期刊名称：International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
印刷版ISSN：1729-8806
电子版ISSN：1729-8814
出版年度：2011
卷号：8
DOI：10.5772/10577
语种：English
出版社：SAGE Publications
摘要：This paper presents an effective hybrid control approach for building stable wireless sensor networks between heterogeneous unmanned vehicles using long-endurance aerial robotic vehicles. For optimal deployment of the aerial vehicles in communication networks, a gradient climbing based self-estimating control algorithm is utilized to locate the aerial platforms to maintain maximum communication throughputs between distributed multiple nodes. The autonomous aerial robots, which function as communication relay nodes, extract and harvest thermal energy from the atmospheric environment to improve their flight endurance within specified communication coverage areas. The rapidly-deployable sensor networks with the high-endurance aerial vehicles can be used for various application areas including environment monitoring, surveillance, tracking, and decision-making support. Flight test and simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid control technique for robust communication networks.
关键词：Sensor networks; Autonomous aerial robot; Soaring control; Self-tuning control; Long endurance flight control
