Abstract
A method and system for installing warning spheres on utility power lines using existing commercial drones and an unique preassembled warning sphere with an inverted U shape opening in its lower half, one or more cable clamp in the upper part of the inverted U which matches the utility cable's diameter, number of strands and longitudinal spiral pitch. The warning sphere also has two receptacles in its circumference for catching the drones retractable landing gears fitted with matching bulges, enabling the safe lifting and flying of the sphere, The Drone also has a 3D stereoscopic camera which is integrated to its video system, thus enabling the precise navigating of the drone directly above the utility cable, and then directing the drone and sphere's U slot and cable clamp into the cable, either manually, or automatically through modulating of the sticks command of the remote control of the drone.
Claims
1) A multi rotor remote controlled drone that holds and carries an aerial warning sphere with an inverted U groove in its underside, using its retractable landing gears. Said Drone lifts, flies, navigates said sphere, precisely aiming and lowering said U groove over a utility electric cable, and releasing this sphere by retracting said landing gears thereafter.
2) A drone with warning sphere of claim 1, further having protruding blocks attached to the landing skids of said retractable landing gears, and matching receptacles attached or being part of said sphere, enabling secure carrying and flying, and easy release of said sphere when retracting upwards or sideways said landing gears.
3) A drone with warning sphere of claim 1, further having horizontal or other shape grooves or holes in said sphere, to accommodate said landing gears and their landing skids or other elements attached to said landing gears, to carry and release said sphere.
4) A drone with warning sphere of claim 1 which further has a 3D stereoscopic or other depth measuring camera, connected to said Drone video downlink stream, with said camera pointing downwards or in diagonal to said utility cable area, giving the remote pilot the required video picture with graphic distance information that will immediately point to the closest cable from all cables in the scene, and also give the information of exact distance from said drone to that cable, to allow the initial hovering to the correct cable from all cables below, and a precise controlled descent into that particular cable.
5) An aerial warning sphere with an inverted V or U groove in its lower half, where a plastic or other flexible material clamp is attached to the top of said groove. Said clamp is further matched it its diameter and opening to the exact diameter of the utility electric cable to allow fitting upon pressure in the order of half of the drone self weight, and also has radial grooves in its circumference that circles the cable, matching the exact strands diameter and spiraling pitch of said strands. Such exact matching enables perfect match between clamp and cable, preventing gravitational longitudinal sliding, or wind induced rotation of said sphere on said cable.
6) The clamp and sphere of claim 5, with drone of claims 1 to 4
7) The drone of claim 4 where the remote control console of said drone also has analog or digital inputs from an automatic sequencer unit that processes that graphic distance information of claim 4, and said inputs override the control sticks of said remote console, to automatically make said precise controlled descent into said cable.
8) The Drone of claim 4 where a microphone is added to the airborne video system, to sense measure the average RPM of said drone in the downlink of said drone.
9) A video display of claim 4 where the RPM information of claim 8 is displayed graphically, numerically, with a discrete high/low RPM indication, or simply as an audio tone with a frequency proportional to said average RPM.
10) The drone and 3D camera of claim 4, where an additional airborne camera is combined to said 3D camera picture, and relayed to the remote operator video console, where both pictures will be displayed on a single screen, alongside the essential telemetry from the drone, like battery voltages, GPS etc.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] The invention is illustrated in the following 3 figures.
[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates the Drone carrying the warning sphere.
[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates the Video system of the drone.
[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates the Remote control unit with the automatic sequencer option
[0018] Some blocks have enlargements drawings to better explain their looks and roles.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0019] The following description of the drawings will explain how it works.
[0020] The description is intended mainly to augment the claims, in combination with the drawings. The drawings are merely illustrative block diagrams with an artist view visualization.
[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates how drone marked 1 with its two retractable landing gears marked 2 are holding and gripping warning sphere 3 using two protruding blocks 5B attached to the two landing skids LS1 and LS2. Two matching receptacles blocks 5A are secured onto the sphere or are an integral part of it during manufacturing. The height or diameter of sphere 3 where these are mounted matches the horizontal natural spacing between the two landing gears LS1 and LS2 in their extended down (drawn) position. This spacing is unique for each drone 1 model. Incorrect values and geometry can lead to failure in the retraction mechanism when lowering into cable 2 is completed and drone 1 tries to retract its landing gears LS1 and LS2 and climb up, because of drone's 1 electronics trying to protect the landing gears 2 retraction servos SV1 and SV2 due to current overload, as normally the LS1 and LS2 are not supporting such additional pulling down payload weight of around 5 kg.
