What’s so special about 5G drones?
Latest update time：2019-12-22
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Please note that this article is a revised re-post!
Original publication time: April 25, 2019
Speaking of drones, everyone must be very familiar with them. With their cool appearance and practical functions
, drones
have developed rapidly in recent years and have been welcomed by people.
I often see it around me.
In fact, after entering the 5G era, drone technology will have another leap forward
. With the support of 5G, the performance and application scenarios of drones will also be greatly upgraded.
In today's article, Xiaozao will talk to you about what changes 5G will bring to the drone industry and what direction drones will develop in the future.
Traditional drones
First, let’s start with traditional drones.
Drone is actually
the abbreviation of
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
. More precisely, a drone is an aircraft that uses wireless remote control or program control to perform specific aviation tasks. The biggest difference between it and conventional aircraft is, of course,
whether there are people
on board the aircraft
.
Some people also say that a drone is a flying robot.
The history of drones is not short. As early as 100 years ago during World War I, the world's first drone appeared.
The earliest drones
In the long years that followed, drones have been used for military purposes, such as target drones, reconnaissance aircraft, etc.
The old American "Firebee" target drone
Entering the 21st century, military drones have developed to an astonishing degree, becoming the protagonists on the battlefield and the focus of the public.
The famous American MQ-9 Reaper drone is proficient in reconnaissance and strike
As drone technology continues to mature, it has begun to develop into
the civilian field
, spawning a variety of civilian models and applications.
These civilian drones are of various types, with distinct features and a wide range of uses.
According to the flight platform configuration, it can be divided into fixed-wing UAVs, rotorcraft UAVs, flapping-wing UAVs, paraglider UAVs and unmanned airships.
Among the above drones,
the one we have seen most is the following
civilian
rotor
drone.
This type of drone is currently widely used in various social fields, such as drone spraying of pesticides, drone logistics, drone filming, drone light shows, and so on.
Drone spraying of pesticides
Connected drones
The fuselage of a civil rotorcraft drone is usually composed of the following parts:
frame
,
power system
,
flight control system
, and
mounting system
.
The rotor, motor, and battery in the frame are all part of the power system.
In addition to the fuselage, there is also a ground control system.
like this:
This control method belongs to
point-to-point communication
. The data transmission between the remote controller and the drone is done by
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 usually only be controlled within
the line-of-sight range of
300~500 meters
(under certain conditions, it can reach more than 1 kilometer). Not to mention Bluetooth.
Therefore, this method greatly restricts the flight range of the drone.
As the operator of a drone (usually called a "pilot"), you generally don't dare to let the drone fly too far.
If it flies too far, it may cause the communication between the drone and the pilot to be interrupted
,
or even "
crash
".
So, people came up with a new way of drone communication, that is -
networked drones
.
Networked drones actually use cellular communication networks to connect and control drones. In simpler terms, it uses base stations to network drones.
Drone + cellular communication base station
Compared with Wi-Fi, cellular base stations have a wider coverage area, which will make drone communications more flexible and reliable.
If you know a little about drones, you must have heard of
the two terms
"image transmission" and "digital transmission"
.
"Image transmission" means transmitting images, that is, transmitting the video or image pictures taken by the drone's pod camera back to the ground.
Camera pod for drone
"Digital transmission" means transmitting data. There are a lot of sensor data and flight data on the drone, and transmitting this data back to the ground is digital transmission.
There are three main purposes of communication between drones and the ground: image transmission, data transmission and remote control.
Image transmission has the highest requirements for drone communication capabilities.
If we use Wi-Fi point-to-point communication, the communication distance generally does not exceed 500 meters*, and the image transmission capability can reach 1080p (resolution 1920×1080, ultra-clear), about 30 frames per second.
*Compared to some powerful manufacturers like DJI, they have developed their own OcuSync image transmission technology (similar to Wi-Fi, also using the 2.4GHz frequency band), which claims that the image transmission distance can reach 7 kilometers (1080p).
If you use a networked drone, 4G LTE cellular communication technology, when the network base station coverage is in place, it can be said that there is no distance limit in theory. As for the image transmission capability, it is currently mainly around 720p (resolution 1280×720).
Images transmitted from drones
If it is drone aerial photography,
due to the long distance,
the 720p or 1080p resolution is not clear enough, and it still cannot meet the user's needs in some specific scenarios (such as checking device indicator lights, parameters, and face recognition).
In addition to speed and bandwidth, let's look at other aspects.
In
terms of positioning
, the existing 4G network has an airspace positioning accuracy of about
tens of meters
(if GPS positioning is used, the accuracy is about
meters
). In some applications that require higher positioning accuracy (such as park logistics distribution, complex terrain navigation, etc.), it is necessary to consider adding
base stations
to provide assistance in order to achieve this.
In terms of airspace coverage, 4G networks can only cover
applications within the range of
120 meters below
the ground
. Above 120 meters (some high-altitude needs, such as
high-altitude mapping, trunk logistics, etc.
), drones are prone to loss of connection.
