is large, it is not easy to share a piece of cake. Below, we will introduce you to several UAVs and future UAV technology breakthroughs, as well as some UAV SOC systems.

Zero intelligence: Pocket drone DOBBY

The DOBBY pocket drone is the first consumer-grade product of Zero-Intelligence. The advent of this small smart drone means that users can carry the drone in their pockets in the future. When they want to shoot, they can be released at any time. .

The comments pointed out that DOBBY actually did two important things. One is to make it smaller, so that drones can be carried around. The second is intelligent, and the result is that it can be completed with simple operations. Difficult shooting. In addition to this basic purpose, it can also achieve one-button intelligent tracking shooting of people or objects, as well as a one-click pull-up video recording that professional photographers can achieve with the help of a ladder. It is called a small portable photographer.

Aerix: Known as the world's smallest VR drone

At present, there are many manufacturers on the market that combine drones with VR, but they are smaller than the palms. Have you seen the miniature VR drones that can be seen indoors? Aerix is ​​a company that specializes in the micro drone market. The company has released a lot of praise for the micro-racing drone BlackTalon, but BlackTalon used LCD monitors at the time. Now that Aeroix is ​​in motion, adding VR devices to the micro drones has clearly brought new ideas.

The world's smallest HD VR drone has a body size of 4.3x4.3x2.5 cm, a maximum flight distance of 30 meters, 360-degree rotation, and the ability to transfer recorded video to the package. Aerix virtual reality headset on the device. And users don't have to worry about drones crashing or breaking things inside the room. They are very small and don't cause any harm.

Parrot: Shootable Mini Home Drone

French drone label Parrot recently released the new toy drone Mambo. It is reported that the drone can be equipped with mechanical claw clamps to pick up objects, and can also be equipped with turrets to launch marbles, which is a more interesting game for drones. Any combination of two components

ParrotMambo has a net weight of 63 grams and a 550 mAh battery life of 7-9 minutes, plus an accelerometer, gyroscope, pressure sensor (altitude drone control) or ultrasound (flying height analysis) and a VGA camera. The acrobatic action that can perform multi-directional flipping and looping is easy to manipulate, and the compact body is suitable for children to fight against the game.

If the drone wants to achieve a breakthrough, where is the key technology?

First, power technology

Endurance is a major obstacle to the development of UAVs. The consumption life of consumer-grade multi-rotor is basically around 20min. Users have to carry multiple batteries to spare when they fly out, which is extremely inconvenient to use. Drones must achieve breakthroughs in power to take on a new revolutionary height.

1. New battery

In 2015, EnergyOr Technology Co., Ltd. from Montreal, Canada reported a three-hour, 43-minute battery life with a four-rotor of fuel cells. In addition, the three battery technologies of graphene, aluminum air battery and nano battery are expected to become the hope of the battery world in the future. There is a pressing need for these new battery technologies. They will be applied first to mobile phones and electric cars, and then to multi-rotors.

2. Hybrid

In 2015, American startup TopFlightTechnologies reported that it developed its hybrid six-rotor drone. The six-rotor requires only one gallon of gasoline, and it can fly for two and a half hours, about 160 kilometers, with a maximum load of about 9 kilograms. In addition, a German company AirsTIer launched a multi-rotor. The multi-rotor uses a hybrid electric oil with a payload of 5 kg and can fly for 1 hour.

3. Ground power supply

The ground-powered tethered multi-rotor continuously feeds the electric energy source to the multi-rotor through the cable, which can greatly improve the air-to-air time of the multi-rotor. For example: the Israeli company Skysapience rotor.

4. Wireless charging

Wireless charging technology has been market-oriented in electronic products such as mobile phones and electric toothbrushes, and is being applied in depth in the field of electric vehicles. SkySense, a startup from Berlin, Germany, offers a solution for outdoor charging of drones: the development of a tablet that can wirelessly charge drones. The biggest feature of SkySense is that it can be remotely controlled. The drone's landing-charging-off-off process can be implemented independently without the need for intervention and assistance on site. If the charging time is faster, the wireless charging technology will greatly help the multi-rotor to fly long distances.

Second, navigation technology

The drone accurately knows where "where" and "where to go", which is almost a philosophical question similar to the "where and where to go" of human beings. It is a problem that cannot be avoided at any stage of development of drones. .

Positioning technology

(1) GPS carrier phase positioning

Projects currently under study in this area include: Piksi developed by SwiftNavigaTIon; RTKLIB open source project developed by Tokyo Ocean University, Japan.

(2) Multiple information source positioning

The British military BAE recently announced their positioning technology called NAVSOP. The technology will make use of information such as TV, radio, Wi-Fi and other information to make up for the lack of GPS.

