Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

When it comes to drones, everyone must be very familiar with them. With its cool appearance and practical functions, UAV has developed rapidly in recent years and has been welcomed by people.

In fact, after entering the 5G era, there will be another great-leap-forward development of UAV technology. With the blessing of 5G, the performance and application scenarios of UAV will also be greatly upgraded.

In today's article, Xiao Zaojun will talk to you about what changes 5G will bring to the field of drones. What kind of direction will the future drones develop?

Traditional drones first of all, let's start with traditional drones.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is actually the abbreviation of UAV,Unmanned   Aerial   Vehicle. More accurately, a UAV is a kind of aircraft that uses wireless remote control or program control to carry out specific aviation tasks. The biggest difference between it and a conventional aircraft is, of course, whether the aircraft is carrying personnel.

Some people say that a drone is a robot that can fly. The history of drones is not short. The world's first drones appeared as early as 100 years ago during World War I.

For a long time since then, the earliest drones have been used for military purposes, such as target aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft and so on.

The American "Firebee" target UAV has entered the 21st century, and the military UAV has developed to an astonishing extent, becoming the protagonist of the battlefield and the focus of the public.

The famous American MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is proficient in all kinds of reconnaissance and strike. With the continuous maturity of UAV technology, it begins to develop to the civilian field, deriving a variety of civilian models and applications.

These civilian drones have a wide variety, distinctive features and a wide range of uses.

According to the flight platform configuration, it can be divided into fixed-wing UAV, rotor UAV, flapping-wing UAV, UAV and unmanned airship.

The most common of the above drones we have seen is the following civilian rotary wing drones.

At present, this kind of UAV is widely used in various social fields, such as UAV spreading pesticides, UAV logistics, UAV shooting movies, UAV light shows, and so on.

The fuselage of UAV is usually composed of the following parts: frame, power system, flight control system and mounting system.

The rotor, the motor, and the battery in the frame all belong to the power system, not only the fuselage, but also the ground control system.

It's like this:

This mode of control belongs to point-to-point communication. The data transmission between the remote control and the UAV uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

As we all know, the communication distance of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is very limited. Take Wi-Fi as an example, it can only be controlled within the line-of-sight range of 300 to 500 meters (more than 1 km under certain conditions). Not to mention Bluetooth.

Therefore, this approach largely restricts the flight range of drones.

As the operator of drones (often referred to as "flying hands"), they generally dare not let drones fly too far. If it flies far away, it may lead to a disruption of communication between the drone and the pilot, or even "fried chicken (crash)".

As a result, people came up with a new way of communication with drones, that is, Internet-connected drones.

Internet-connected UAV is actually the use of cellular communication network to connect and control the UAV. To put it more simply, it uses base stations to connect drones.

Compared with Wi-Fi, cellular base station has a wider coverage, which will make the communication of UAV more flexible and reliable.

If you know anything about drones, you must have heard the words "picture" and "digital".

"Picture transfer" is to transmit the image and send the video or image taken by the drone pod camera back to the ground.

The "digital transmission" of the camera pod of the drone is the transmission of data. There are a lot of sensor data and flight data on the UAV, and sending these data back to the ground is digital transmission.

The communication between UAV and the ground is mainly for three purposes: picture transmission, data transmission and remote control.

It can be said that the requirement of UAV communication capability is the highest.

If we use Wi-Fi point-to-point communication, the communication distance is generally no more than 500m *, and the image transmission capacity can reach 1080p (resolution 1920 × 1080, ultra-clear), about 30 frames per second.

* manufacturers like Dajiang have developed an OcuSync graphic transmission technology (similar to Wi-Fi, which also uses the 2.4GHz band), which claims that the distance can reach 7 km (1080p).

If you use network-connected UAV, 4G LTE cellular communication technology, when the network base station coverage is in place, it can be said to be not limited by distance in theory. If the ability of picture transmission is about 720p (resolution 1280 × 720) at present.

If the image sent back by the UAV is aerial shot by a UAV, the resolution of 720p or 1080p is not clear because of the long distance, and in some specific scenarios (such as checking device indicators, parameters and face recognition, etc.), it still can not meet the needs of users.

In addition to the rate bandwidth, let's look at other aspects.

In terms of positioning, the positioning accuracy of the existing 4G network is about tens of meters in the airspace (if GPS positioning is used, the accuracy is about meter level). In some applications that require higher positioning accuracy (such as park logistics and distribution, complex terrain navigation, etc.), we must consider adding reference stations to provide assistance in order to achieve.

In terms of covering airspace, 4G network can only cover applications below 120 meters. At more than 120 meters (some high-altitude requirements, such as high-altitude mapping, trunk logistics, etc.), drones are prone to disconnection.

In a word, the application scenarios of UAV in 4G network and Wi-Fi network are too limited, and the scale of user audience is too small, which makes it difficult to be popularized in the consumer market, and restricts its long-term development and value play.

