Tether controlled drone
AssigneeUniversity of Cincinnati
InventorsShraddha Barawkar, Manish Kumar, Kelly Cohen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and computer program products for controlling a drone using a tether. A drone is coupled to a distal end of the tether, and a force sensor measures one or more force parameters exerted on the drone by the tether. The force parameters are in turn used to generate control parameters, and the control parameters provided to a flight controller. The flight controller generates one or more propulsion parameters based on the control parameters, and provides the propulsion parameters to respective propulsion units of the drone. The drone can thereby be controlled by manipulating a proximate end of the tether, which changes the force parameters measured by the force sensor.
Claims20
A system for controlling a drone, comprising:
- a tether having a proximal end and a distal end operatively coupled to the drone;
- a force sensor that measures a force parameter exerted on the drone by the tether;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a memory coupled to the one or more processors and including program code that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
- receive a signal from the force sensor indicative of the force parameter;
- and
- control at least one of an attitude and a position of the drone based at least in part on the force parameter.
A method of controlling a drone, comprising:
- manipulating a proximal end of a tether having a distal end operatively coupled to the drone;
- measuring a force parameter exerted on the drone by the tether;
- and
- controlling at least one of an attitude and a position of the drone based at least in part on the force parameter.
A computer program product for controlling a drone using a tether, comprising:
- a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;
- and
- program code stored on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
- measure a force parameter exerted on the drone by the tether;
- and
- control at least one of an attitude and a position of the drone based at least in part on the force parameter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.