In summary, the current application scenarios of drones under 4G networks and Wi-Fi networks are too limited and the user audience is too small, which makes it difficult for them to be popularized in the consumer market and also restricts their long-term development and value realization.
5G drones
Ding ding ding! Our 5G finally makes its debut!
Because 4G and Wi-Fi are not powerful enough, we need a more powerful cellular communication technology, which is 5G.
What exactly will 5G bring to drones? Let’s take a look at them one by one.
First of all, let’s talk about image transmission.
The first of 5G's many features is, of course,
ultra-wideband
.
The theoretical bandwidth of 5G can reach more than 20Gbps. The experimental networks that have been built so far have generally reached a rate of 1Gbps, which is more than ten times the speed of 4G LTE.
With this rate support, not to mention 720p and 1080P, even 4K and even 8K
ultra-high-definition videos
can be perfectly supported.
Compared with the static, low-latitude perspective of traditional ground cameras, drones combined with 5G will achieve a dynamic, high-latitude
ultra-high-definition wide-angle
bird's-eye view, which is an ultra-high-definition
"God's perspective"
.
Drone aerial photography
What’s more amazing is that compared to traditional drones that can only shoot with a single-lens camera, with the support of 5G, drones can be equipped with 360° panoramic cameras for multi-dimensional shooting.
VR Panoramic Camera Pod
People on the ground can freely view the situation from all angles through VR glasses.
In other words, drones have truly become the "eyes in the sky"
, with extremely clear and unobstructed views.
Bandwidth alone is certainly not enough.
5G networks also have the characteristics of ultra-low latency, which can provide
millisecond-level transmission latency
(less than 20ms, even up to 1ms, 4G LTE is more than 50ms). This will enable drones to respond to ground commands faster and ground pilots to control drones more accurately.
5G can also provide
centimeter-level positioning accuracy
, which is far higher than LTE's ten-meter level and GPS's meter level. In this way, it can fully meet the flight needs in complex terrain environments such as urban areas.
The Massive MIMO antenna array
and
beamforming technology
used by 5G
can flexibly and automatically adjust the phase of the signal transmitted by each antenna, not only in the horizontal direction but also in the vertical direction.
3D-Beamforming
This will be conducive to signal coverage of targets at a certain altitude, meet the country's requirements for low-altitude airspace supervision within 500 meters, and meet the future demand for drones to fly above 120 meters in cities with many high-rise buildings.
In terms of drone flight data security, 5G also has obvious advantages over 4G or Wi-Fi.
5G's
data transmission process is safer and more reliable
, and the wireless channel is not easily interfered with or
invaded
.
In addition to solving the communication problem between drones and base stations, 5G
also has great improvements in
the drone system support platform
.
A complete UAV system consists of
an air segment
and
a ground segment
.
In traditional Wi-Fi point-to-point communication
, the ground part only has the remote control and the mobile phone, and its capabilities are very limited
.
And
connected
unmanned
machines
can
provide a powerful
platform
support
:
Combined with cloud computing, the ground platform of networked drones can provide larger data storage capacity and more powerful computing power,
providing services (such as video viewing) to more ground personnel in remote locations.
Thanks to 5G's massive connectivity features, the number of drones that can be connected to the 5G network is almost unlimited (1 million terminals can be connected per square kilometer).
5G's edge computing capabilities also have their place. An edge computing center
can be set up near a 5G base station
. The drone-related data can be calculated at the edge computing center without having to be sent to a more distant cloud computing center, thus ensuring low latency (serving the autonomous driving of drones in the future).
Even more, the D2D (Device to Device) communication capability provided by 5G can enable direct communication between drones, better serving autonomous driving and swarm collaboration.
D2D Communication
In short, the high bandwidth, low latency, high precision, wide airspace, and high security
provided by 5G
can help drones make up for their
shortcomings,
unlock more application scenarios, and meet more user needs.
To put it simply, two words: awesome!
Application scenarios of 5G drones
Having said so much, let’s look at the specific application cases of 5G drones.
First, let’s look at
line inspection
, which is often mentioned in 5G drone applications.
At present, our country's power grid transmission line equipment and operators' macro base station equipment are often located in uninhabited areas in the wild, or even in mountainous areas. In the past, the only way to check the operating status of these equipment was to use manual inspection, which was costly, risky, time-consuming and inefficient.
In order to conduct thorough inspections, personnel often need to climb towers at high altitudes, which involves great risks.
Using drones for inspections can provide 360-degree, all-round high-definition video inspections of equipment. The clarity of 4K or even 8K is sufficient to view all details of the equipment (even instrument parameters and indicator lights), and can also complete data collection and archiving.
Drone inspection
Earlier this month, Dongguan Unicom and the Power Supply Bureau conducted a 5G drone inspection of distribution stations
Moreover, drones can choose different camera pods as needed, such as high-definition zoom cameras, infrared cameras, night vision cameras, lidar, etc., to obtain more accurate and detailed image information.
Ultraviolet image of high voltage line fault
This reduces risks, saves time, improves inspection efficiency, and significantly cuts costs.