[0022] FIG. 1 also shows two clamps marked 6. These flexible plastic clamps are uniquely matched to the diameter and stranding of the utility cable 1 through the slots 6B. Clamps 6 are screwed in place into the upper curved surface of the inverted U opening in the sphere 3 lower half. Elliptical holes 6A for the screws allow the clamp to slide several millimeters forward or backward into a perfect match with the spiraled strands shape of cable 4. This perfect matching is what ensures no slide and no turning of the installed sphere on the cable over the years, with rain, winds, and snow. Repetitive turning of clamp 6 around cable 4 can lead to wear in cable 4 and even catastrophic breaking of cable 4. Clamp 6 opening is slightly narrower than the cable 4 diameter, requiring pressure to squeeze cable 4 into clamp 6 diameter. Incorrect clamp opening will of course prevent successful installation, so it is critical that plastic clamp 6 is from the right material with the exact flexibility and rigidity and absolutely the right size for the particular cable 4 diameter and stranding in each and every sphere installed.
[0023] FIG. 2 shows the video payload 7 of drone 1 for this application. A stereoscopic 3D camera 8A is added to the drone's normal video camera 8B. 3D camera 8A has two lenses, lens A and lens B, with video sensor for each, which are spaced several centimeters from each other, filming the same scene but from slightly different angles, much like human vision with two eyes. 8A and 8B cameras are hung away from the center of drone 1 body, on two booms 8C and 8D respectively, one in front and one in back side of drone 1, with cameras pointing downwards to the area where cable 4 exits sphere 3. A micro-PC computer marked as 7a analyzes the two pictures, compares it line by line, pixel by pixel, and creates a 3D map with depth for each pixel in the scene from the information of horizontal shift between corresponding pixels of the two lenses of camera 8a. This is true and accurate for distance of centimeters to several meters. The depth is shown to the operator by assigning a different color or a greyscale value in b/w picture for each depth value, e.g., blue for near, until red for far. The drone's operator is trained to see this kind of color depth picture and to navigate the drone until the color (depth) of cable 4 looks just right, e.g., deep blue for 65 cm distance between camera and cable. This same camera and picture also help the drone's operator to immediately understand which cable from the forest of cables he sees below the drone towards ground is closest to the drone, and how far. The closest will naturally be the bluer of all cables.
[0024] The airborne video payload 7 couples two pictures, from the 3D camera 8A and the normal camera 8B of the drone, into a unified picture signal into the HDMI or Analog video downlink of the drone. The two pictures side by side shown on Ipad display 12 of FIG. 3 are helping to show the operator the angle difference between sphere 3 center line and cable 4 and left/right misalignment of sphere 3 above cable 4. The angle difference is corrected to zero using the turn axis of the turn/climb stick 15 and left/right misalignment with the left/right axis of the left/right forward/back stick 14. When all looks aligned, the operator lowers drone 1 with sphere 3 slowly onto cable 4 by the climb axis of stick 15, until he feels color distance is right and doesn't change color anymore, meaning the drone 1 with sphere 3 are partially resting and leaning on cable 4. At this moment the RPM of the rotors will reduce automatically, because much less lift is required. The reduction of RPM will be picked up by microphone 8E marked as Mic and heard by the operator through RPM Speaker 17a to indicate correct resting on cable 4, meaning also seizure of clamps 6 onto cable 4. At this moment the operator will slowly try to gain back some lost height. If seizure to cable 4 was completed correctly, drone 1 will try to lift cable 4 through clamps 6 of seized sphere 3. If everything is right, RPM will increase quickly. The operator will then flip the retract switch 16 and retract the landing gears 2 upwards. This will cause separation of protruding blocks 5B from landing skids receptacle blocks 5A, with simultaneous liftoff of drone 1, jumping upwards.
[0025] FIG. 3 shows the upgraded remote control unit, and its video screens on the ground, with normal drone remote control 9. For upgraded performance over manual operation by the operator, there is an addition of a sticks override unit 10, with a momentary switch called auto sequencer and marked 13. Pushing auto sequencer 13 will start the above explained sequence of commands and corrections automatically, to make it easier, faster, more unified and accurate, in each and every sphere 3 installation, allowing operation by less instinctive and or alert pilots. In both manual and automatic modes the operator will monitor the process through the side by side pictures on monitor 12, and focus on the normal drone telemetry coming from drone 1, the cable distance from 3D camera 8A, and RPM audio 17b through speaker 17a.