(3) UWB (UltraWideband, wireless broadband) wireless positioning

2. Speed ​​measurement technology

The currently accepted relatively accurate speed measurement scheme is through the fusion of "visual (optical flow) + ultrasonic + inertial guidance". The AR.Drone was the first multi-rotor aircraft to adopt this technology, which greatly improved the maneuverability of the aircraft and achieved great success.

The PX4 autopilot open source project provides an open source optical flow sensor PX4Flow. This sensor helps the multi-rotor to accurately hover without GPS. The “Wu” and “Phantom3” and “Phantom4” launched by DJI Company also adopted this technology.

3. Obstacle avoidance technology

It is an important step to realize the intelligentization of the drone by letting the unmanned aerial vehicle "long glasses" recognize the obstacles on the flight path and accurately fly or hover. Future UAV obstacle avoidance technologies will achieve breakthroughs in these areas:

(1) Deep camera obstacle avoidance technology;

(2) Soaring system obstacle avoidance technology;

(3) "Visual + Memristor" obstacle avoidance technology;

(4) Binocular vision obstacle avoidance technology;

(5) Small electronic scanning radar;

(6) Laser scanning ranging radar;

(7) Four-dimensional radar.

4. Tracking technology

Identify targets and track flights, reduce the user's operational burden, and use the drone to perform special tasks under special environmental conditions. Intelligent tracking mainly includes:

(1) GPS tracking;

(2) Visual tracking.

At present, these technologies have been embodied in advanced models such as Dhan Phantom4.

Third, interactive technology

The drone is currently mainly controlled by the remote control for flight control, which requires professional training and has certain limitations. With the development of new technologies, drones should simplify the requirements of operators and enhance the user experience.

(1) Gesture control technology

Gesture interaction is a trend of future human-computer interaction, and there is currently a challenge in accuracy. At the CES2014 show, there is a demonstration of using the MYO gesture control arm to control the AR.Drone 2.0 quadrotor.

(2) Brain machine interface technology

In recent years, researchers have applied BCI (BrainComputer Interface) technology in many fields. The staff used this technology to make new toys and make prosthetics for the disabled. As an aircraft that requires a higher level of safety, this approach is currently immature. It can be used as a proof-of-concept technology display, and there are still many distances from reality.

Fourth, communication technology

(1) 4G/5G communication technology

On June 17, 2013, Beijing 4G Alliance and UAV Alliance organized a 4G alliance and drone alliance exchange seminar to strengthen technical exchanges between Beijing 4G Alliance and UAV Alliance, looking for drone aircraft. The load and the focus of 4G equipment and instruments will promote the development of Beijing's information industry. In 2015, China Mobile developed the 4G "Super Air Combat Team" equipment, which can support aerial imagery and shoot. The 5G is 250 times faster than the current LTE network standard, marking a new milestone for the wireless industry. Whether it's a smartphone, a car, a medical device, a drone or other device, it will benefit from this wireless connection speed.

(2) Wifi communication technology

In 2013, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany developed a new wireless WAN technology that broke the fastest WiFi network speed record, allowing users who are 1 km away to download 40 GB per second. Since the transmission distance of such a device is much wider than that of a conventional WiFi router, the device is suitable for rural areas where drone aerial image transmission or fiber deployment is inconvenient.

Five, chip technology

(1) At CES 2014, Qualcomm and Intel demonstrated a more versatile multi-axis aircraft. For example, the Snapdragon Cargo drone shown at Qualcomm CES is a flight controller based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip, which features wireless communication, sensor integration and spatial positioning. In September 2015, according to the US technology news website Engadget, Qualcomm has launched a chip solution for the drone market, called “Jilong Flight Platform”.

Intel CEOBrian Krzanich also personally demonstrated their drones at CES, using a quad-core Intel Atom processor PCI-express custom card. In addition, XMOS, a European processor manufacturer active in the robot market, has also indicated that it has entered the field of drones.

(2) 3DR issued a statement to cooperate with Intel Intel to develop the Edison chip, which is a new type of micro processing chip. It has only one coin size, but it has the same processing power as a personal computer.

(3) At present, many technology companies including IBM are simulating the brain and developing neuron chips. Once a similar chip is applied to a drone, autoreaction and automatic identification are expected to become a breeze.

Sixth, platform technology

(1) "Dronecode" drone open source system

In October 2014, the famous open source foundation Linux launched a drone open source system cooperation project called "Dronecode", which included 3DRoboTIcs, Intel, Qualcomm, Baidu and other technology giants into the project team, aiming to provide drone developers. The resources, tools and technical support needed to accelerate the development of the UAV and robotics fields.

(2) Ubuntu15.04 operating system

Ubuntu 15.04's IoT version is Ubuntu's smallest and safest version, very compact, suitable for issuers, tech professionals and developers, and can be used in areas such as drones.

