Abstract: The rotary wing drone comprises at least one rotor carried by a drone structure, wherein the drone structure comprises a drone body and at least one group of arms comprising a plurality of arms rotatably mounted on the drone body about the same axis of rotation, between a deployed position for flight and a folded position for transport.

Abstract: A device (15) for piloting a drone (10) comprising a touch screen (18) displaying a touch-sensitive area, means for detecting signals emitted by the touch-sensitive area, and means for transforming said detected signals into piloting commands and transmitting said commands to the drone. The device comprises control means, controlled by the touch-sensitive area forming activation/deactivation button, to make the drone piloting mode alternately switch between a mode of activation of the system for holding the last detected commands, mode in which said piloting commands transmitted to the drone result from the transformation of the last detected signals before the switching to the activation mode, and a mode of deactivation of the system for holding the last detected commands, mode in which said piloting commands transmitted to the drone result from the transformation of the current detected signals. The invention also relates to an associated method for controlling a drone.

Abstract: The inertial unit, IMU, of the drone is mounted on a main circuit board. The IMU (26) includes an internal temperature sensor delivering a chip temperature signal (?°chip). A heating component (36) is mounted on the circuit board near the IMU, and it is provided a thermal guide, incorporated to the circuit board, extending between the heating component and the IMU so as to allow a transfer to the IMU of the heat produced by the heating component. This thermal guide may in particular be a metal planar layer incorporated to the board, in particular a ground plane. A thermal regulation circuit (44-62) receives as an input the chip temperature signal (?chip) and a set-point temperature signal (?°ref), and delivers a piloting signal (TH_PWM) of the heating component, so as to control the heat supply to the IMU. It is in particular possible to use this fast increase in temperature to perform a complete calibration of the IMU in a few minutes.

Abstract: The drone comprises a camera (14), an inertial unit (46) measuring the drone angles, and an extractor module (52) delivering image data of a mobile capture area of reduced size dynamically displaced in a direction opposite to that of the variations of angle measured by the inertial unit. The module analyses the image data elements of the useful area to assign to each one a weighting coefficient representative of a probability of belonging to the sky, and defines dynamically a boundary of segmentation (F) of the useful area between sky and ground as a function of these weighting coefficients. Two distinct groups of regions of interest ROIs are defined, for the sky area and for the ground area, respectively, and the dynamic exposure control means are controlled as a function of the image data of the ROIs of one of these groups, in particular by excluding the ROIs of the sky area.

Abstract: The drone comprises a camera (14) having a rolling shutter digital sensor which sends video data (l) line by line. An inertial unit (26) sends a gyrometric signal representative of the variations in attitude (?, ?, ?) of the camera at a given instant. An image processing module (30) comprising an anti-wobble module receives the video data (l) and the gyrometric signal as inputs, and outputs video data processed and corrected for artifacts introduced by the vibrations of the motors of the drone. A complementary filtering module (36) applies a predetermined compensating transfer function to the gyrometric signal at the input of the anti-wobble module, which transfer function is an inverse transfer function of the frequency response of the gyrometric sensor of the inertial unit.

Abstract: This camera unit (14) comprises a high-resolution rolling shutter camera (16) and one or several low-resolution global shutter cameras (18), for example monochromic spectral cameras. All the cameras are oriented in the same direction and are able to be triggered together to collect simultaneously a high-resolution image (I0) and at least one low-resolution image (I1-I4) of a same scene viewed by the drone. Image processing means (22) determine the distortions of the wobble type present in the high-resolution image and absent from the low-resolution images, and combine the high-resolution image (I0) and the low-resolution images (I1-I4) to deliver as an output a high-resolution image (I?0) corrected for these distortions.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: The apparatus comprises a camera (10) with a digital sensor read by a mechanism of the rolling shutter type delivering video data (Scam) line by line. An exposure control circuit (22) adjusts dynamically the exposure time (texp) as a function of the level of illumination of the scene that is captured. A gyrometer unit (12) delivers a gyrometer signal (Sgyro) representative of the instantaneous variations of attitude (?, ?, ?) of the camera, and a processing circuit (18) that receives the video data (Scam) and the gyrometer signal (Sgyro) delivers as an output video data processed and corrected for artefacts introduced by vibrations specific to the apparatus. An anti-wobble filter (24) dynamically modifies the gain of the gyrometer signal as a function of the exposure time (texp), so as to reduce the gain of the filter when the exposure time increases, and vice versa.

Abstract: This system comprises a drone and a remote station with virtual reality glasses rendering images transmitted from the drone, and provided with means for detecting changes of orientation of the user's head. The drone generates a “viewpoint” image (P?1) and a “bird's eye” image (P?2) whose field is wider and whose definition is lower. When the sight axis of the “viewpoint” image is modified in response to changes of position of the user's head, the station generates locally during the movement of the user's head a combination of the current “viewpoint” and “bird's eye” images, with outlines (CO?) adjusted as a function of the changes of position detected by the detection means.

Abstract: 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 (302-324) for periodically elaborating an angular difference between the orientation of the glasses and the orientation of the console, and means (316) 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.

Abstract: This unit implements a remote-control console (20) supporting a tablet (18). The console comprises a TX/RX module (48) interfaced with a TX/RX module (50) 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 (54), interfaced with an TX/RX module (58) of the drone (10) 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 (78) ensures the interfacing between the two Wi-Fi networks, to allow the transparent exchange of data between the drone (10) and the tablet (18), as well as with levers and buttons of the console (64, 66) or with a peripheral (80) connected thereto.

Abstract: A new method of dynamic control of a rotary-wing drone in throw start includes the steps of: a) initializing a predictive-filter altitude estimator; b) the user throwing the drone in the air with the motors turned off; c) detecting the free fall state; d) upon detecting the free fall state, fast start with turn-on of the motors, open-loop activation of the altitude control means, and closed-loop activation of the attitude control means; e) after a motor response time, stabilizing the drone by closed-loop activation of the altitude control means, and closed-loop activation of the attitude control means; f) detecting a stabilization state such that the total angular speed of the drone is lower than a predetermined threshold; and g) upon detecting the stabilization state, switching to a final state in which the drone is in a stable lift condition and pilotable by the user.