Back to results
US 10,946,953 B2Granted
Multi-rotor tonal noise control for UAV
AssigneeWing Aviation LLC
InventorsGiulia Pantalone, Adam Woodworth, Eric Teller, Ealgoo Kim, Jacob Huffman, Martin Kubie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A technique of controlling tonal noises produced by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes generating thrust with a plurality of rotor units mounted to the UAV to propel the UAV into flight. Each of the rotor units includes a bladed rotor. A rotation rate or a phase delay of at least one of the rotor units is adjusted relative to another of the rotor units. The adjustment causes a spread in the tonal noises generated by the rotor units.
Claims24
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- a UAV body;
- a plurality of rotor units mounted to the UAV body, each of the rotor units including a bladed rotor that rotates to generate thrust;
- and
- a control system coupled to each of the rotor units to control rotation of the bladed rotor of each of the rotor units, wherein the control system includes a controller with logic that, when executed by the controller, will cause the UAV to perform operations including:
- adjusting at least one of a rotation rate or a phase delay of at least one of the rotor units relative to another of the rotor units, wherein adjusting the at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay causes a spread in tonal noises generated by the rotor units,
- wherein adjusting at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay comprises offsetting phase delays of the rotor units relative to each other to offset phases of peak amplitudes of the tonal noises generated by different ones of the rotor units from each other,
- wherein offsetting the phase delays of the rotor units relative to each other comprises:
- determining a revolution frequency for one or more of the rotor units to determine a rotation period for the one or more of the rotor units;
- dividing the rotation period by a number N of the rotor units to generate a phase delay value;
- and
- phase delaying each of the number N of the rotor units by a different integer multiple of the phase delay value.
8 more elements
A method of controlling tonal noises produced by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the method comprising:
- generating thrust with a plurality of rotor units mounted to the UAV to propel the UAV into flight, each of the rotor units including a bladed rotor;
- and
- adjusting at least one of a rotation rate or a phase delay of at least one of the rotor units relative to one or more others of the rotor units, wherein adjusting the at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay causes a spread in the tonal noises generated by the rotor units,
- wherein adjusting at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay comprises varying rotation rates of the rotor units relative to each other to spectrally spread out component frequencies of the tonal noises collectively generated by the rotor units,
- wherein one or more of the rotor units have different physical geometries relative to each other such that different rotation rates for different ones of the rotor units produce a common amount of thrust.
2 more elements
A method of controlling tonal noises produced by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the method comprising:
- generating thrust with a plurality of rotor units mounted to the UAV to propel the UAV into flight, each of the rotor units including a bladed rotor;
- adjusting at least one of a rotation rate or a phase delay of at least one of the rotor units relative to one or more others of the rotor units, wherein adjusting the at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay causes a spread in the tonal noises generated by the rotor units;
- and
- generating chords with the tonal noises by varying the rotation rates between the rotor units.
1 more element
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- a UAV body;
- a plurality of rotor units mounted to the UAV body, each of the rotor units including a bladed rotor that rotates to generate thrust;
- and
- a control system coupled to each of the rotor units to control rotation of the bladed rotor of each of the rotor units, wherein the control system includes a controller with logic that, when executed by the controller, will cause the UAV to perform operations including:
- adjusting at least one of a rotation rate or a phase delay of at least one of the rotor units relative to another of the rotor units, wherein adjusting the at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay causes a spread in tonal noises generated by the rotor units,
- wherein adjusting at least one of the rotation rate or the phase delay comprises varying rotation rates of the rotor units relative to each other to spectrally spread out component frequencies of the tonal noises collectively generated by the rotor units by dynamically modulating the rotation rates of different ones of the rotor units and introducing a gyroscopic wobble about a stabilized center of the UAV.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.