Related papers: Pointing System for the Balloon-Borne Astronomical…
Indian Centre for Space Physics is engaged in long duration balloon borne experiments with typical payloads less than ~ 3kg. Low cost rubber balloons are used. In a double balloon system, the booster balloon lifts the orbiter balloon to its…
The ultraviolet (UV) window has been largely unexplored through balloons for astronomy. We discuss here the development of a compact near-UV spectrograph with fiber optics input for balloon ights. It is a modified Czerny-Turner system built…
We present a design for a near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging instrument which may be flown on a range of available platforms, including high-altitude balloons, nanosatellites, or space missions. Although all current UV space missions adopt a…
We present the technology and control methods developed for the pointing system of the SPIDER experiment. SPIDER is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to detect the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the polarization of the…
The feasibility of performing airborne and ground manipulation, perception, and reconnaissance using wheeled rovers, unmanned aerial vehicles, CubeSats, SmallSats and more have been evaluated before. Among all of these solutions,…
In this paper, we develop a position estimation system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles formed by hardware and software. It is based on low-cost devices: GPS, commercial autopilot sensors and dense optical flow algorithm implemented in an…
Balloon-borne astronomy is unique in that it allows for a level of image stability, resolution, and optical backgrounds that are comparable to space-borne systems due to greatly reduced atmospheric interference, but at a fraction of the…
The remarkable growth of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has also sparked concerns about safety measures during their missions. To advance towards safer autonomous aerial robots, this work presents a vision-based solution to ensuring safe…
The autonomous control system of PoGOLite is presented. PoGOLite is a balloon borne X-ray polarimeter designed to observe point sources. To obtain scientific data with optimal efficiency, independent of the ground connection, the payload…
Self-balancing robot is based on the principle of Inverted pendulum, which is a two-wheel vehicle balances itself up in the vertical position with reference to the ground. It consists of both hardware and software implementation. Mechanical…
We introduce FalconWing, an ultra-light (150 g) indoor fixed-wing UAV platform for vision-based autonomy. Controlled indoor environment enables year-round repeatable UAV experiment but imposes strict weight and maneuverability limits on the…
The objective of this work is to develop a data processing system that can automatically generate waypoints for navigation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to inspect surfaces of structures like buildings and bridges. The input includes…
Aircraft that can launch ballistically and convert to autonomous, free flying drones have applications in many areas such as emergency response, defense, and space exploration, where they can gather critical situational data using onboard…
Precise geolocalization is crucial for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, most current deployed UAVs rely on the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) or high precision inertial navigation systems (INS) for geolocalization. In…
Recent years have seen tremendous advancements in the area of autonomous payload delivery via unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. However, most of these works involve delivering the payload at a predetermined location using its GPS…
In this paper we present a vision based hardware-software control system enabling autonomous landing of a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It allows the detection of a marked landing pad in real-time for a 1280 x 720 @ 60 fps video…
We have begun a program of high altitude ballooning at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Recent advances in balloons as well as in electronics have made possible scientific payloads at costs accessible to university…
We have developed two redundant daytime star cameras to provide the fine pointing solution for the balloon-borne submillimeter telescope, BLAST. The cameras are capable of providing a reconstructed pointing solution with an absolute…
This letter presents a self-contained system for robust deployment of autonomous aerial vehicles in environments without access to global navigation systems and with limited lighting conditions. The proposed system, application-tailored for…
Mobile smartphones compactly provide sensors such as cameras, IMUs, GNSS measurement units, and wireless and wired communication channels required for robotics projects. They are affordable, portable, and programmable, which makes them…