Project Zephyrus: Developing a rapidly reusable high-altitude flight test platform

Hall, Hunter; Donitz, Benjamin; Kim, Leon; Srivastava, Divya; Albee, Keenan; Eisner, Seth; Pierce, Dakota; Villapudua, Yvonne; Stoica, Adrian

doi:10.1109/aero.2018.8396809

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In the proposed strategy, capital constrained aviation organizations jointly acquire or develop (via open source strategy) own LAPs. Recent advances favor an open source development of LAPs as seen in [29][30]. Multiple capital constrained aviation organizations can share the costs associated with acquiring or developing LAPs.…”

Section: Proposed Solution -Reducing Wirelessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intelligent learning diversity mechanism for unmanned aerial vehicles applications

Periola¹,

Obayiuwana²

2020

Nig. J. Tech.

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The increased use of drones and aerial vehicles in applications poses challenges of airspace safety for aviation organizations. It is important to ensure the safety of the airspace when a significant number of unmanned aerial vehicles are deployed by civilian users. A solution that meets this requirement is important to promote innovation in the commercialization of air space for civilian users deploying unmanned aerial vehicle. The discussion in this paper proposes a mechanism that uses artificial intelligence to address this challenge. The proposed mechanism utilizes a low altitude platform (LAP) and entities in terrestrial wireless networks. The low altitude platform (LAP) observes, develops insights and training data (with human aid). The training data is used to develop learning mechanisms which determine the suitable unmanned aerial vehicles flight parameters in different scenarios. The use of the LAP reduces the burden of communicating with terrestrial base stations. The unmanned aerial vehicles have a reduced altitude between the LAPs in comparison to terrestrial base stations. This reduces the free space path loss and rain-induced attenuation. The performance benefit of the proposed mechanism in comparison to existing solution is examined via MATLAB simulations. Evaluation shows that the proposed mechanism reduces the network access costs by up to 90% on average. The proposed mechanism also increases available flight power and improves airspace safety by 37.3% and up to 53.2% on average respectively. Keywords: Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, Intelligence Paradigm; Aviation Safety, Capital Constrained Aviation Organizations.

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Section: Proposed Solution -Reducing Wirelessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intelligent learning diversity mechanism for unmanned aerial vehicles applications

Periola¹,

Obayiuwana²

2020

Nig. J. Tech.

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“…However, locating a balloon is a non-trivial matter. During flight, a medium sized HAB (using a 1600 g latex balloon) can typically reach altitudes of 25 to 30 km before burst [6], and remain airborne for a total of one to two hours depending on the amount of helium used. Although the high burst altitude and extended flight time are two of the more desirable characteristics of HABs, balloons will typically encounter high-velocity winds while airborne and can consequently drift several kilometers away from the launch site.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of a Low-Cost Flight Tracking System for High-Altitude Ballooning

Singam

2020

Journal of Aerospace Information Systems

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High altitude balloons (HABs) are typically tracked via GPS data sent via real-time radiobased communication systems such as the Automated Packet Reporting System (APRS). Prefabricated APRS-compatible tracker modules have made it trivial to transmit GPS coordinates and payload parameters in compliance with the requisite AX.25 protocol. However, in order to receive and track APRS signals, conventional methodologies call for the use of a Very High Frequency (VHF) receiver to demodulate signals transmitted on the 440/144 MHz APRS frequencies, along with a compatible antenna and custom methodology for visualizing the HAB's location on a map. The entire assembly is typically costly, cumbersome, and may require an internet connection in order to obtain real-time visualization of the HAB's location. This paper describes a low-cost, handheld system based on open-source software that operates independently of an internet connection. The miniaturized system is suited to tracking done either from a vehicle or on foot, and is cost-effective enough to be within the means of nearly any HAB user. The paper also discusses preliminary test results and further applications.APRS provides a convenient protocol which can be used to transmit data over amateur radio frequencies. The development of APRS is credited to Bob Bruninga [7], who created the protocol as a "real-time local tactical communications system for rapidly exchanging digital data of immediate value to operations". Today, 144.39 MHz is dedicated throughout the North American continent for APRS use, 433.800 / 432.500 MHz in Europe, and 145.175 MHz in Australia. Now more than two decades old, APRS distinguishes itself from conventional packet radio as a digital communications protocol for exchanging information between multiple stations covering the localized reception area. APRS specifies specific formats for time and position packets. The APRS protocol, which can be used to carry environmental and

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“…Building on a background of successful HAB launches during 2017 [1] and 2018 [2], the i2F team leveraged its HAB experience to facilitate a SoOp experiment. i2F is pursuing a collaborative relationship with several different interests across the JPL campus and this mission built on both i2F's experience with balloon launches and on SoOp's previous science validations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tethered Balloon-Based Experiment of Surface Water Height Using Satellite Signals of Opportunity

Lally

Chamieh

Daruwala

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) is an area of radio science that leverages existing ambient signals from spacecraft, aircraft, and ground-based radio systems to perform radio science without spending time or resources constructing new transmission infrastructure. It has been conceptualized that SmallSats or CubeSats can perform similar SoOp missions by augmenting pre-existing spacecraft missions-specifically radio/radar missions. During the summer of 2019, studentinterns at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the Innovation to Flight (i2F) program tested the first airborne SoOp demo via a tethered aerostat-a valuable step towards getting a SoOp demo in orbit. The airborne SoOp demo received direct and bounced signals from multiple geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) satellites by using two on-board wide-band grid antennas. One antenna was pointed at the sky at appropriate azimuth and elevation angles to receive a direct GEO signal. The other antenna was pointed at an identical azimuth angle with a mirrored elevation angle so as to receive the same GEO signal reflected from a body of water below. Both antennas were secured on adjustable mounts to allow for pointing changes and permit data collection from multiple satellites. This initial test proves the scientific and technological feasibility of doing further airborne SoOp tests, potentially on aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), high altitude balloons (HAB), and SmallSats or CubeSats.

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Project Zephyrus: Developing a rapidly reusable high-altitude flight test platform

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Intelligent learning diversity mechanism for unmanned aerial vehicles applications

Intelligent learning diversity mechanism for unmanned aerial vehicles applications

Implementation of a Low-Cost Flight Tracking System for High-Altitude Ballooning

Tethered Balloon-Based Experiment of Surface Water Height Using Satellite Signals of Opportunity

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