Successful test of essential technology One step toward the realization of "flying car" (Masahiko Ishida) --Individual --Yahoo! News

Air movement technologies such as "cars" that fly freely in the sky are attracting attention. Many of them are already in the demonstration experiment stage, such as flying courier services and taxis. Indispensable for such technology is collision avoidance in the air. This time, the government-affiliated research institute NEDO successfully conducted a test flight with a manned helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle at a relative speed of 100 km / h.

The other day, actor Rutger Hauer, who played the role of a replicant in the movie "Blade Runner" (1982), died, but the main character Deckard who confronted him was on a vertical takeoff and landing aerial vehicle called Spinner. The spinner in the movie was flying while skillfully avoiding the flying cars passing by.

The practical application of such flying cars is still a long way off, but so-called drones (small unmanned aerial vehicles) and unmanned helicopters are gradually being put into practical use not only for special purposes such as spraying pesticides and transporting disaster supplies, but also for general-purpose purposes such as delivery of courier services. It is going (* 1).

Most of today's drones are radio-controlled within the visible range, but they may fly out of sight due to long-distance travel or long infrastructure inspections such as bridges and power lines. However, after establishing safety, it will fly in the sky as an autonomous robot aircraft in the future.

The government is advancing the "Industrial Revolution in the Sky," and the priority issues are technological development and environmental improvement for the safe use of small unmanned aerial vehicles. According to this roadmap, a package delivery system model to remote islands and mountainous areas will be built by the end of FY2019, and demonstration experiments will be conducted in urban areas as well.

Autopilot autonomous maneuvering is also an important technology for the realization of flying cars. It is technically, legally, and licensed difficult to fly a car with people on its own, and not everyone can do it.

The realistic form of a flying car is that a large drone carrying people flies autonomously. However, there are many hurdles that must be overcome to achieve this.

First, unmanned aerial vehicles such as small and medium-sized drones are required to avoid collisions with unmanned aerial vehicles or with manned aircraft.

Even at present, as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles increases, near misses with manned aircraft such as helicopters are beginning to occur. According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, four near misses of manned and unmanned aircraft occurred in 2016, and the manned aircraft side was a helicopter including a doctor helicopter in all of them.

The Aviation Law has agreements on course priority and evasive action when aircraft flying in the air approach each other. Unmanned aerial vehicles cannot fly in airspace above 150 m without the permission of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, but it seems that they often fly above altitude in the case of transporting disaster supplies.

In addition, in an emergency such as a doctor helicopter or disaster relief, or depending on the helicopter's takeoff and landing site, it may fly in the airspace of an unmanned aerial vehicle. Aircraft accidents can lead to serious life-threatening events. In order to put unmanned aerial vehicles to practical use, not just flying cars, technology for avoiding collisions between manned and unmanned aerial vehicles is essential.

The abbreviation NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) is a national research and development corporation under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, but it is also promoting research and development of robots and drones. This time, NEDO will use a manned aircraft (helicopter) and a medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicle (manufactured by Yamaha Motor) in a wide-area flight airspace in Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture, with SUBARU, Japan Radio, Japan Avionics, etc., at a relative speed of 100 km / h. Announced that it succeeded in autonomous collision avoidance flight by the unmanned aerial vehicle side (* 2).

Unmanned aerial vehicle used in this flight test (Fazer G2 manufactured by Yamaha Motor): From the release of NEDO

This flight test was conducted on July 24th and 25th, 2019 in the same airspace, and a manned aircraft with a speed of 60km / h went straight at an altitude of 100m, and an unmanned aerial vehicle with a speed of 40km / h went straight at an altitude of 60m. (Altitude difference 40m). The unmanned aerial vehicle side is equipped with light wave and radio wave sensors (omnidirectional radar), and the manned aircraft is detected by the radio wave sensor within about 5 km, and when approaching within about 500 m, it is visually recognized by the camera according to image detection knowledge and to the right. It turned and was able to maintain a distance of 150m when it was closest.

Details of the collision avoidance test. The autonomous management device installed on the unmanned aerial vehicle side automatically determines the danger of collision, takes evasive action to maintain a distance of 150 m, and returns to the original air route after the danger of collision is eliminated by the omnidirectional radar. I have returned. By image processing of the camera according to image detection knowledge, it is identified that the approaching aircraft is a manned helicopter, the autonomous management device calculates the approach direction and relative speed, etc., and automatically determines the route that can avoid the collision. bottom. : From the release of NEDO

According to the flight test conducted in December 2017, it was decided that the mutual distance should be three-dimensionally separated by 150 m. The altitude difference was about 50m, which was not affected by the downwash caused by the rotor blades of the helicopter, and it was said that the altitude difference was less than that (this time, the altitude difference was 40m). In other words, if the altitude difference is 50m or more, avoidance action is not necessary.

In December 2018, an unmanned aerial vehicle approached a place where the manned aircraft was hovering and stationary, and a test was conducted to identify the manned aircraft and take evasive action, which was successful. It seems that a kind of AI is used to analyze the image data of such a partner.

Except for low-mobility aircraft such as airships, they move at high speed in the three-dimensional space of the air with clouds and fog, so it will be difficult to see them when they come close to each other. Therefore, it is necessary to improve visibility by strobe light emission or to sense with radar or the like. It will also be important to acquire accurate position information using a quasi-zenith satellite system.

In the future, it will be necessary to educate the operators of unmanned aerial vehicles about safety awareness and to improve the education system. In addition, navigation rules should be created, including the arrangement of course rights and the unpredictable avoidance behavior of manned aircraft. Are we one step closer to a flying car with a manned robot drone?

* 1: The term "aircraft" simply means an airplane, rotary wing aircraft, glider, and airship that a person can ride on and use for aviation, and the term "unmanned aircraft" means that it can be used for aviation. Of the airplanes, rotary-wing aircraft, gliders, and airships that can be used, which are structurally inaccessible to humans, they can be flown by remote control or automatic control (200 g or more).

* 2: Project name "Project to realize an energy-saving society in which robots and drones play an active role", Implementation period: Scheduled for 5 years from FY2017 to FY2021, Budget 3.6 billion yen in FY2019