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Experimental Flight Test for Autonomous Station-Keeping of a Lighter-Than-Air Vehicle

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Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services

Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 40))

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Abstract

The benefits of stationary aerial platforms for continuous observation of a fixed area are evident in cases such as natural disasters, environmental monitoring, intelligence gathering, etc. Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) technology has advanced significantly, for example high-pressure balloons that would make such a platform a potential solution for long, uninterrupted and persistent observation. An adaptive nonlinear control system was designed for LTA station-keeping, with an adaption mechanism to accommodate uncertainties in system parameters. The controller was subsequently implemented on a micro controller and tested in a flight experiment using a helium balloon. The tests were conducted in a 4.5 m by 4.5 m enclosure using infrared sensors to determine position by measuring distance from the walls.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Cees Bil & Milan Simic

  2. Mechanical Engineering Dynamics, Systems and Control, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Jeroen Zegers & Leroy Hazeleger

  3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Liuping Wang

Authors
  1. Cees Bil
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  2. Jeroen Zegers
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  3. Leroy Hazeleger
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  4. Liuping Wang
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  5. Milan Simic
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cees Bil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology, University of Milan, Crema, Italy

    Ernesto Damiani

  2. KES International, Shoreham-by-sea, United Kingdom

    Robert J. Howlett

  3. Faculty of Education, Science, Technology and Mathematics, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia

    Lakhmi C. Jain

  4. Institute for High-Performance Computing and Networking (CNR-ICAR), National Research Council of Italy, Naples, Italy

    Luigi Gallo

  5. Institute for High-Performance Computing and Networking (CNR-ICAR), National Research Council of Italy, Naples, Italy

    Giuseppe De Pietro

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Bil, C., Zegers, J., Hazeleger, L., Wang, L., Simic, M. (2015). Experimental Flight Test for Autonomous Station-Keeping of a Lighter-Than-Air Vehicle. In: Damiani, E., Howlett, R., Jain, L., Gallo, L., De Pietro, G. (eds) Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 40. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19830-9_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19830-9_27

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19829-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19830-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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