5G drones are clanging! Our 5G finally made its debut!

Because of the lack of 4G and Wi-Fi, we need more powerful cellular communication technology, which is 5G.

What on earth will 5G bring to drones? Let's look at it one by one.

First of all, it is still the picture biography mentioned just now.

The most important feature of 5G is, of course, ultra-wideband.

The theoretical bandwidth of 5G can reach more than 20Gbps. At present, the experimental network has generally reached the speed of 1Gbps, which is more than ten times that of 4G LTE.

With the support of this rate, not to mention 720p and 1080p, even 4K or even 8K UHD video can be perfectly supported.

Compared with the static, low-latitude perspective of traditional cameras on the ground, UAV with 5G will achieve dynamic, high-latitude ultra-high-definition wide-angle overlooking effect, that is, ultra-high-definition "God's perspective".

What is more remarkable about aerial photography of UAV is that compared with traditional UAV, which can only be photographed with a single-lens camera, under the blessing of 5G, UAV can hoist 360 °panoramic camera for multi-dimensional shooting.

Personnel on the ground of the VR panoramic camera pod are free to view from all directions and multiple angles through VR glasses.

In other words, drones really become the "eye of the sky", very clear and at a glance.

Bandwidth alone is certainly not enough.

5G network also has the characteristic of ultra-low delay, which can provide millisecond transmission delay (lower than 20ms, even up to 1ms LTE 4G 50ms). This will enable the UAV to respond more quickly to ground commands and the ground pilot to control the UAV more accurately.

5G can also provide centimeter positioning accuracy, which is much higher than the 10m class of LTE and the meter class of GPS. In this way, it can fully meet the flight needs of such a complex terrain environment.

The Massive MIMO large-scale antenna array and beamforming technology used in 5G can flexibly and automatically adjust the phase of the signals transmitted by each antenna, not only horizontally but also vertically.

3D-Beamforming is conducive to a certain height target signal coverage, to meet the national regulatory requirements for low-altitude airspace within 500m, and the future urban multi-high-rise environment of UAV flight requirements above 120m.

In terms of flight data security of UAV, it also has obvious advantages over 4G or Wi-Fi,5G. The data transmission process of 5G is more secure and reliable, and the wireless channel is not easy to be interfered or invaded.

In addition to solving the problem of communication capability between UAV and base station, 5G has a great improvement on the supporting platform of UAV system.

A complete UAV system consists of air and ground parts.

Traditional Wi-Fi point-to-point communication, the ground part only remote control and mobile phone, the capacity is very limited.

And Internet-connected drones can provide strong platform support:

Combined with cloud computing, the ground platform of Networked UAV can provide larger capacity of data storage, more powerful computing power, and provide services (such as video viewing) for more ground personnel in different places.

With the massive connectivity of 5G, the number of drones that can be accessed in the 5G network is almost unlimited (1 million terminals per square kilometer).

The marginal computing power of 5G also has the opportunity to show its ability. The edge computing center can be set up near the 5G base station, and the data related to the UAV can be calculated at the edge computing center without having to be sent to a farther cloud computing center, thus ensuring a low latency (autopilot for drones in the future).

Moreover, the D2D (Device to Device) communication capability provided by 5G enables direct communication between UAV and UAV, which can better serve autopilot and cluster coordination.

In a word, the high bandwidth, low delay, high precision, wide airspace and high security given by 5G can help UAV make up the deficiency, unlock more application scenarios and meet the needs of more users.

To put it simply, two words: awesome!

So much has been said about the application scenario of 5G UAV, let's take a specific application case of 5G UAV.

First of all, let's take a look at line inspection, which is often mentioned in 5G UAV applications.

Now our country's power grid transmission line equipment, as well as the operator's macro station equipment, are often located in wild and uninhabited areas, even in mountainous areas. In the past, manual inspection can only be used to check the operation status of these equipment, which has the advantages of high cost, high risk, long time and low efficiency.

In order to check in place, personnel often need to climb the tower at high altitude, which is of great risk. Using UAV for patrol inspection, the equipment can be checked by 360-degree HD video in all directions. The definition of 4K or even 8K is enough to view the details of the equipment (even instrument parameters and indicators), and to complete data acquisition and archiving.

UAV patrol inspection

The 5G UAV inspection conducted by Dongguan Unicom and the Power supply Bureau and the UAV can choose different camera pods according to their needs, such as high-definition zoom cameras, infrared cameras, night vision cameras, lidar, etc., to obtain more accurate and detailed image information.

In this way, the UV image of high-voltage line fault reduces the risk, reduces the time, improves the inspection efficiency, and can also greatly reduce the cost.

The 5G UAV can also carry special pods to carry out some special disposal under the precise operation with low time delay:

Drones breathe fire to clear obstacles (burning sundries such as kites) in addition to power grid inspections and base station inspections, oil pipeline inspections are now using drones.

