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Abstract

We believe that solar powered, autonomous airships with the capability to embark on extended duration sampling missions will serve as valuable tools for environmental science. In this paper, we outline our vision for an autonomous airship and discuss some of the applications for which such a craft would be well suited. We also report on our efforts to date to realize this vision. Specifically, we discuss the use of solar energy as a renewable source of power for airships. We also describe the configuration of a nine meter airship that we will use as a testbed for environmental sampling and autonomy research. We conclude by outlining directions for future research.

Keywords

airship, environmental sampling, solar power

Notes

Sponsor: NSF

Grant ID: ECS-0086931

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Field Robotics Center

Associated Project(s): EnviroBlimp

Number of pages: 8

Text Reference

George A. Kantor, David Wettergreen, James P. Ostrowski, and Sanjiv Singh, "Collection of Environmental Data From an Airship Platform," Proceedings of the SPIE Conference on Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems IV, October, 2001, pp. 76-83.

BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{Kantor_2001_3854,
   author = "George A Kantor and David Wettergreen and James P. Ostrowski and Sanjiv Singh",
   editor = "Gerard T. McKee and Paul S. Schenker",
   title = "Collection of Environmental Data From an Airship Platform",
   booktitle = "Proceedings of the SPIE Conference on Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems IV",
   pages = "76-83",
   publisher = "SPIE",
   address = "Bellingham, WA",
   month = "October",
   year = "2001",
   volume = "4571",
}

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