Title :
A Mobile Landing Platform for Miniature Vertical Take-Off and Landing Vehicles
Author :
Dalamagkidis, K. ; Ioannou, S. ; Valavanis, K. ; Stefanakos, E.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Abstract :
Miniature vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles have limited range of operations mainly due to their limited payload capacities and power availability. To increase this range, a modified unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is used to transport the VTOL to its target area serving as an on-site take-off/landing and possibly refueling base. A gimbaled landing platform design is proposed and the necessary equations are derived to level the platform despite of the pose (roll, pitch, yaw) of the UGV. To increase UGV endurance, a solar array is used and solar tracking capabilities for performance maximization are examined. Simulations are carried out to check the validity of the design. The case of an ATRV-Jr as the UGV base and a Raptor 90SE as the VTOL is investigated, but the design is generic enough and suitable for other UGV/VTOL vehicles
Keywords :
aerospace robotics; mobile robots; remotely operated vehicles; vectors; UGV endurance; gimbaled landing platform design; miniature VTOL vehicles; mobile landing platform; modified unmanned ground vehicle; vertical landing vehicles; vertical take-off vehicles; Equations; Helicopters; Land vehicles; Payloads; Photovoltaic systems; Remotely operated vehicles; Security; Solar power generation; Surveillance; Unmanned aerial vehicles; ATRV-Jr; UGV; VTOL; gimbal; landing platform; photo-voltaic; solar;
Conference_Titel :
Control and Automation, 2006. MED '06. 14th Mediterranean Conference on
Conference_Location :
Ancona
Print_ISBN :
0-9786720-1-1
Electronic_ISBN :
0-9786720-0-3
DOI :
10.1109/MED.2006.328767