5G drones can also carry special pods to perform some special operations with low latency and precision:
Drone fire removal (burning debris such as kites)
In addition to power grid inspections and base station inspections, drones are now also being used for oil pipeline inspections.
For our communications industry, in addition to using drones to inspect base stations, we can also use drones for network optimization and road testing.
Drone network optimization test in Nanjing Youth Olympic Park
Let’s take a look at
5G drone applications
in traffic management and land-air coordination
.
Compared with traditional road monitoring, 5G drones have 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 back by 5G drones make it easier for traffic management departments to check road congestion and traffic accidents in a timely manner.
5G drones can also detect road violations in a timely manner during patrols, and
take
4K
ultra-high-definition
photos
of illegal parking, illegal occupation of emergency lanes, illegal lane changes, etc. 5G
drones also integrate
the function of
remote shouting
, which can guide and warn vehicles on site. This will undoubtedly greatly save police force, shorten police response time, and efficiently complete traffic management work.
Another thing worth mentioning is the application of 5G drones in
emergency communications and rescue
.
When disasters occur (such as earthquakes, mudslides, and floods), traditional communication base stations are often damaged and unable to function normally.
At this time, drones equipped with communication base stations can be used to provide temporary communication signal coverage services for the disaster area.
China Mobile's drone high-altitude base station
On the one hand, it can ensure normal communication in the disaster area. On the other hand, it can provide positioning services to the trapped people and confirm their location. In addition, 5G drones can also shoot and transmit ultra-high-definition video images of the disaster area in real time, helping government rescue workers organize disaster relief more effectively.
5G drones can play a role in more areas than the above, including drone logistics, drone firefighting, drone border patrol, etc. All walks of life can find intersections with 5G drones.
Application areas of 5G drones
It can be said that the potential of 5G drones is huge and the market prospects are very broad!
Drone endurance issues
As we all know, the biggest problem that currently plagues the development of drones is
the battery life
. The current civilian rotor drones have a battery life of basically 20-30 minutes, which obviously restricts the use and popularization of drones.
There is currently a solution to this problem, which is to use
wireless charging technology
.
Now new smartphones have begun to support wireless charging.
In the future, to charge the drone, there will no longer be a need to arrange for manual replacement of batteries. Instead, the drone can be directly parked on the charging platform for quick charging.
Wireless charging base for drones
Unmanned charging platforms can be set up on the roofs of tall buildings, occupying a small area. This is the most reasonable solution when battery technology has not yet achieved a breakthrough.
The problem of “ illegal flying ” of drones
In addition to battery life, drones also have a fatal problem, which is
the problem of "illegal flying"
.
Illegal flying refers to flying without a private pilot's license or without a legal aircraft status, that is, unregistered flying. This kind of flying is very dangerous and will threaten public safety.
At present, relevant departments mainly control drone flights through the following methods:
For 5G drones, illegal flight control will be more convenient and flexible.
First of all, if you have an unregistered 5G drone, you can’t access the network, you can’t connect to the Internet, and you can’t fly at all. . .
Secondly, when a drone is flying in the air, from one base station cell to another (cell switching occurs), the base station side can determine whether it is a drone through characteristics such as Doppler frequency shift and flight trajectory, and notify the management platform on the network side to control it tightly and prevent it from flying around.
The ground platform has a more accurate grasp of flight information (position, altitude, speed, direction, power), making it very convenient and flexible to set up electronic fences and no-fly zones.
Setting a no-fly zone on the network side
In short, in the era of networked 5G drones, illegal flying will be effectively curbed and the safety factor will be greatly improved.
The future of 5G drones
With the support of 5G, cloud computing, big data and AI, drones will definitely
develop towards
intelligence
in the future
.
Take the flight control of drones as an example. In the past, drones were remotely controlled. Later, sensors were used to help better control the flight attitude. Later, now, drones can achieve preliminary automatic flight and obstacle avoidance. In the future, drones will fully realize
autonomous flight
.
In other words, its flight trajectory and process will be completely set by the drone system itself. This is a bit like
the fully autonomous driving
in the Internet of Vehicles
.
If drones want to achieve safe autonomous driving, they definitely need the support of a flight platform, including sensor information sharing, flight route sharing, flight environment perception, intelligent obstacle avoidance, etc., all of which are achieved based on the platform.
5G can also help drones better achieve
cluster collaboration
, allowing many drones to complete a task together and reduce human intervention.
The drone swarm performances that we often see in the news are actually a kind of cluster collaborative operation.
Final Words
5G drones are the important components and carriers of the future digital sky.
According to professional organizations, the number of consumer drones in the world will reach 16 million in 2020, and the output value of the entire drone industry will reach 127.3 billion US dollars. If 5G gets off to a good start, it will undoubtedly further stimulate the growth of these figures.
The cross-border integration between 5G and drones is actually an innovation in the digital transformation of the entire industry. It may bring more inspiration to the implementation of 5G in fields such as industrial Internet of Things.
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