The key role of steering gear in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles

With the continuous development of UAV technology, this kind of micro-aircraft has penetrated into every field of our life, and the steering gear, as an important aviation component, is increasingly widely used in UAV. This paper will discuss the key role of steering gear in the safe flight of UAV, and introduce its technical principles and application scenarios

What is a steering gear

The steering engine is a position (Angle) servo driver, suitable for control systems that require constant changes in Angle and can be maintained, and is actually a simple servo motor system. Under the same torque output, the steering gear is smaller and lighter, which can reduce the self-weight of the UAV and improve the endurance and flight height of the UAV to a certain extent.

At present, most of the small and medium-sized UAs on the market use PWM steering gear in the selection of steering gear, which has good compatibility, strong explosive power, and the action that needs to be controlled by steering gear is relatively simple. However, large UAs or UAS that need to realize complex actions will choose bus steering gear (serial communication mode, so that multiple steering gear can be centralized controlled through a main control board) to meet their needs. Bus steering gear mostly uses magnetic encoder, which has higher accuracy and longer life, and can also feedback various data such as position, current and temperature. It can better monitor and control the operating status of the UAV.

The following are the main applications of steering gear in UAVs

•Rudder control of fixed wing UAV

The rocker arm and connecting rod are used to connect the steering gear and the rudder surface to control the rudder surface. By controlling the Angle of the rudder and elevator of the UAV, the flight direction and height of the UAV are controlled.

• Rotor deflection

By adjusting the Angle of the rudder surface, the pitch of the rotor is changed, and the change of pitch will change the lift force generated by the rotor, so as to realize the attitude adjustment and flight control of the UAV.

• The rack bar is adjusted up and down

The height of the steering engine can be adjusted by connecting with the rack bar. When the steering gear rotates, it will drive the rack rod to move up and down accordingly. Secondly, in order to achieve accurate up and down adjustment, a sensor is usually equipped to monitor the height of the rack bar. The sensor can feed the real-time height of the rack bar back to the control system for more precise control.

In addition to the above applications, the application of the steering gear in the UAV is far more than this, such as the rotation of the UAV's head, the throwing device, and the locking of the apron can be achieved through the steering gear. When selecting and using the steering gear, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the specific needs and working environment of the UAV to ensure the safe and stable operation of the UAV.

conclusion

To sum up, the steering gear has a broad application prospect in the field of UAV, although it may be slightly worse than the servo motor in terms of accuracy, but it is small in size, light in weight, and simple in structure, easy to install, far lower than the servo motor. With the continuous development and popularization of UAV technology, the application prospect of steering gear will also be broader. Therefore, in-depth research and extensive application of steering gear technology is of great significance to promote the development of UAV technology.