Parrot Drones

Arsene Ferrand

Henri Seydoux

Nicolas Brulez

Flavien Morra

Christine Caubel

Farid Zaouia

Guillame Savoye

The invention relates to a rotary-wing drone () comprising a drone body comprising an electronic board controlling the piloting of the drone, a wireless communication module and a plurality of connection arms, the wireless communication module being connected to a communication antenna (), a plurality of propulsion units () mounted at the end of respective connection arms (), and at least one drone body support () adapted to maintain the drone body remote from the ground. The drone body support () comprises an antenna housing () for holding the communication antenna.

Drone having a support housing an antenna

The system comprises a drone and a ground station. The ground station includes a console provided with a directional antenna adapted to be directed towards the drone maintain the quality of the wireless link with the latter, and virtual reality glasses rendering images taken by a camera of the drone. The system comprises means for determining the position of the drone with respect to a heading of the console, and means for including in the images (I) rendered in the virtual reality glasses a visual indication (C, Ce, G, Id) of misalignment of the drone with respect to the console heading. Although he is isolated from the external real environment, the pilot is able, based on this visual indication, to reorient the console, typically by turning on himself, so that the directional antenna thereof suitably points towards the drone.

System for piloting a drone in immersion

The system comprises a drone and a ground station with a console adapted to be directed towards the drone, and virtual reality glasses rendering images taken by a camera of the drone. The system further comprises means for modifying the framing of the images taken by the camera as a function of framing instructions received from the ground station. It further comprises relative heading determination means (-) for periodically elaborating an angular difference between the orientation of the glasses and the orientation of the console, and means () for elaborating framing instructions for the drone as a function said angular difference. The sudden changes of framing when the user simply turns the console and his whole body, head included, towards the drone to follow it in its displacements, are hence avoided.

Drone immersion-piloting system

This unit implements a remote-control console () supporting a tablet (). The console comprises a TX/RX module () interfaced with a TX/RX module () of the tablet to form a first Wi-Fi local network, which is a short-range standard network. The console comprises another specific TX/RX module (), interfaced with an TX/RX module () of the drone () to form a second Wi-Fi local network, which is an optimized long-range network, both being networks operating on non-shared channels. A bidirectional routing module () ensures the interfacing between the two Wi-Fi networks, to allow the transparent exchange of data between the drone () and the tablet (), as well as with levers and buttons of the console () or with a peripheral () connected thereto.

Growing community of inventors

Paris, France

Arsene Ferrand