Autonomy architecture for aerobot exploration of Saturnian moon Titan

Elfes, Alberto; Hall, Jeffrey L.; Kulczycki, Eric; Clouse, Daniel S.; Morfopoulos, Arin C.; Montgomery, Jacqueline; Cameron, Jonathan; Ansar, Adnan; Machuzak, R.

doi:10.1109/maes.2008.4579287

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Three main layers are identified in the context of autonomous aerial vehicles [71,72]: For an unmanned airship to be a lighter than air robot, it must be able to interact with the world it is working in. For example, a helicopter or an airship (with a tail rotor) have the ability to stop and go backwards whereas a fixed wing aircraft has to maintain a minimum velocity, in order to fly [40,61,62,79,100,127]. The planning and control must be studied in order to make this interaction possible.…”

Section: Prefacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A critical issue for heavy-load airship is the ability to control the altitude of the airship as the load is being secured to the airship structure, carried and finally removed [60,62,79]. For the chosen vehicle configuration, concepts for controlling the vehicle in all of its flight modes have to be developed and evaluated by using a flight dynamics simulation of the vehicle.…”

Section: A213 Small Scale Delta-wing Quad-rotor Airshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lighter than Air Robots

Sebbane

2012

Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering

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No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.Cover design: VTeX UAB, Lithuania

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Section: Prefacementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A213 Small Scale Delta-wing Quad-rotor Airshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lighter than Air Robots

Sebbane

2012

Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering

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“…Here, we investigate aerial exploration scenarios, such as those proposed for Titan, by a blimp, or for Venus, by a fixed-wing craft [NASA 2006]. In the case of Titan, an autonomous blimp would likely travel for many kilometers-sometimes for more than a week-between downlink opportunities and collect a vast number of traverse images over previously unseen and diverse terrain [Elfes et al 2008]. Selective data return could help discriminate between its morphological and atmospheric features, which are known to include hydrocarbon lakes, dried riverbeds, shorelines, mountainous and smooth desert-like terrain, sand dunes, clouds, and the occasional crater.…”

Section: Aerial Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Clustering and Metric Learning to Improve Science Return of Remote Sensed Imagery

Hayden

Chien

Thompson

et al. 2012

ACM Trans. Intell. Syst. Technol.

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Current and proposed remote space missions, such as the proposed aerial exploration of Titan by an aerobot, often can collect more data than can be communicated back to Earth. Autonomous selective downlink algorithms can choose informative subsets of data to improve the science value of these bandwidth-limited transmissions. This requires statistical descriptors of the data that reflect very abstract and subtle distinctions in science content. We propose a metric learning strategy that teaches algorithms how best to cluster new data based on training examples supplied by domain scientists. We demonstrate that clustering informed by metric learning produces results that more closely match multiple scientists' labelings of aerial data than do clusterings based on random or periodic sampling. A new metric-learning strategy accommodates training sets produced by multiple scientists with different and potentially inconsistent mission objectives. Our methods are fit for current spacecraft processors (e.g., RAD750) and would further benefit from more advanced spacecraft processor architectures, such as OPERA.

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“…Motorized blimps themselves have a century-old history on Earth. Autonomous blimps have recently seen significant technology development, 11,19,20,21,22 but much work remains to be done to achieve the overall vehicle performance required for a mission like Option 5. Two additional risk areas are associated with motorized blimps: first, the aerial deployment and inflation of an elongated blimp-like shape; second, gas leakage out of the blimp envelope.…”

Section: Optionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey of Titan Balloon Concepts and Technology Status

Hall

2011

11th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference

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This paper surveys the options for, and technology status of, balloon vehicles to explore Saturn's moon Titan. A significant amount of Titan balloon concept thinking and technology development has been performed in recent years, particularly following the spectacular results from the descent and landing of the Huygens probe and remote sensing observations by the Cassini spacecraft. There is widespread recognition that a balloon vehicle on the next Titan mission could provide an outstanding and unmatched capability for in situ exploration on a global scale. The rich variety of revealed science targets has combined with a highly favorable Titan flight environment to yield a wide diversity of proposed balloon concepts. The paper presents a conceptual framework for thinking about balloon vehicle design choices and uses it to analyze various Titan options. The result is a list of recommended Titan balloon vehicle concepts that could perform a variety of science missions, along with their projected performance metrics. Recent technology developments for these balloon concepts are discussed to provide context for an assessment of outstanding risk areas and technological maturity. The paper concludes with suggestions for technology investments needed to achieve flight readiness.

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Autonomy architecture for aerobot exploration of Saturnian moon Titan

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

Lighter than Air Robots

Lighter than Air Robots

Using Clustering and Metric Learning to Improve Science Return of Remote Sensed Imagery

A Survey of Titan Balloon Concepts and Technology Status

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