(3)Airware released enterprise-class UAV system

Airware aims to help enterprises quickly and efficiently complete the deployment and management of commercial unmanned aerial vehicles through a standardized drone software system. The system was officially released on Thursday. Through the combination of hardware and software, Airware successfully achieved The goal of unified management of multiple different models and different brands of drones on a software platform. At present, Airware products have been adopted by two partners, namely GE (also an Airware investor) and Infinigy. Infinigy is a communications company.

Seven, air traffic control technology

(1) In 2014, Airware plans to conduct a series of flight and laboratory tests for different types of UAVs (four-rotor, helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft) at the NASA California base.

(2) Start-up company SkyWard is developing a drone traffic control system that will allow thousands of drones to fly over the city without colliding with each other. Skyward is working with the FAA and the world's three major UAV manufacturers – Dajiang in China, 3DRoboTIcs in the US, and Parrot in France – to prove that a large number of drones can coexist safely in crowded airspace.

(3) NASA and space technology company Exelis have teamed up to form a prototype to develop a drone air traffic control system.

(4) Transtrex, Inc., based in Seattle, USA, released a beta version of the UAV Dynamic Geospatial Restriction System software. The system is designed to ensure that drones are safe to fly at 500 feet.

(5) At the 3rd AOPA (AircraftOwners and Pilots Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) International Flight Training Exhibition, China's AOPA and a number of companies developed the "UCloud" UAV surveillance system for light and small drones announced on-line .

Finally, introduce several types of UAV SOC systems.

Qualcomm Xiaolong Flight

Snapdragon Flight is a highly optimized 58x40mm development board designed for consumer drones and robotics applications. Snapdragon Flight includes a Snapdragon 801 SoC (consisting of four cores with a frequency of 2.26GHz), supporting GPS, 4K video capture, strong connectivity and advanced drone software and development tools, dual-channel Wi-Fi And Bluetooth module, support real-time flight control system, with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, support 4K video processing, support fast charging technology, and all of this is integrated on a business card-sized motherboard. Bringing cutting-edge mobile technology to create a new level of consumer drones.

In 2016, there will be more and more drones using Qualcomm chip platforms. This integrated chip platform will also greatly accelerate the development and manufacture of drones. According to reports, Qualcomm has launched such a chip matching program, called "Jilong Flight Platform", which integrates the processors, communication chips, flight control chips and high-altitude camera chips required for UAV flight and work. This platform can even support the shooting of ultra high definition video.

Intel Atom

Intel demonstrated the use of Intel RealSense technology's YuneecTyphoonH, built-in up to six Intel's "RealSense" 3D camera, a quad-core Intel Atom processor PCI-express custom card to handle distance and sensor Real-time information and how to avoid obstacles at close range. As for the long-distance 3D camera, Intel uses the "active stereo imaging principle", which mimics the "parallax" principle of the human eye. By playing a beam of infrared light, the left infrared sensor and the right infrared sensor track the position of the light, and then The principle of triangulation is used to calculate the "depth" information in the 3D image.

Samsung Artik5

Samsung launched the Artik5 chip on the drone product line, equipped with a 1GHz ARM dual-core ARMCortex-A7 processor (Mali400MP2GPU) with 512MBLPDDR3 memory and 4GeMMc flash memory. Support Wi-Fi, low power Bluetooth, support 802.11b/g/n. In addition, the chip can decode 720p30fps video such as H.264 and provide TrustZone.

Domestic Lianxin LC1860

It is worth mentioning that the domestic chip core LC1860 has been adopted by Dajiang Elf 4 and Zero Intelligence Control 1 generation. The LC1860 supports LTE-TDD/LTE-FDD/TD-SCDMA/WCDMA/GGE five-mode, integrated 4+1 CortexA71.5GHz CPU, dual-core GPUMaliT628, and Trustzone security architecture. The LC1860 was officially launched in the third quarter of 2014 and is the first 28nm4GSoC chip commercially available for the open market. In just one year, the shipments have exceeded 10 million, and the product stability has been tested by the market. The biggest advantage of this platform is the SDR software radio, which can customize and modify the radio band. With the SDR custom radio band, you can get a longer transmission distance than the mainstream 2.4GWIFI.

RK3288

Rockchip HD unmanned aerial camera solution. This solution uses the RK3288 chip, which is characterized by the fact that it is not equipped with a pan/tilt, and the image stabilization is achieved by the super-anti-shake high-definition aerial image stabilization technology. Based on the gyroscope angle and displacement correction and using the optimized motion vector estimation and extraction algorithm to improve the camera image clarity, it can replace the traditional mechanical head. It can realize 13M Camera data acquisition, output 1080P30fps local HD and 480P30fps remote transmission dual channel image stabilization stream.

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