TWO CAMERA'S REMOTE DRONE CONTROL

Two Camera's Remote Drone Control

By :  Hansen Vance L. Rue Richard O, US NAVY

ABSTRACT

A system for flying a drone aircraft by remote control wherein a first television camera, with an ultrawide angle lens mounted thereon, is placed in the cockpit of the drone aircraft where the head of the pilot is normally located; a second television camera, with a zoom lens mounted thereon, is placed in the nose of the drone aircraft; means are provided to send the pictures from either camera back to the ground where they are projected, using rear projection means, onto a hemispherical viewing screen; and a remote ground control is provided for flying the drone: in response to the pictures received from the cockpit or nose television cameras or both.   

DESCRIPTION

            As shown in FIGS; 1 and 2, a'firsttelevi'sion cairiera which is held in place by support 13, is mounted in the cockpit of drone aircraft 10 so that a lens 12 on the television camera is located where the head of the pilot would normally-he Television camera -11 may be equipped -withan-ultrawide angle lens having a field of view. A second television camera is located in the. nose of drone aircraft l0 and may be equipped with a zoom lensZS.

Television cameras 11 and 24 transmit signals which arereceived by mixer 28. Mixer 28' hasthe capability of selecting either the signal from camera ll and' projecting it onto the full. face of hemisphere 16, or selecting the signal fromcamera 24' and projecting it onto the central portion: of hemisphere, or the signal received from camera 11 may be projected full face. onto hemisphere 16 and additionally the signal from camera} 24 may be superposed upon a central portion of 'the hemiw sphere thereby blanking out that portion of the signal received from camera 11. i 1. Projection by television projector 15 isonto the convexsurface of translucent hemisphere 16. Television projector 15 may be a kinescope projector, or acontrolled layer sy'stern' such as the Eidophor System manufactured by .-Gretag,- Limited of the Netherlands. Hemisphere 16 may beconstructed of glass, plexiglass or'the like with a prepared surface to permit rear projection viewing from the concave slide. To operate the system, ground controller 18 places himself 1 1 in front of a remote'control console 29 suchthat hiseyes 26' are placed at approximately the center'of curvature of hem'isphere 16. Ground controller 18 may then activate television camera 11 or television camera 24 or both in combination to transmit pictures via mixer 28 to television projector 15 which projects onto the convex surfaceof hemisphere l6 for'display troller 18 would most likely use the ultrawide angle lens on television camera 11 which is mounted on the cockpit of the drone.

Once in flight, drone readings transmitted to instrument display 22 which is readily visible to ground controller 18. When the ground controller observes an object 19 approaching his drone aircraftfll), using ground flight controls 17, he can cause drone aircraft l0 to avoid the object. If the object is located far from drone aircraft l0, ground controller l8may wish to use television camera 24 with zoom lens 25 extended to its maximum focal length to produce the best image of the object. In this mode, only-the central portion of the hemisphere is used to minimize distortion. To enable the ground controller to look at one spot on the hemisphere close up, means are provided to point the camera with the zoom lens at that spot, and then project theimage. of the far spot onto a central portion of the hemisphere. This particular embodiment permits a pilot to zoom in" on. a given area, and then superpose the specific area upon the center, of the hemisphere to give a closeup view. It is within the scope of this invention to use a first and a second kinescope projector for transmittal of the images from television cameras 11 and 24, respectively. If two kinescope projectors are used, then the image projected from the zoom lens mounted on camera 24, which is in the nose of drone aircraft 10, will be projected full raster upon hemisphere 16. This projection of the full raster improves quality over a partial raster scheme which must be used when employing only a single kinescope projector. By using a control computer 30, which is operatively connected to drone aircraft 10, the panel instruments 23 have their ground controller can cause the drone to fly in response to automatic commands generated by control computer 30. Controlr tomputer 30 additionally receives feedback commands frompanel instruments 23 to provide a closed servoloop.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present invention, a first television camera equipped with a lens having a 180 field of view is mounted in the cockpit of a drone aircraft where the head of the pilot is normally located. A second television camera equipped with a zoom lens is mounted in the nose of the drone aircraft. The signal from the television cameras are received by a mixer which is capable of projecting, via a television projector, either the view from the cockpit television camera, the view from the nose television camera, or both superposed upon one another. The television projector projects the view from the television cameras onto the convex surface of a translucent hemisphere. A ground controller observing the projection from the center of curvature of the hemisphere is presented with an undistorted view from the drone.

A simulated cockpit with controls identical to the drone to be flown is constructed adjacent to the translucent hemisphere. Thus, the ground controller can view the hemisphere and fly the drone in response to the view from the hemisphere to simulate cockpit flying.