For our communications industry, in addition to using drones to patrol base stations, we can also use drones for network optimal road testing.

Let's take a look at the application of 5G drones in traffic management and land-to-air cooperation in the drone network test in Nanjing Qingao Park.

Compared with the traditional road monitoring, the 5G UAV has stronger maneuverability and higher flexibility, and can arrive at the scene at the first time.

The panoramic wide-angle high-definition images and videos transmitted by the 5G UAV make it easy for traffic control departments to check road congestion and traffic accidents in time.

5G UAV can also detect road violations in time during line patrol, and take 4K ultra-high-definition photos to collect evidence of illegal parking, illegal occupation of emergency lanes, illegal lane change and so on. The 5G UAV also integrates the function of remote shouting, which can guide and warn the vehicles on the spot. This will undoubtedly greatly save the police force, shorten the police time, and efficiently complete the traffic management work.

Also worth mentioning is the application of 5G UAV in emergency communication and rescue.

When disasters occur (such as earthquakes, landslides, floods), the traditional communication base stations are often damaged and can not work properly.

At this time, drones can be used to carry communication base stations to provide temporary communication signal coverage services for the disaster areas.

On the one hand, China Mobile's UAV high-altitude base station can ensure normal communication in the disaster area. On the other hand, location services can be provided to the trapped people to confirm their location. In addition, 5G drones can also capture and send back ultra-high-definition video images of the disaster area in real time, helping government disaster relief workers to organize disaster relief more effectively.

5G drones can do much more than that. Including UAV logistics, UAV fire fighting, UAV border patrol and so on, a variety of industries can find the intersection with 5G drones.

The application field of 5G UAV can be said that the potential of 5G UAV is very huge and the market prospect is very broad!

As we all know, the biggest problem troubling the development of UAV is the battery life. At present, the flight duration of civil rotor UAV is basically between 20 and 30 minutes, which obviously restricts the use and popularity of UAV.

At present, there is a solution to this problem, which is with the help of wireless charging technology.

Now new smartphones are beginning to support wireless charging. In the future, to charge the UAV, it is no longer necessary to arrange manual replacement of the battery, but to park the UAV directly on the charging platform for fast charging.

The unmanned charging platform of the wireless charging base of the UAV can be set on the roof of a high-rise building and covers a small area. In the case of no breakthrough in battery technology, this is the most reasonable solution.

In addition to battery life, there is also a fatal problem in the "black flight" problem of drones, that is, the problem of "black flight".

Black flight refers to some flights that do not obtain a private pilot's license or the plane does not have a legal identity, that is, unregistered flights. This kind of flight is very dangerous and poses a threat to public safety.

At present, the relevant departments mainly control the flight of drones in the following ways:

For 5G UAV, black flight control will be more convenient and flexible.

First of all, if you are an unregistered 5G UAV, you can't get into the network, connect to the Internet, or fly at all.

Secondly, when the UAV is flying in the air, flying from one base station cell to another (cell switching), the base station side can judge whether it is a UAV or not through the characteristics of Doppler frequency shift, flight trajectory and so on. Notify the management platform of the network side, control it to death, do not let it fly randomly.

The ground platform has a more accurate grasp of flight information (position, altitude, speed, direction, electricity), and it will be very convenient and flexible to set up electronic fences and no-fly zones.

In short, in the era of Internet-connected 5G UAV, the phenomenon of black flight will be effectively curbed and the safety factor will be greatly improved.

The future of 5G UAV with the support of 5G, cloud computing, big data and AI artificial intelligence, UAV will certainly develop towards intelligence in the future.

Take the flight control of UAV as an example, the previous UAV was remote control flight. With the assistance of sensors, the flight attitude can be better controlled. And then, now, drones can initially fly automatically and avoid obstacles. In the future, drones will fully realize autonomous flight.

In other words, its flight trajectory and process will be completely set by the UAV system itself. This is a bit like fully autopilot in the Internet of cars.

If UAV wants to achieve safe autopilot, it can not be achieved without the support of flight platform, including sensor information sharing, flight route sharing, flight environment perception, intelligent obstacle avoidance, and so on.

5G can also help UAV to better realize cluster cooperation. So that many drones can do a job together, reducing human intervention.

The group performance of drones, which is often seen in the news, is actually a kind of group cooperation. Finally, 5G UAV will be an important part and carrier of the digital sky in the future.

According to professional forecasts, the number of drones consumed in the world will reach 16 million in 2020, and the output value of the entire UAV industry will reach 127.3 billion US dollars. If 5G starts well, it will undoubtedly further stimulate the growth of these numbers.

The cross-border integration between 5G and UAV is actually an innovation of the digital transformation of the whole industry, which may give us more enlightenment when 5G lands in the industrial Internet of things and other fields.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fresh Jujube classroom (ID:xzclasscom), author: Xiaozaojun

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